September 23rd, 2024: Metro Center supports the appeal sent to the Iraqi and Kurdistan Region’s Judicial Council on behalf of a number of personalities and demands the release of political analyst (Imad Bajalan), who is unknown swallowed by earth or vanished by security forces.
A group of media personalities, journalists and political analysts have issued an appeal to the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, the Supreme Judicial Council in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan Regional Government and local and international organizations for freedom of expression.
They sent one to the Metro Center which says, "The Kurdish researcher and political activist Imad Bajalan has been detained by unknown forces on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for more than a month, and we do not know where he is,”.
Metro Center has been contacting the relatives of Imad Bajalan for several days. We have found that his relatives have information and do not reveal it, but others say that the arrest is political.
They also discussed the mental state of their family, which led to Imad's father's health deteriorating three times this month and being taken to hospital.
Metro Center supports the appeal addressed to the Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Judicial Councils on behalf of a number of personalities and demands the release of researcher and political activist Imad Bajalan, who is not known whether he was swallowed by earth or vanished by security forces.
The Metro Center says that disappearances are an attempt to spread fear and intimidation in society, contrary to all human rights principles, and we reject them in any way.
Metro Center calls on the Interior Ministers of the Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional
Governments to announce the fate of well-known analyst Imad Bajalan to the public and his family and release him immediately.
In December, the Iraqi Media and Communications Commission ordered media outlets not to let him appear on their screens for two months.
He has warned all media outlets that all legal action will be taken against them if they host him.
On February 12th, the Baghdad/Karkh Court of Appeal issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of "insulting the Iraqi House of Representatives”.