QADIR, KAMAL SAID

(1958- )

An Austrian citizen of Kurdish descent, Qadir became a well-knownhuman rightscase when he was arrested on 26 October 2005 inIrbilin theKurdistan Regional Government(KRG) area for his accusations against theBarzanifamily of corruption, nepotism, torture, political assassinations, and other misdeeds. At first he was sentenced to a 30-year prison term, but after an international human rights campaign, he was released. Qadir then filed a lawsuit in Austria againstMasrour Barzani, the head of the KRG internal security (Asayesh) agency andKurdistan Democratic Party(KDP) intelligence-gathering (Parastin) agency. In February 2008, Barzani was arrested in Austria along with five of his bodyguards for severely beating Qadir in Vienna, but Barzani was eventually released. The entire incident, however, left a negative mark on the KRG's human rights reputation.