PEREGRAF
Berivan Ayub, an activist from the Kurdistan Region’s Badinan area, is set to go to trial on Monday (February 14) after languishing for seventeen months in pre-trial detention.
"I have not seen my children for a year and five months. I have not heard their voices. But I am ready to sacrifice more because those who are born free, even if they are in prison, live free," Ayub told Peregraf in a phone call interview from prison.
"Be present at my trial tomorrow," she told the people of the Kurdistan Region and international observers.
Explaining that the authorities treated her in a "very violent and inhumane way," Ayub told Peregraf that "they forced me to admit some untrue things about myself."
"They threatened me that I would never see my children again and that they would put a much bigger accusation on me," she said.
Ayub has been accused of serious national security charges under Article 21 of the Kurdistan Parliament Law No. 21, 2003.
This law was previously used to controversially convict a number of other journalists and activists from Badinan, which is located in Erbil and Duhok governorates, sparking international condemnation of the Kurdistan Region’s failure to uphold human rights and rule of law.
Some of those convicted were sentenced to six years in prison.
Those trials were seen as deeply flawed both in terms of the quality of evidence produced by the prosecution and how the defendants were treated while in custody.
Prisoners in the Kurdistan Region by law are only allowed to be held in pre-trial detention up to a maximum of one year, though in several cases they have been held much longer, including Ayub.
"I went on a strike seven times against food and drink, weakening my health to unify my case," the activist told Peregraf, saying that the hunger strikes succeeded in forcing the authorities to finally schedule a trial date.
"I have been arrested without charge for seventeen months. I have been deprived of my rights in prison for a long time. They didn't let me see my lawyers once," she said.
"I hope that all my sacrifices, the deprivation of my maternity rights will not be wasted, and that the relevant authorities and ordinary people will be present on my trial day."