Mawlud Afand
Iraqi Kurd editor of pro-Israel magazine missing
Mawlud Afand, chief editor of Israel-Kurd Institute's magazine missing for over 10 days. Reporters Without Borders: We fear the worst
An Iraqi Kurdish editor of a magazine that advocates relations between the Kurdistan region and Israel has been missing for more than 10 days, a journalist and a media rights group said on Wednesday.
Mawlud Afand, the editor-in-chief of the Israel-Kurd Institute's magazine, has been missing since June 8, said Diyari Mohammed, a correspondent for the magazine in Sulaimaniyah, in the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
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"We fear the worst and we urge the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government's authorities to do everything possible to find Afand," the group said in a statement on its website, calling for an immediate investigation.
During a visit to Sulaimaniyah, Afand "went alone for an appointment... and disappeared," Mohammed said.
"He called in the afternoon the next day and told us that he was on a private visit and would return back after a week," he said.
Pro-Israel. Afand's Facebook page (Screenshot)
A woman who spoke Persian answered Afand's phone on June 13, but it has been switched off since then, Mohammed said, adding Afand's colleagues have raised the possibility he was kidnapped by Iranian intelligence.
Mohammed said the president of the Israel-Kurd Institute, Dawood al-Baghistani, had been informed by the Kurdistan region's government last year that Iran wanted the magazine closed, but that Kurdistan declined to do so.
RSF said the magazine "promotes better relations between Israelis and Kurds and encourages Kurdish Jews who immigrated to Israel to return to Kurdistan," noting that "its aims and activities are controversial and constitute a major source of discord between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iran."
