Iraqi Kurdistan parliament seeks to strip immunity from four lawmakers
Opposition parties’ lawmakers in Iraqi Kurdistan parliament, July 10, 2019. Photo: Ekurd.net/Screengrab/K24 TV
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament is expected to vote on whether to strip the parliamentary immunity of four lawmakers for alleged infractions.
During its scheduled session on Wednesday, lawmakers are expected to decide Kazim Faruq of the New Generation Movement (Newey Nwê), Soran Omar of the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), and Shirin Amin and Ali Hama Salih of the Change Movement (Gorran).
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Media and Information said that lifting immunity members of parliament is legally allowed and does not mean that they are removed from office. Rather it is a civil and legal process that allows the courts to pursue prosecutions against them, it added.
It was not immediately clear what had led to complaints against Faruq, Amin, and Salih, but the complaint against Omar appears to relate to comments he allegedly made about KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
“After Soran Omar made false and baseless accusations about [Barzani] in the press outlets, the public prosecutor’s office asked the lawmaker to bring sufficient evidence to back up his accusations…and to prove them. If he does not, he will face law for defamation and slander charges,” the KRG statement added.
According to a statement released by Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), “what [Barzani] is doing is enforcing the rule of law and in a civil way.”
“Taken all together, that lawmaker [Omar] made it his job more than a hundred times to make defamatory statements,” it added.
On Sunday, Omar defended himself in a post on his Facebook page.
“Because I said that the government president [KRG PM Barzani] has companies and banks, the [KRG] president sends a legal representative of the Council of Ministers at night, while there is a curfew and every operation is supposed to be suspended, to file a lawsuit against us, alleging that they have been falsely accused.”
Wednesday’s session is the Kurdistan Parliament’s first since January and will also address education issues.
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