Kamal Qadir
Dr. Kamal Sayid Qadir is a Kurdish human rights activist with Austrian citizenship. He immigrated to Austria in 1978 and studied law at the Vienna School of Law. He has taught at the University of Suleimani as well as Salahaddin University in Arbil in Iraq.
He had been arrested in October 2005.
He was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment for defamation. The sentence was condemned by Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and media. Dr.Qadir went on hunger strike when in prison and stopped when he could get his demands.
He was released from custody on January 25, 2006, as a result of efforts by special envoy of the Austrian foreign ministry, Gudrun Harrer. The envoy intervened after the Austrian government deemed the sentence too harsh. Qadir was later retried and the sentence was changed to eighteen months. In April 2006 he was released.
