During the debate in the South Kurdish parliament on Tuesday, the MP of the Movement for Change (Gorran), Şayan Askari, called on the judiciary in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to investigate the cases of dozens of activists and journalists from Duhok who were arrested last year and are still in custody, to be resolved quickly. She said they were arrested for not supporting the ruling KDP party. KDP MP Celal Perişan reacted by saying that he would rape the parents of anyone who spoke badly about his party. A group of members of the South Kurdish parliament then submitted a motion on Wednesday to punish the member of the KDP for this open threat during a parliamentary debate.

KDP stands united behind Perişan

During the session on Wednesday, the leader of the KDP, Zana Mullah Khalid, apologized on behalf of Perişan. But many MPs were not satisfied and demanded that Parliament sanction him for his behaviour. However, when the vote was taken, only 32 deputies voted in favour of the sanction, while 46 voted against. The KDP deputies stood unanimously behind their colleagues and the deputies who hold seats for religious and ethnic minorities joined them.

The MP for the New Generation Movement (Nifşê Nû), Sipan Amedi, told NRT that the KDP’s failure to take action against one of its members led to violent disagreements among legislators in the plenary hall on Wednesday. When the motion failed, the Movement and MPs from several other parties left the session.

"We boycotted the meeting because the president was unable to carry out its task," said the deputy leader of Nivşê Nû in the Kurdish parliament, Kawa Abdulqadir, in a press conference. The decision was out of solidarity with the MP from Gorran, he added, saying that "the parliament of Kurdistan belongs to the people of Kurdistan and not to any party."