Pink Floyd musician joined by Noel Gallagher and others demanding release of Kurdish singer Nudem Durak


Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters has demanded the release of Kurdish singer Nudem Durak

PINK Floyd musician Roger Waters has demanded the release of Kurdish singer Nudem Durak, who has been jailed for 19 years in Turkey for performing songs in her native language.

He called on authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to release Ms Durak, who has been held in Bayburt prison since 2015.

“She’s our sister,” Mr Waters said. “Whatever you think of the Kurds’ desire for recognition, it is unacceptable for a country with a great historical art heritage like Turkey to treat artists like this.”

Ms Durak was jailed for “membership of a terrorist organisation” and “spreading terrorist propaganda” after singing at an event to mark Newroz, the Kurdish new year.

A global campaign for her release is supported by Mr Waters and others, including fellow musicians and veteran US communist Angela Davis.

Ms Durak’s acoustic guitar was broken by guards during a cell inspection in 2017.

Mr Waters has sent his black Martin acoustic guitar, signed by rock legends including Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Pete Townsend, Noel Gallagher and Mark Knopfler, to Ms Durak to highlight her plight.

“We have an absolute responsibility to support her and the hundreds of thousands of others who continue to suffer her fate with false imprisonment all over the world, not least in the United States and the United Kingdom,” he said.

The Free Nudem Durak campaign can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

US businessman faces jail after torturing Kurd who raised concerns over illegal weapons project

by Steve Sweeney
International editor

US businessman Ross Roggio has been charged with torturing a worker in Iraqi Kurdistan while he was managing the construction of a weapons factory in the semi-autonomous region in 2015.

The Pennsylvania man arranged for Kurdish peshmerga forces to abduct the employee for more than a month after he raised concerns over the project, a US Justice Department statement said on Friday.

“The grand jury charges that the defendant directed and participated in the systematic torture of an employee over the course of 39 days by Kurdish soldiers in Iraq,” US Attorney John C Gurganus said.

According to the indictment, Mr Roggio led multiple interrogation sessions during which he directed Kurdish soldiers to suffocate the victim with a bag, tasering him in the groin and other areas of his body.

They are alleged to have beaten him with fists and rubber hoses, jumped violently on his chest while wearing military boots, and threatened to cut off one of the victim’s fingers under the instructions of the US citizen.

On at least one occasion, the indictment said, Mr Roggio wrapped his belt around the victim’s neck, yanked him off the ground, and suspended him in the air, causing him to lose consciousness.

“The heinous acts of violence that Ross Roggio directed and inflicted upon the victim were blatant human rights violations that will not be tolerated,” FBI assistant director Luis Quesada said.

Mr Roggio and the Roggio Consulting Company LLC were charged in 2018 with illegally exporting firearms parts and tools from the US to Iraq and part of the weapons project in Kurdistan.

He faces a maximum 20 years in jail for each of the torture charges and a maximum statutory penalty of 705 years’ imprisonment for the remaining 37 counts.