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Facebook post sends a jurist to jail in Kurdistan
Shwan Sabir
Erbil Investigation Court issued an arrest warrant for a jurist, Shwan Sabir, over a post he has published on his Facebook account. Shawan Sabir, a jurist at the Erbil court, criticized the Kurdistan Judicial Council in the post, stating: “The judicial system is under the control of parties and Kurdistan Judicial Council formation is not legitimate as the council needs to be elected for 4 years through a legal procedure, but the current council members have been appointed by parties over 8 years ago.” In response, the Kurdistan Judicial council sued the jurist and the Erbil Investigation Court issued an arrest warrant. Yesterday, March 3, 2014, civil society organizations, journalists and human right activists assembled in front of the Erbil Investigation Court House and asked the court to release Shwan Saber.
Source: Sbeiy.com
Amidst the crisis, the 2nd Sulaimani Forum is held
The 2nd Sulaimani Forum has started to discuss hot topics between Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, covering oil, national security, borders, water resources and investment. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Davut Oglu, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nechirvan Barzani, the Kurdistan Region Prime Minister and Ali Adeeb, from the Iraqi Ministry of Research and High Education were the most known political figures who attended this event.
More details here: http://auis.edu.iq/PRsuliforum2014
Still no hope for new KRG Cabinet
Meetings go on, but still there is no hope that the newly-elected parliament can start functioning after a 164 day delay. The Kurdistan Parliament has recorded the longest ‘open session’ ever in its history since the first session was put on hold on 6th November, 2013. Yesterday, March 3rd , 2014 a delegation from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) met with Gorran leaders in Sulaimani to try and reach an agreement over the ministerial positions, but sources from the meetings said that there was no consensus and Gorran insisted on its demands for the ministry of interior and speaker of parliament as their two major positions in the new government.
Source: Knnc.net and Lvinpress.com
KRG: No more talks with Baghdad
Fuad Hussein, the Kurdistan President’s Chief of Staff, told the press that the KRG will no conduct further meetings with Baghdad until they send the KRG its share from the national budget. Hussein insisted that KRG cannot afford public employees’ salaries without Baghdad’s funds. He also said that Baghdad’s action is a violation of the Iraqi constitution.
Source: KNNC.net
