Kurdish writer Kamal Karim is to be retried for the crime of defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.
Karim had been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a trial that lasted one hour. He was convicted in December under a law passed by the Kurdish regional parliament in 2003.
His crime was to accuse the Kurdish political leader of corruption in an article on the website Kurdistanpost.
The reason that the appeal was granted is that such cases usually only draw a 5-year sentence.
Kurdish leaders promised to help deliver democracy and freedom of the press in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, who oppressed the Kurds for decades.