Sherwan Sherwani

Sherwan Sherwani (; born 1983) is a Kurdish journalist known for his work investigating corruption within the Government of the Kurdistan Region, the executive body of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. He has been detained since 2020 and has had his original six-year prison sentence increased on multiple occasions, most recently in August 2025.

Biography Sherwani was born in Akre. Sherwani was the founder and editor-in-chief of Bashur, a monthly magazine which published investigations into corruption cases, as well as the murders of journalists and writers, in the Kurdistan Region, publishing in both Sorani and Kurmanji. Sherwani also reported on prisoners' rights, particularly those held in prisons run by Asayish, a Kurdish security and intelligence organisation.

Sherwani was first arrested in 2012 and detained for six days after publishing an article in Bashur exposing a corruption case involving a municipal officer in Duhok. After he was released, Sherwani was sued for defamation. On 16 February 2021, Sherwani was sentenced to six years in prison by the Erbil Criminal Code for multiple offences, including spying on behalf of foreign agents (including the Kurdish Workers Party) and putting at risk the lives of senior Kurdish regional and foreign officials.

On 2 March 2022, Sherwani's sentence was reduced following a presidential decree by Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region. In July 2023, shortly before Sherwani's planned release, he was sentenced to an additional four years' imprisonment on charges of falsifying a document for a fellow imprisoned journalist, Guhdar Zebari. Zebari wrote a statement in which he stated he had given Sherwani permission to sign a petition on his behalf; this evidence was dismissed by the judge. At the same time, Sherwani was also given a six-month custodial sentence for allegedly altering the logo of his car. Sherwani's lawyer stated that this stemmed from a June 2022 complaint filed by a prison officer at the Erbil Adult Prison in which they accused Sherwani of threatening him and his family. Sherwani was found guilty of breaking article 229 of the Iraqi Penal Code which made a crime threatening or assaulting state employees. The evidence against Sherwani was solely the statement by the officer as well as statements from two other officers who were witnesses. Sherwani denied making the threat. CPT-IK observed his 2025 trial and published a report describing it as containing "major violations" including a lack of proper evidence and procedures, the defence being prevented from challenging the validity of the evidence, unjust sentencing, the militarisation of the court room, and the use of plainclothes officers to "agitate and assault" civilians waiting outside the court room.

In 2025, Sherwani was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Syrian Kurdish politician Îlham Ehmed. In September 2025, a group of 17 non-governmental organisations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Community Peacemaker Teams, MENA Rights Group, Democracy for the Arab World Now, Cartoonists Rights Network International and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, called for Sherwani's immediate release.

As of January 2026, Sherwani is being held at Gewran Prison in Erbil.