A freedom writer is born

In addition to his powerful exposition of the conditions of corruption, national treason and social injustice in Kurdistan, he presented direct challenges not just to leading figures in the Barzani family but to the principles upon which the ideology of Barzanism is founded. That is what worried the Barzani family most: consequently they invested massively in publicity and hired their own writers to assassinate the character of Dr Qadir by reducing all his arguments to the issue of slander and painting him as mentally-disordered. Dr Kamal Qadir was jailed.

Dr Qadir’s action was not impulsive, nor did he do it for fame. He has studied law and he knew he had a reasonable legal case. He knew what he was facing and he was prepared for it. But he was prepared in a civil and legal way: the way he has learnt, experienced and is accustomed to in Europe. And perhaps that is where he was naive.

He believed with Saddam gone, with Kurdistan supposedly free, and with all the talk about rule of law, democracy and human rights, he would be allowed to have a civilised open legal battle with the Barzani family (whom he accused of attempting to murder him in 2000). He would either win or lose but either way he would have been of service to the cause of truth and freedom in Kurdistan.

But it seems that this was exactly what Barzani family wanted to avoid. They could have ignored Dr Qadir upon his return to Kurdistan in October 2005. But instead they tried to kidnap and silence him - their own way. When they failed, they set up a court which took five minutes to sentence Dr Qadir to 30 years imprisonment.

Seemingly they found nothing wrong with this, not even their use of Saddam’s law of libel, which was designed to protect the inviolability of the dictator, to passing their verdict.

Then began a campaign on behalf of Dr Kamal Qadir, started by his two sisters in Germany, for his release. It achieved great success with over 500 Kurdish writers and intellectuals, mostly in exile and from all parts of Kurdistan, signing a petition against the Barzani’s party and applying for the freedom of Dr Qadir. Amnesty International and International Pen have taken up his case, the US and Austrian Government’s have directly intervened and the international media has reported his case.

The Barzani’s apparently gave in, tactically announcing that all charges against Dr Qadir had been dismissed by an appeal court, and he was free. But this was not true. A month later he is still in jail.