Sulaymaniyah, June 7th, 2026: Alliance Network 19 says that when there is no guarantee for transparency and an independent and impartial investigation and when the accused does not have a lawyer and is not allowed to see his relatives and when it is not known which prison he is in, the truth about his death remains unclear.

The accused (Aso Majid Qadir) was a Peshmerga in the guard unit of the Zerevan forces. He was arrested by Erbil police on April 2nd, 2026, under Article 1 of Law No. 21 of 2003, and in a mysterious incident on June 5th, 2026, police announced that he had "committed suicide in prison,” without revealing the name and location of where he apparently did that.

Law No. 21 of 2003 relates to "damage to the security, stability and sovereignty of the institutions of the Kurdistan Region”.

The police also say, "The Evidence and Crime Prevention Team and the Crime Prevention Police Department of the Erbil Police Directorate and the forensic report confirm that based on proven evidence, he committed suicide.”

However, his relatives tell another story. They told the media that they had doubts and did not believe the report of the Erbil forensic medical examiner, so they took the body to the Sulaymaniyah forensic medical examiner for re-examination, and they agreed to re-examine the body. The results of the investigation have not yet been announced and the body was buried.

Following this tragic incident, we ask whether the Ministry of Peshmerga has been notified of a citizen who is a Peshmerga and is accused of involvement in "harming the security, stability and sovereignty of the institutions of the Kurdistan Region”? Why is there no explanation by the Ministry? Are they aware that one of their Peshmergas is in police custody on this charge? Why hasn't his family been able to visit him in two months? Why hasn't he been provided with a lawyer? Why has the location of his arrest remained a secret? Is there a secret prison in the Kurdistan Region?

When there is no guarantee for transparency and an independent and impartial investigation and when the accused does not have a lawyer and is not allowed to see his relatives and when it is not known which prison he is in, the truth about his death remains unclear.

Alliance Network 19 was established by a group of human rights organizations and advocates, and is led by Metro Center. It upholds the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments on rights and freedoms, in particular Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.