Trial of Masrour Barzani and Shnyar Anwar begins in the United States

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Activist and Journalist Shnyar Anwar.

The first hearing of the case between Kurdish activist and journalist Shnyar Anwar and Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani was held in Virginia, and according to Shnyar, the judge stated: "The case is interesting and will be resolved in the coming weeks.

Anwar wrote on her Facebook account that on April 7, 2023, the Federal Court of Alexandria, Eastern District of Virginia, held the first hearing in the case of Shnyar Anwar and Masrour Barzani.

According to available information, Masrour Barzani's defense team included ten lawyers and a representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) who was present at the hearing.

Shnyar said in a statement: "At the start of the hearing, the judge asked Masrour Barzani's attorneys to present their demand. Then, only one of Masrour Barzani's ten attorneys responded to the judge and requested immunity for him as an Iraqi official. In addition, they demanded that the complaint be addressed to the KRG and not to Masrour Barzani."

Kurdish activist and journalist: "The lawyers of Masrour Barzani told the judge that the issue between Shnyar Anwar and Masrour Barzani is a political conflict between the two sides."

According to Shnyar, the judge invited Shnyar's lawyer to present his statement after receiving the statements of Barzani's attorneys. He told the court that his client is a US citizen and activist who works on human rights and freedom of expression issues but has no political issues.

Shnyar's attorney informed the judge that Masrour Barzani has a green card and owns property in Virginia that he purchased with Kurdish people's funds.

Barzani's attorneys did not contest the fact that he has a green card and a home in Virginia.

The judge continued the case after hearing both parties' arguments, stating that this is an interesting case and that he will make a decision within the next few weeks.

In 2022, Shnyar Anwar Hassan, a US citizen from the Kurdistan Region, filed an "assault, battery, and defamation" lawsuit against Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in the US District Courts.

The political magazine The American Prospect published an investigation by Zack Kopplin, a journalist working for the US-based Government Accountability Project, on December 7, 2021. The investigation found that Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and his family owned several properties through shell companies, including an US$18.3 million CVS pharmacy in South Beach, Miami.

"Masrour Barzani, the current prime minister of Kurdistan, falsely accused Shnyar Anwar Hassan, an activist for women's rights and free speech in Iraqi Kurdistan, of having had an affair with a journalist who had written an article showing that Masrour Barzani and his family have secret, illicit wealth that they use to invest in properties and other hidden investments in the United States and elsewhere," John P. Rowley, an American lawyer defending Shnyar, told TNA via email.

"The allegation of infidelity, made in a statement issued on December 9, 2021, was a reckless and dangerous statement in a conservative religious society like that of Iraqi Kurdistan," Rowley said.  



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