New hearing set for Lahur Talabany trial amid transfer dispute

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A court in Sulaimani has scheduled a new hearing for detained Kurdish opposition figure Lahur Talabany and his associates for June 3, as defense lawyers continue to seek the transfer of the case to the Kurdistan Region’s highest judicial authority in Erbil.

“Today, the judge decided that the hearing for the case of Mr. Lahur and the other detainees will be held on June 3,” Qadir Agha Mantik, one of the lawyers representing Talabany and his colleagues, told Rudaw on Sunday.

Mantik said the defense had formally requested that the case be transferred to the Kurdistan Region Court of Cassation in Erbil, "but as of today, it has not been sent."

Talabany was first brought before a judge on January 12, but no final ruling was issued. He appeared again before the court on May 14, following an earlier hearing this month that was postponed due to what his lawyer described as the “large volume of case files” and “strict security surveillance” around the courthouse.

Talabany and his brother, Polad, along with dozens of their security guards, were arrested in Lalezar Hotel in Sulaimani after a standoff with security forces in August 2025.

Authorities in Sulaimani accuse him of conspiring against the leader of the province’s dominant Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Bafel Talabani, including allegedly plotting to assassinate him and carrying out acts of sabotage in Sulaimani.

Talabany previously served as co-leader of the PUK before being ousted in July 2021. He later founded the People’s Front (Baray Gal), an opposition party largely composed of his former supporters within the ruling PUK.

The group has repeatedly denied the accusations, describing them as politically motivated.

After repeated delays in court proceedings, Lahur and Polad Talabany launched a hunger strike on April 19, ending it five days later after Sulaimani security forces (Asayish) pledged to transfer their cases to Erbil.

According to Mantik, the Sulaimani court cited the size of the file as the reason for the delay in transferring the case to Erbil. “The justification provided by the Sulaimani Court for not sending it to the Court of Cassation was that the case file is extensive, consisting of more than a thousand pages,” he said.

He added that the lower court should have suspended proceedings once the Court of Cassation requested the case file.

“When the Court of Cassation requests a case file, the court must suspend legal proceedings; however, in Sulaimani, the trial of the Lalezar detainees is still ongoing,” Mantik said.

Soran Hussein contributed to this report.