Iraqi 'tortured' by PUK wins right to stay in the UK

Judge rules that man would face persecution or death if he was forced to return to Iraq

The Kurdish man was held and tortured during protests that hit Sulaimaniyah in late 2020. AFP

An opponent of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), who alleged he was detained and tortured by authorities, has been granted asylum in the UK.

A judge ruled that the Kudrish man, who has been granted anonymity, would face persecution for his political views if he was forced to return to Iraq, and could even be killed.

The PUK is one of the two main political parties in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, along with its rival the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

An immigration tribunal was told the man from Sulaymaniyah was arrested and held for four days in 2020, in connection with protests against the PUK during which time he was tortured.

The Sulaymaniyah area was hit by a wave of protests that year against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over unemployment, a lack of public services and falling wages. Demonstrators targeted PUK offices and the government, with security forces aligned with the PUK clamping down on the protests.

After being released, the man held anti-PUK meetings in a billiard hall run by his family in which he urged people not to vote for the party in upcoming elections, but shots were fired at the premises and he was threatened on the phone.

Supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan celebrate after the closing of ballot boxes during the 2021 parliamentary election. Reuters

He left Iraq for London in September 2021, but continued to post social media content and take part in demonstrations critical of the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan.

An initial claim for asylum was, however, rejected by a judge on the grounds that he would not be at risk because he was not regarded as a well-known critic of the PUK.

But he appealed on the grounds the judge had incorrectly interpreted the UK government’s guidance about the political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan, known as Country Policy and Application Notes (CPIN).

This states that individuals who are at “higher risk of arrest, detention, assault, excessive use of force and extrajudicial killing by the KRG authorities” include those who “have previous history of organising or participating in protests and demonstrations”.

Judge Thomas Cole ruled that his colleague “materially erred in law in his application of the CPIN” and “fails to adequately assess the risk” to the man if he was returned to Iraq.

The facts of the case and the man’s experience put “squarely within the risk profile” of those opposed to the Kurdish authorities, he said.

The Kurdish region won self-rule in 1991, when the US imposed a no-fly zone over it in response to Saddam Hussein’s brutal repression of Kurdish uprisings.

The KDP, the largest party in the Kurdistan, controls Erbil and Duhok province, while Sulaymaniyah province is controlled by its rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK.