Shafaq News – Al-Sulaymaniyah

A court in Al-Sulaymaniyah on Tuesday sentenced Shaswar Abdulwahid, head of the New Generation Movement (Al-Jeel Al-Jadeed), to five months in prison, a source told Shafaq News.

Abdulwahid, a leading opposition figure in the Kurdistan Region, was arrested on August 12 by security forces at the German Village residential complex in Al-Sulaymaniyah. His party currently holds 15 seats in the Kurdistan Parliament.

The court had twice postponed its decision, on August 21 and August 28, before handing down today’s sentence. The case is linked to a legal file whose full details have not been disclosed.

According to the Kurdistan-based Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy, the arrest followed an earlier ruling by the Al-Sulaymaniyah Misdemeanor Court, which sentenced Abdulwahid in absentia to six months in prison and ordered him to pay six million Iraqi dinars (about $4,500) in legal fees.