Assassinated Iraqi Kurdish journalist Sardasht Osman, 2010. Photo: SM
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Family and friends of Kurdish journalist Sardasht Osman on Monday, May 4, marked the 10th anniversary of his abduction and murder by reaffirming their intention to ensure that his killers face justice.
According to his family, neither the true culprits nor those that ordered his murder have faced prosecution.
“After ten years, we still have the same demands that we had in the early days after his murder and we insist on upholding Sardasht’s rights and bringing the true killers to trial,” the slain journalist’s brother Bashdar told NRT Digital Media.
Sardasht Osman was abducted on May 4, 2010 from outside Salahaddin University in Erbil where he was a student. His handcuffed body was found two days later in Mosul with two gunshot wounds to the head.
Before his death, he authored a number of articles criticizing the government and the Kurdistan Region’s parties, including a satirical poem about the Barzani family.
He wrote articles about corruption and the region’s two governing parties and its leaders, including the dominant Barzani family. Osman’s last article-poem titled “I am in love with Barzani’s daughter,”
“When I become the son-in-law of Barzani, the wedding night will be in Paris and we will visit the palace of our uncle for several days in the United States,” he wrote, drawing a provocative contrast between Barzani’s opulent lifestyle and that of ordinary Kurds.
Massoud Barzani (R) with his elder son Masrour. Photo: Barzani’s FB
Osman wrote the article “Kurdistan president is not a god neither is his daughter”
In response to his poem and articles, he received multiple death threats, which were brushed off by the Erbil’s then-police chief when Osman reported them.
“While all the evidence was available, the court and the public prosecutor in this country made fun of the case, did [not respect] our rights, and were silent on behalf of those who were behind Sardasht’s murder,” his brother Bashdar said.
“We will not be silent and will not give up until the day that there is an independent and neutral court in this country that punishes the true killers instead of patsies,” he added.
In September 2010, the Kurdistan Regional Government claimed that Osman was murdered by a member of Ansar al-Islam, but this explanation has been dismissed by Osman’s family and international press freedom watchdogs as lacking credibility.
Osman’s assassination case is not the only one that remains unsolved. The assassinations of journalists Abdul Star Tahir Sharif in 2008, Sorani Mama Hama in 2008, Kawa Garmyani in 2013, and Wedat Hussein in 2016 all remain shrouded in mystery.
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