Kurdistan Region court adds 4 years 5 months to journalist Sherwan Sherwani's sentence weeks before his release date; 2020 torture allegations were not investigated

Journalist Sherwan Sherwani was arrested in October 2020 and sentenced to six years on national security charges, then given four more years in July 2023. On 19 August 2025 the Bnaslawa Misdemeanor Court added four years and five months under Article 229 of the Iraqi Penal Code over an alleged threat to a counter-terrorism officer, weeks before his scheduled 9 September 2025 release.