PUK Co-founder Adil Murad dies in Germany aged 69

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) announced the death of its Central Council Secretary, Adil Murad, Friday morning, at the age of 69.

Murad, one of the co-founders of the PUK, died while receiving treatment at a hospital in Germany’s city of Cologne, the party revealed in a statement.

The PUK leader was born in Baghdad in 1949. His death comes eight months after the passing of the party’s Secretary-General, Jalal Talabani, who was previously the President of Iraq.

Talabani died at the age of 83 in Germany on Oct. 3, 2017, while receiving treatment for complications from a 2012 stroke. He was the sixth President of Iraq since the country’s creation in 1920. He served in office from 2005 to 2014.

The PUK is the third-largest party in the Kurdistan Region with 18 seats out of 111 in Parliament. The party has been facing internal political turmoil and disunity since Talabani's health condition deteriorated in 2012.

Editing by Nadia Riva