Detained members of Kurdish party confess leader threatened their own MP, others

SULAIMANI (Kurdistan 24) – Security officials in the Kurdistan Region’s province of Sulaimani on Friday released confessions of arrested Naway Nwe (New Generation) movement members accusing party leader, Shaswar Abdulwahid, of being involved in threatening a lawmaker from the party that indecent videos of her would be released.

In late April, local security raided New Generation’s headquarters in Sulaimani and took a group of the movement’s members into custody.

The arrests came according to a court order issued after New Generation lawmaker Shadi Nawzad said in a press conference at the Kurdistan Parliament that Abdulwahid threatened on a fake WhatsApp number that he would publish an alleged secret sex video filmed in a house located in German Village Complex that was owned by Abdulwahid.

She claimed the footage had been edited as part of a plan to use it against her in order to secure her obedience in both the party and the parliament.

“Our measures that had been taken are done within the legal framework, and the investigations are ongoing,” read a statement issued by Sulaimani security.

“This specific case is dangerous in its nature, which is related to the general behavior and attitude, as well as the social values and principles,” it continued, stressing that no party would be permitted “to distort law, individual rights, and lives of people. We will find criminals and bring them to court.”

In a confession video, four members of New Generation talk, including secretary of the movement’s leader Rawand Hikmat Shakir Bilal, Director of Nalia group (owned by Abdulwahid) Rawand Najmaldin Salih, and New Generation social media staff members Shko Ako Mohammed and Hajar Raouf, also known as Hallo.

All claimed that Abdulwahid had ordered them to threaten the female lawmaker and other key figures from other parties in the Kurdistan Region.

They also said that the movement has two social media departments: one that administrates and manages official social media pages and accounts of the movement, and the other that uses non-direct accounts and pages of New Generation created under assumed names to attack and damage the reputation of political leaders.

Following the announcement, New Generation released their own a statement in which it rejected the claims, labeling the confessions as a “scenario” concocted against the movement and its leader.

This turmoil for the new movement comes weeks after several leadership council members in a joint statement criticized Abdulwahid for bringing his family members to the party and turning it to a business while ignoring the opinions of other leadership members.

The New Generation, founded in 2018, holds four seats in Iraq’s 329-seat parliament and eight in the regional parliament. 

Editing by John J. Catherine