SULAIMANIYAH: A court in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday extended the detention of opposition leader Shaswar Abdulwahid following his arrest last week, his party said.
Abdulwahid — who heads the New Generation party, which holds 15 of the 100 seats in the autonomous northern region’s parliament — was taken into custody on August 12.
His detention stemmed from a six-month prison sentence handed down in absentia after he repeatedly failed to attend hearings in a defamation case filed by a former MP, a judicial official said.
The opposition leader appeared before a judge on Thursday in a hearing attended by dozens of supporters, lawmaker Omed Mohammed of the New Generation party told AFP.
Abdulwahid’s lawyer had sought his release on bail, a request the judge denied.
Court spokesman Salah Hassan said the refusal was due to Abdulwahid’s failure to appear for hearings and questioning.
“This does not give the judge sufficient guarantees for a bail release... which could disrupt future proceedings,” he told AFP.
Abdulwahid has been arrested several times since he launched the party in 2017. He was also wounded in an assassination attempt.
The region’s ruling alliance of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has been criticized by human rights groups for its intolerance of dissent and for resorting to arbitrary arrests.
Abdulwahid’s trial was adjourned until August 28.
Iraqi Kurd court extends detention of opposition leader
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Iraqi Kurd court extends detention of opposition leader
- A court in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday extended the detention of opposition leader Shaswar Abdulwahid following his arrest last week
- His detention stemmed from a six-month prison sentence handed down in absentia after he repeatedly failed to attend hearings in a defamation case filed by a former MP
Syrian refugee returns set to slow as donor support fades
- Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding
GENEVA: More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar Assad’s rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.
Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad’s overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.
The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.
“Syrians are ready to rebuild – the question is whether the world is ready to help them do it,” said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. Over 5 million refugees remain outside Syria’s borders, mostly in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon.
RISK OF REVERSALS
Grandi told donors in Geneva last week that there was a risk that those Syrians who are returning might even reverse their course and come back to host states.
“Returns continue in fairly large numbers but unless we step up broader efforts, the risk of (reversals) is very real,” he said.
Overall, Syria’s $3.19 billion humanitarian response is 29 percent funded this year, according to UN data, at a time when donors like the United States and others are making major cuts to foreign aid across the board.
The World Health Organization sees a gap emerging as aid money drops off before national systems can take over.
As of last month, only 58 percent of hospitals were fully functional and some are suffering power outages, affecting cold-chain storage for vaccines.
“Returnees are coming back to areas where medicines, staff and infrastructure are limited – adding pressure to already thin services,” Christina Bethke, Acting WHO Representative in Syria, told reporters.
The slow pace of removing unexploded ordnance is also a major obstacle to recovery, said the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, which reported over 1,500 deaths and injuries in the last year. Such efforts are just 13 percent funded, it said.
Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding.
Others may have held back as they wait to see if authorities under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa make good on promises of reform and accountability, including for massacres of the Alawite minority in March, they say.
