Asayesh or Asayish is a Kurdish

Kurdish people

The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...

 organization and the primary intelligence agency operating in the Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...

 region in Iraq. The organization was established in September 1993 and has been often referred to as "intelligence agency" ., "security force",. "security service", "security police", "secret service", "secret police", or just "Kurdish police",. Asayesh coordinates and shares information with Parastin

Parastin

Parastin is a government agency and the primary investigative arm belonging to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. The organization was first established in 1968 by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq. It has been sometimes referred to as a "Kurdish intelligence service"...

 and Zaniyar, the investigative arms and intelligence gatherers operating in the Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...

 region in Iraq.

It acts under the command of the Kurdish National Assembly and the Kurdistan Regional Government

Kurdistan Regional Government

The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...

.

Its official goals according to the Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...

 authority are:

• Counter-Drug trafficking
• Counter-Terrorism
• Counter-Espionage
• Gathering intelligence
• Assessing threats to Iraq’s national security

The organization has jurisdiction over:

• Economic crimes
• Smuggling
  Smuggling
  Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
  
  
• Political crimes
• Espionage
  Espionage
  Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
  
  
• Sabotage
  Sabotage
  Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
  
  
• Terrorism
  Terrorism
  Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
  
  

Human Right's

Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 accused Asayesh of abusing human rights and claimed that the agency was "above the law" in Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...

. The Kurdistan Regional Government

Kurdistan Regional Government

The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...

criticized Amnesty by stating: