Widad Hussein Ali, 28, an Iraqi Kurdish reporter for the pro-Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) news agency RojNews, was abducted in broad daylight by unidentified men in the city of Duhok on Aug. 13, 2016 and found dead on the side of a road later the same day. Ali’s body displayed serious wounds and bruises, including severe injuries to the head. According to his family, Ali was killed by the Kurdistan Regional Government´s security service because he worked for a news service affiliated with the PKK. His brother said security forces had interrogated Ali multiple times over the past months about his critical coverage of Kurdish authorities. On Nov. 26, 2016, two members of the Human Rights Commission of the Kurdistan Region Parliament released a report making similar accusations. The two MPs alleged that Ali was killed by local security authorities after he rebuffed their overtures to cooperate with them while continuing to work at RojNews.
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