Syrian Kurdish journalist disappears in Iraqi Kurdistan
Timeline
July 29, 2024: Ahmad is sentenced to three years of imprisonment.
June 30, 2024: Ahmad’s trial, initially set to take place on that date, is postponed to July 29, 2024.
June 5, 2024: MENA Rights Group, American Bar Association and CPJ file an urgent action to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
May 22, 2024: Ahmad’s lawyers are able to visit him in Duhok Security Directorate prison, where he has been detained.
April 2, 2024: MENA Rights Group and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) submit Ahmad’s case to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
March 27, 2024: CPJ contacts Ashti Majeed, Asayish’s spokesperson in Duhok and Erbil, but receives no further updates.
November 11, 2023: Ahmad’s lawyer, suspecting that Ahmad may be detained in Duhok prison, makes a visit to the facility to request a meeting with him. The prison authorities denies Ahmad’s presence in the prison.
October 30, 2023: The Duhok Security Directorate of the Kurdish Security (Asayish) state on their Facebook page that Ahmad has been arrested for “secret and illegal” work for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
October 25, 2023: Ahmad is arrested by Iraqi Kurdish authorities at the northern Faysh Kabur border and taken to an unknown location. His fate and whereabouts have remained unknown ever since.