In the United States of America, a fundamental freedom enshrined in the national Constitution is freedom of speech.   As a United States permanent resident and having been a student at an American university, Kurdistan Regional Government prime minister Masrour Barzani, the leading defendant in the Kurdish Victims Fund case, knows this very well.  In fact, he took an oath to support the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States.

The Kurdish Victims Fund case against the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, Masrour Barzani, Waysi Barzani, and Barzani family members and others, repeatedly makes known that Masrour Barzaniand his international criminal organization have consistently dishonored and betrayed that oath.  The case shows the U S courts, and the US Congress, how the Barzani international crime enterprise has many interlinkings with counterfeiters, drug traffickers, and terrorists.

It is a 250-year-old tenant of the United States that harassment against any person is unacceptable.  Maybe in Kurdistan, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani feels empowered to violate criminal laws, treaties, and the law of nations.  But that freedom to violate criminal laws and treaties does not apply to Masrour Barzaniand his family and agents in the United States.  In the USA, there is no law-free zone around Masrour Barzani and his criminal conspirators including his family as there seems to be in Kurdistan, where they constantly abuse the levers of government to enrich themselves.   Masrour Barzani and his family members and agents are too comfortable in the delusion of their own entitlement, pretending thisAmerican case will just go away.  It won’t.

         Nothing in America is more important or more fundamental than the rule of law.  In the United States of America, no man is above the law.  Even Masoud Barzani’s and Masrour Barzani’s hollow and false claims of immunity will not stop the Kurdish Victims Fund case from preceding in American court.

US President Joe Biden, the most powerful person in the world, has made his position on this very clear.  This week President Biden said, “This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America.  Each — each of us is equal before the law.  No one — no one is above the law.”  The Kurdish Victims Fund is keeping the White House up to date on this case.

In our last court report we explained the brutal murder of Jihan Taha Abdulrahman.  In this report we explain the attack on her brother Shakhwan Abdulrahman, an American citizen.

Masrour Barzani visited Washington DC earlier this year.  Learning of this, Shakhwan traveled there with the intent to speak with Masrour Barzani about Jihan’s murder. Shakhwan dearly missed Jihan and suffered anguish and grief that he could not protect her, and thought about the unspeakable fear and agony she surely endured when kidnapped, tortured, and incinerated.  Having no success in obtaining a meeting, denied by Masrour Barzani, Shakhwan’s intent was to express his protected political dissent in a public and lawful political expression in Washington, D.C., with others, by merely standing on the public sidewalk holding a large picture of his murdered sister and verbally expressing sadness and anger and seeking accountability, engaging in political speech that is granted the broadest swath of US Constitutional protection.  The judge in this case has ruled that standing on a sidewalk expressing political speech is absolutely legal.

Yet contrary to aclearly established US constitutional and legal right to peacefully demonstrate against the despotic and imperious Barzani regime of Kurdistan, Masrour Barzani’s agents used unlawful and violent bodily force to restrain Shakhwan’s free speech.  Amazingly, this criminal violence was just one block from the White House.  This is considered abhorrent under US civil liberty protections, which the Barzani delegation totally ignored.  Those who visit America’s shores are expected to honor its values of the rule of law, human rights, and democracy.  Instead, the Barzani delegation, with Masrour Barzani standing watching, physically attempted to silence Shakhwan from expressing his viewpoint, in a public place, where he could be seen and heard by officials of the United States Government and by American media in America’s Federal City. 

As the US Supreme Court has emphasized, "[t]he right to free speech ... may not be curtailed simply because the speaker's message may be offensive to his audience."  Masrour Barzani and his agents aggressively threatenedShakhwan with bodily harm and inflicted emotional distress on this grieving brother. Shakhwan was aggressively attacked, assaulted, and battered by Arfan Salih Omer Sherwani, who attempted to destroy Shakhwan’s phone, and Hamza Salimand Hikmet Bamerni, who was supervising the agents and did nothingto stop the assault.  Hayman Quassi and DaskoShirwani employed violent bodily force as an instrument of oppression.  In America, this is a forcible felony in the furtherance of crime.

Arfan Salih Omer Sherwani and Hamza Salim, acting for and on behalf of Masrour Barzani, committed civil rights violations in an effort to destroy evidence of their unlawful conduct when they physically attempted to illegally steal and confiscate or destroy Shakhwan’s cell phone that he had been using to lawfully and freely film and record the violent reaction of the Barzani group to his tiny peaceful demonstration.  The two Barzani bodyguards who attacked Shakhwan tried to force the phone out of his hand but could not take it away. Then the attackers tried to break the phone in Shakhwan’s hand, which caused pain in his hands and back, which persists. 

The Barzani attackers tried to also kick Shakhwan, but when police arrived, the attack was halted.  They also boldly and powerfully kicked the photo of Shakhwan’s murdered Kurdish sister, in an intentional act of disrespect and repression of a Constitutionally protected liberty.  Shakhwan was displaying a photo, which also is protected free speech.

         Masrour Barzani has a legal duty to stop them.  Yet he did nothing.  They were his agents and representatives, and they committed a crime of violence against an American citizen in the American capital city.  It is all on film for the court.

The United States Secretary of State expressed the position of the United State Government: “The United States does not tolerate individuals who use intimidation and violence to stifle freedom of speech and legitimate political expression.”  While the Barzani security detail had a right to protect Masrour Barzani, US courts have said that does not automatically grantsecurity personnel “discretion to commit criminal assaults.”  These criminal acts are now part of the pending court case.

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