RojNews news agency calls on Iraqi authorities to act for the release of missing journalist

The RojNews news agency said that its employee Silêman Ahmed was kidnapped in South Kurdistan by the KDP in order to suppress opposition journalism.

There is still no trace of the journalist Silêman Mihemed Ahmed, who disappeared in South Kurdistan on 25 October.

The news agency RojNews now said with certainty that Ehmed was abducted by forces of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party). Silêman Ahmed has been working for the agency's Arabic-language editorial team for five years and disappeared after visiting his family in Aleppo, while he was at the Sêmalka-Pêşxabûr border crossing between the Autonomous Region of North and East Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

The last contact with him was a telephone conversation with his mother when he was already in the KDP's area of responsibility.

RojNews's Baghdad bureau chief, Muhammed Cihadi, called on the Iraqi authorities to take urgent action for the journalist. Cihadi said that his colleague was kidnapped by the KDP in order to suppress opposition opinions and free voices. “We demand intervention from the Iraqi authorities so that Silêman Ahmed is released. Hewlêr (Erbil) was once considered a safe place for journalists and activists. “The government in Hewlêr is now systematically taking action against media professionals and is thereby damaging the reputation of the Kurdistan Region,” said Muhammed Cihadi.