The Assyrian Christian Mayor of Dadersh village in the Sarsank region of the Duhok governorate in Kurdistan, Iraq, and one other Assyrian Christian man named James Zaya, were arrested on 11 May after a group of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) loyalists tried to confiscate land belonging to local residents.

When local villagers protested and tried to protect their properties, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) police, known as Asayesh, retaliated by assaulting them and arresting the village mayor, Zya Minas, and Mr Zaya who was filming the incident.

The incident is currently being investigated, and has been raised by many Christian members of the regional parliament and by human rights activists, including Dr Muna Yaku, the chair of the Independent Human Rights Commission in Kurdistan, who visited the village.

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