| From IraqiSlogger. We'll see if this source holds up under scrutiny. |
"After publishing an article titled ‘Legacy of the sick man’ on the repercussions of the recent illness of President Talabani, security authorities phoned the editor-in-chief on March 16 and asked for some information on the magazine and its editor," Heman Baqer told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"The editor called me this morning and told me that security forces were at his office and then he just disappeared and we could not find him as all his cell phones were turned off," he added. "We found out later that he was arrested in Sulaimaniya police department," the source noted.
For its part, Sulaimaniya police department refused to make any statement on the arrest of the editor.
The editor compared President Talabani's illness with the Ottoman Empire during its crumbling stage, when it was commonly known as "the sick man of Europe," as the major powers at that time were plotting how to distribute its colonies. Ahmed Mira said in his article that there was a conflict over TalabaniÂ’s successor inside the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) after his recent illness.