Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

A former detainee in the Lalezar Hotel case claimed on Wednesday that authorities tortured suspects physically and psychologically and took their statements without lawyers present.

Hawzhin Hadi Sur, who spent nearly two months in detention, said at a press conference in Erbil that “detainees were forced to put their fingerprints and signatures on confessions and statements they had not made and whose contents they did not know.”

With the trial underway, Sur called on the court to question the detainees again and record new statements under proper legal procedures before issuing rulings. He claimed that most of the charges and statements attributed to them were false and obtained under coercion.

On August 22, 2025, armed clashes broke out around Al-Sulaymaniyah’s Lalezar Hotel between security forces affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and gunmen loyal to former PUK co-president Lahur Sheikh Jangi. The fighting left casualties on both sides and ended with Sheikh Jangi and dozens of his supporters detained.

Last week, the Al-Sulaymaniyah Criminal Court postponed the trial of Sheikh Jangi, his brother Polad, and other defendants in the case after hearing testimony from several of them.

Read more: Arresting Lahur Jangi in Al-Sulaymaniyah: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR