Tarik is safe

Tarik Ramadan, the "fixer" who worked with photographer and LFB member Gary Trotter in Northern Iraq, is safe and well and has been granted asylum in a European Union country - though we aren't allowed to say which one.

Tarik was arrested and later imprisoned without charge for 32 months by the Asaish (Kurdish Security Force) and tortured. He was released by order of Iraqi president Jalal Talibani following a campaign led by Gary, who said of Tarik that he "probably saved my arse on at least three occasions." (See here for more details.)

Media outlets in Iraqi Kurdistan still falsely accuse Tarik - a former Iraqi Air Force pilot - of being one of the pilots who bombed Iraqi Kurds at Habaja with poison gas in 1988, even though Tarik can prove from his flight records that he couldn't have been there at the time.

We hope to have more news on Tarik soon.

Tarik Ramadam shortly after his release Photo © Ziyad Ramadan