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The Committee to Protect Journalists
condemns the death sentence for Kurdish journalists in
Iran
7.8.2007
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August 7, 2007
New York, -- The Committee to Protect
Journalists condemns on Monday the death sentence
handed down in mid-July by a revolutionary court
against Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist and former
editor for the now-defunct Kurdish-Persian weekly
Aso in Iran’s northwestern province of Kurdistan.
Iranian Kurdish environmental activist Abdulvahed
Butimar was also convicted and sentenced to death.
Hassanpour was convicted of endangering national
security and engaging in propaganda against the
state, one of his attorneys, Sirvan Hosmandi, told
CPJ in a telephone interview conducted Wednesday
through an interpreter.
“We are alarmed that this death sentence has been
issued in a closed trial,” CPJ Executive Director
Joel Simon said.
“Iranian authorities must provide a fair and
transparent legal process.” |
Kurdish journalists
Adnan Hassanpur (L) and Hiwa Botimar sentenced to death
by the Iranian Islamic regime |
Iranian judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi was
quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency
on Tuesday confirming that both men “have been
sentenced to execution on the charge of moharebeh,”
The AP reported. In the Iranian Islamic penal code,
Moharebeh (fighting with God) is used by the Iranian
authorities against persons who allegedly take up
arms to violently overthrow the regime. Jamshidi
gave the remarks during a weekly news conference,
Reuters said. The news agency quoted him as saying
that Hassanpour and Butimar “have taken arms to
topple the system.”
Hassanpour and Butimar will appeal their sentence to
Iran’s Supreme Court, U.S. government-funded Radio
Farda reported. Hosmandi told CPJ that both men were
currently being held in Kurdistan province’s
capital, Sanandaj (Sina).
The exact charges and the evidence used to convict
the men remain murky. Dr. Roya Toloui, a Kurdish
women’s rights activist and journalist currently
based in the United States, told CPJ that she
suspects Hassanpour’s critical writings are behind
the charges that led to his death penalty. Toloui is
a former journalist at Aso and a friend of
Hassanpour.
The Revolutionary Court has only confirmed the death
sentence against Hassanpour and Butimar, but has not
publicly provided full information about the basis
for its convictions. Hassanpour’s attorneys say the
specific charges used to convict their client are
not directly related to his journalism.
Security agents seized the reporter in his Kurdish
hometown of Mariwan, in the Kurdistan province, on
January 25, according to news reports and
international human rights organizations. There are
conflicting news reports as to the exact date
Butimar was arrested, but it was sometime in late
December 2006 or early January 2007.
Hassanpour and Butimar were taken to an intelligence
ministry jail in Sanandaj and held for several
months without charge before being transferred in
late March to a prison in Mariwan, according to
Amnesty International.
Hassanpour worked as an editor for nearly two years
at Aso. The weekly was banned in August 2005
following its coverage of violent protests in the
Kurdistan area that summer. Hassanpour has a
separate, ongoing court case over articles he wrote
for Aso.
cpj org
Iranian Kurdistan
**
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
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