Kurdistan Region president, KRG prime minister ignore hearing for Peregraf freedom of information lawsuits

Peregraf

In a case testing the Kurdistan Region’s freedom of information system, lawyers representing Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani failed to appear for a scheduled hearing on Tuesday (September 6).

The next court session will take place on October 4.

Last month, Peregraf Editor-in-Chief Surkew Mohammed filed lawsuits against the two government officials and Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Rewaz Fayaq to compel them to release information about how their offices spent public funds.

In June, Mohammed filed requests for the budget and expenditures of the offices of the president, prime minister, and speaker under the Right to Obtain Information Act (No. 11, 2013), but received no response.

The Sulaimaniyah Court of First Instance held a first hearing in the case on Tuesday.

Lawyers for the president and prime minister did not turn up despite being ordered by the judge.

A lawyer representing Speaker Fayaq was present and requested a postponement of the session in order to study the lawsuit.

Under the circumstances, the judge granted the request and scheduled a new hearing for all three defendants on October 4.