On Wednesday (April 22), freelance reporter Sherwan Sherwani announced a hunger strike after prison authorities rejected his requests for temporary leave to return home and for a transfer to the Sulaimaniya Correctional Institution.
Sherwani, who was sentenced for the third time on August 19, 2025, to four years and five months in prison, had submitted the two requests to Erbil prison officials just days earlier.
According to his brother, Barzani Sherwani, he had warned that he would resort to a hunger strike if his demands were not met, and he began the strike on Wednesday afternoon.
His lawyer, Mohammed Abdullah, stated that “the protest is in response to ongoing violations of his rights, including being denied conditional release, the ability to return home temporarily, and the opportunity to continue his education.”
He also noted that Sherwani’s request to be transferred to the Sulaimaniya Elders Rehabilitation Facility was refused.
Local and international media outlets and organizations, advocates and MPs expressed their grave concern that that press freedom is increasingly under threat in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate KJS documented only 46 violations against journalists in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq KRI in 2025, a figure that sharply contrasts with a report by the Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy, which recorded 315 violations.
According to Freedom House, a U.S.-based organization founded in 1941 that publishes annual ranking of freedoms worldwide, (including the Kurdistan Region as a federal entity within it) is ranked as “Not Free” in its Freedom in the World 2026 report. Iraq has received a total score of just 31 out of 100, with a score of 16 out of 40 for political rights and 15 out of 60 for civil rights.
Lawyer Farman Hassan explained that such leave is typically granted for a limited number of days and falls within the authority of prison administration, though it requires bail and specific procedures.
Sherwani was detained in 2020 and later found guilty by the Erbil Criminal Court on February 16, 2021, of undermining the national security of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). He received a six-year prison sentence alongside four other freelance journalists and civil activists, part of a broader group of more than 80 detainees from Badinan (Duhok province).
Later, on July 20, 2023, an Erbil court issued an additional sentence of four years in prison on charges of "fraud," which was subsequently reduced to two years following an appeal.
According to applicable Iraqi law, he became eligible to request parole after completing three-quarters of his sentence.
On June 20, 2021, the Erbil Court of Appeal upheld the six-year sentences of freelance journalists Sherwan Amin Sherwani and Guhdar Zebari, along with three civil activists—Ayaz Karam, Hariwan Essa, and Shivan Sa'id—who were accused of breaching national security laws and convicted of “spying for foreign countries and attempting a coup.”
