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Iranian court has sentenced 2 Kurdish
reporters to three years in jail
11.6.2007
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June 11, 2007
TEHERAN, Iran, --An Iranian court has sentenced
two journalists who covered banned protest rallies
in Iranian Kurdistan area to up to three years in
jail, their lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday.
The court in the town of Sanandaj in northwestern
Kurdistan province jailed Jalal Ghavami for three
years and Saeed Saedi to two and a half years for
attending two illegal rallies in 2005 in front of
the governor’s office, ISNA news agency reported.
The verdict said they had been ‘acting against the
system and national security by participating in
illegal gatherings ... (and) propaganda activity
against the system,’ ISNA said.
Ghavami was also sentenced for ‘insulting’
officials.
But their lawyer Nemat Ahmadi said his clients only
went to the demonstrations to report on them, ISNA
said, without specifying which media they worked
for.
‘My clients attended the gatherings as reporters and
just for reporting,’ Ahmadi said.
Last month, the court in Sanandaj sentenced a woman
activist to six years in jail for attending the same
two banned protests.
In an appeal about their cases last year, Amnesty
International said Saedi and Ghavami were arrested
in August, 2005, after they helped organise a rally
against the killing of a Kurdish man that sparked
protests in Iranian Kurdistan.
‘If imprisoned, Amnesty International believes both
men would be prisoners of conscience, imprisoned
solely for peacefully exercising their rights to
freedom of expression, assembly and movement,’ the
London-based group said in July.
Rights groups often complain that Iran jails
pro-reform writers, activists, journalists and
intellectuals without due legal process. Iran
routinely dismisses accusations that it violates
human rights.
Iran’s 70 million population includes about 6
million Kurds, many of whom live in the mountainous
northwest bordering Iraq and Turkey. Kurdish leaders
in Iran have in the past complained of
discriminatory treatment of their people.
Reuters
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey.
It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hîzbî Dęmokiratî Kurdistanî Ęran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran.
The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
** The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
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