By Richard A. Oppel Jr. The New York Times

ERBIL, Iraq - Kamal Sayid Qadir had just returned here from Austria in late October when two trusted former students invited him for coffee at the Hotel Avista.

For Qadir, the meeting held the promise of a reunion of kindred spirits from Salahaddin University where, as a faculty member a few years back, he had clashed with administrators allied with the Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani. From Austria, he had written articles accusing Barzani's all-powerful Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, of corruption while calling members of its intelligence service, the Parastin, criminals and its chief - Barzani's son - a "pimp."

But Qadir said he never made it home from the hotel that night.

Betrayed by his former students, who unknown to him had joined the Parastin, he says he was abducted after he left the hotel. In December he was sentenced to 30 years for defaming the Parastin and Kurdish political leaders after a trial that he said had lasted 15 minutes.

On Wednesday, Qadir was released as a result of efforts by Gudrun Harrer, an Austrian special envoy, The Associated Press reported. Harrer intervened after the government in Vienna deemed the sentence for Qadir, an Austrian citizen, too harsh, according to media reports.

But Qadir's case, while extraordinary, was by no means unique, and there are others in similar circumstances who face a more uncertain fate. Two journalists from Wasit Province in east central Iraq face 10 years in prison for suggesting that Iraqi judges kowtow to the U.S. authorities just as Saddam Hussein's courts rubber-stamped edicts of the Baath Party.

Taken together, the prosecutions indicate how much remains at play in newly democratic Iraq. The country has made remarkable steps away from totalitarian rule: the overthrow and prosecution of a genocidal dictator, two national elections and the adoption of a constitution.

But it remains to be seen how far Iraq will ultimately travel toward true Western-style democracy.

In much of southern Iraq, for example, real power increasingly lies with Shiite militias that serve religious leaders and enforce a rule of strict Islamic mores and second-class treatment of women. Now, the prosecutions of journalists suggest that the new Iraqi government is at another crossroads. Will it revert to state-sanctioned intimidation of the news media or allow the sort of free-flowing exchange of ideas that flourishes in newspapers, blogs and other media in the Western world?

"These cases set a terrible precedent and are sure to make any Iraqi journalist think twice before writing about powerful political figures," said Joel Campagna, senior program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group in New York.

As with other countries newly liberated from authoritarianism, Iraq is still testing the limits of responsible free speech, and some of the name-calling and rumor-mongering that goes on clearly oversteps boundaries. Many of Qadir's criticisms exceeded what would be tolerated in other Middle Eastern countries, particularly his assertions about the sexual proclivities of the Barzani clan.

A number of Kurdish journalists who spoke out against Qadir's imprisonment say they are nevertheless uncomfortable with his writings, calling many of them offensive and reckless attacks.

Indeed, Qadir said in an interview before his release that he had apologized for parts of articles he now says contained improper personal insults. But he vowed to continue to criticize official corruption, including what he says are secret abductions by the police.

Qadir's case has drawn international attention, putting enormous pressure on Kurdish leaders. Before his release, a senior official of the KDP, which controls western Kurdistan, said that Qadir's sentence would be reduced to one year and that his family would be permitted to bail him out.

And, even though Qadir has been released, he remains in serious legal jeopardy from complaints yet to be prosecuted, said Ismael Khalil Shakeeb, the presiding criminal court judge in Erbil and one of the judges who sentenced him last month. "He has insulted many other people," he said.

Kurdistan is, in most respects, the most westernized and prosperous part of the new Iraq, having experienced a decade or more of virtual independence even before the U.S. invasion. But writers here face threats and arrest for running afoul of the KDP, Qadir said.

"We have no freedom of the press," he said in an interview conducted last Friday afternoon in the Erbil prison. "It's all arbitrary; they can arrest anybody. I never thought I'd be a victim of the Kurds."

Yerevan Adham in Erbil and Salahaddin, and Mona Mahmoud and Ali Adeeb in Baghdad contributed reporting for this article.