Newspaper editor freed after nine days in jail

13 November 2008

IRAQ / KURDISTAN

Reporters Without Borders hails the release today of Shawan Dawodi, the editor of the weekly Hawal, as a result of an appeal court’s decision earlier in the day to overturn the one-month prison sentence he received from a criminal court in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah on 4 November on a defamation charge under the old press law.

The case is now to be retried under the new press law.

Dawodi told Reporters Without Border he was optimistic about the outcome of the case. “I have confidence in the law (…) The court’s decision was a fair one. I am all the more convinced now of the need for a reform of our judicial system.”

Rebaz Mahmood
Lawyer / Reporter
Reporters without Borders
North Iraq Correspondent
www.rsf.org