NRT reported police had arrested Pirbal at his place of work in the Kurdistan Region’s capital.
Spokesperson for the Erbil Police Hogir Aziz said Pirbal was arrested on orders from the director of police directorate after a lawsuit was filed.
The detention came after Wafaiy House Library caught fire before dawn on Sunday. Pirbal then released a video of the fire on Facebook saying that he had torched the library.
In the video, Pirbal can be heard saying, “That is how I burn your house. You are burning my house! You are taking my house, Nechirvan Barzani!”
In a separate post, Pirbal also claimed that he had set fire to the library in response to alleged copyright infringement. It appeared to have been posted after the fire was set, but before Pirbal was arrested.
“You have printed five books including the recent two books, and sell each for 15,000 IQD, keeping 7,000 IQD for you," he wrote.
“Please, don’t do it anymore. I also want all the books from you and give them back to me. Otherwise, I will burn all of my books in your store...My problem, if there is no law for copyrights, that is how I will solve it. What I did is a message for Parliament so as to adopt a bill to protect the rights of authors, artists and intellectuals.”
Director of Wafaiy House Library in Erbil Soran Aziz said in a post on Facebook that he had informed police, the Asayish, and the governor of Erbil that Pirbal had previously threatened to burn the library.
“We were told Farhad Pirbal would not do that,” he added.
“You are affiliated with a specific political party, which I have problem with,” the director of the library said that Pirbal had told him. “I want to send a message to the party by burning the library because I cannot reach to that party.”
Director Aziz has said that he has no party links.
He added the library had suffered “great damage” as a result of the fire.
Wafaiy House Library was built in 2010 and housed more than 5,000 books. Aziz said most of the books were burned and many others were soaked with water when the fire was being brought under control.
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