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Iran: Nightmare ends for two Kurdish
journalists
24.1.2008
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January 24, 2008
The nightmare is over for two Kurdish journalists.
Ako Kurdnasab of the weekly Karfto was released from
Sanandaj prison in Kurdistan province on 17 January
on completing his sentence. Franco-Iranian
documentary filmmaker Mehrnoushe Solouki flew back
to France two days later after the lifting of a
10-month-old ban on her leaving the country.
In other recent developments, two other journalists,
Ejlal Ghavami and Emadoldin Baghi, were allowed to
leave prison temporarily to receive medical
treatment,www.ekurd.net
while Said Matinpour of
the weekly Yarpagh was transferred back to Tehran,
more than 300 km from his family in the northwestern
city of Zanjan.
“Kurdnasab spent six months in prison, while Solouki
was kept in Iran for more than 10 months against her
will after being imprisoned for a month,” Reporters
Without Borders said. “We are glad the nightmare has
ended for them. But Ghavami and Baghi will have to
return to their cells at the end of their medical
leave.”
Kurdnasab was freed on 17 January after being held
for 180 days in Sanandaj. He was arrested on 21 July
2007 at Karfto’s headquarters by intelligence
ministry officials. His initial sentence of three
years in prison for “trying to overthrow the
government by means of journalistic activities” was
reduced to six months on appeal.
Solouki flew back to Paris on 19 January after the
bail guarantee embargo on her parents’ house was
lifted. But she is still charged with “trying to
make a propaganda film” for preparing a documentary
on the events that followed the 1988 ceasefire
between Iran and Iraq. She has not been given back
the footage she shot, which was confiscated after
her arrest in February 2007.
On 18 January, Baghi was allowed out of Evin prison,
where he has been held for three months. When he was
briefly hospitalized in December with severe heart
problems, his family had submitted a request for
temporary medical leave to the head of the judicial
system, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.
Ghavami, a contributor to the weekly Payam-e Mardom-e
Kurdestan, obtained a two-week extension to the
medical leave he was originally granted on 26
December to seek treatment for an eye infection
exacerbated by the lack of hygiene in his cell in
Sanandaj prison, where he is serving his sentence.
Matinpour was transferred to Evin prison for the
second time on 4 December, his wife said. Arrested
on 28 May 2007 at his home in Zanjan,www.ekurd.net
he was initially placed
in detention there. He was transferred to Evin in
July but was moved back to Zanjan in September. His
wife said he is charged with “activity against
national security.” The authorities have said he can
be released on bail of 500 million toumen (500,000
euros), but the family is unable to raise this sum.
The press department of the Ministry of Culture and
Islamic Guidance meanwhile banned the newspaper Arya
on 19 January for “failing to publish regularly.”
Suspended in April 2000 during a wave of closures of
pro-reform newspapers, Arya had received permission
from a Tehran court in 2006 to resume publishing. A
new team of journalists had been preparing to bring
out a new issue.
rsf org
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranê or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatê
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 Dêmokiratî Kurdistanî Êran) 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 present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PEJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PEJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
Since 2004
The Iranian Kurdish rebel group PJAK (PEJAK) (Party
of Free Life of Kurdistan) took up
arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdistan
province northwestern of Iran. Half the members of
PEJAK are women.
More about PEJAK- Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan
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