Lahur Sheikh Jangi denies Bafel Talabani murder plot as Lalazar trial adjourned again

SULAYMANIYAH — A commander loyal to Lahur Sheikh Jangi told the Lalazar trial he saw Bafel Talabani through a sniper scope during last year’s confrontation but was never told to kill him, as Sheikh Jangi gave evidence for the first time and denied trying to have his cousin killed.

“I saw Kak Bafel through the sniper scope, but Kak Lahur did not tell us to kill Bafel Talabani,” Rebwar Hamid Haji Ghali said, according to defence spokesperson Dana Taqiaddin. “He only told us to protect Mam Jalal’s house.” Haji Ghali, who was arrested alongside Sheikh Jangi at Lalazar, said he had been instructed to guard the home of the late Iraqi president and PUK founder Jalal Talabani and his widow Hero Ibrahim Ahmed because Sheikh Jangi believed there was a coup attempt against the house.

Lahur Sheikh Jangi denied the charge. “I deny the accusations and I did not attempt to kill Bafel Talabani,” he told the judge, according to Taqiaddin, adding: “I am here for the rule of law. If I had wanted to settle the matter, I would have been outside and would not have come to court.”

His brother Polad rejected the statement attributed to him in the case file on two grounds. “I do not know Kurdish,” Taqiaddin quoted him as saying. “My statement was taken while I was affected by my injuries and treatment, and I was unconscious.”

The three were the last of the 12 defendants to give evidence, completing the testimony 391 days after the raid. The court adjourned without a ruling and without setting a date, with the defence expecting to be told on Sunday when it resumes.

This was the sixth session, and the defence has challenged the earlier statements at each of the last three. Six defendants withdrew theirs on Sept. 3, telling the judge they had been obtained under torture and pressure, after which the judge questioned them again and recorded new ones. At the session on Sept. 10 the defence said several detainees appeared frightened while giving evidence and that relatives had been barred from visiting for a week.

The 12 are tried under Article 56 of the penal code, which Taqiaddin describes as covering an agreement to commit murder. Bafel Talabani and his brother Qubad, the Kurdistan Region’s deputy prime minister, are the complainants and neither has attended a hearing.

Sheikh Jangi was among the PUK’s most powerful figures, rising through its security apparatus to become co-president alongside Bafel Talabani in 2020 before being pushed out in an internal power struggle in 2021. He founded the People’s Front, which won two seats in the 2024 Kurdistan parliamentary election, and used Lalazar as its political and security base.

Security forces surrounded the complex on Aug. 22, 2025. Sheikh Jangi refused to surrender and they stormed it after hours of fighting that killed at least five people and wounded more than 20. Three days later PUK-linked media broadcast a recording in which people described a plan to kill Bafel Talabani and said Sheikh Jangi and security figure Azhi Amin had ordered it. His family and defence said the recording was scripted to give the operation political and legal cover.