Baghdad - An international journalists' organization condemned on Wednesday the imprisonment of a Kurdish doctor who wrote an article about homosexuality, Reporters without Borders said in a report on its website.

Doctor Adel Hussein was sentenced to six months of prison and fined 125,000 dinars (106 dollars) on November 24 in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Hussein was accused of "offending public decency" according to Article 403 of the criminal code, the statement said.

The public prosecutor arrested Hussein for publishing an article on the effects of homosexuality from a scientific view point.

The article was published in the independent weekly Hawlati in April 2007, the statement said.

"We are astonished to learn that a press case has been tried under the criminal code.

"What was the point of adopting - and then liberalizing - a press code in the Kurdistan region if people who contribute to the media are tried under repressive laws?" Reporters without Borders said in its statement. (dpa)