October 31, 2008
TEHRAN, — A Tehran appeal court has upheld
the 11-year prison sentence that was imposed on
Kurdish journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand for
creating a human rights organisation in Iran’s
Kurdish northwest. Under Iranian law, sentences of
more than 10 years in prison cannot be the subject
of appeals to the supreme court.
His lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, told Reporters Without
Borders he would refer the case to the head of the
judicial system,www.ekurd.net
Ayatollah Hashemi
Shahroudi, after which there would be no further
legal recourse.
“The national security charges brought against
Kabovand are baseless,” Reporters Without Borders
said. “It is absurd to regard the defence of human
rights as an attack on national security. This is
just a clumsy pretext for silencing a journalist who
had for long time been writing about discrimination
against minorities in Iran.” |
Iranian Kurdish Human Rights activist Mohammad
Sadegh Kabovand |
|
The press freedom
organisation added: “This journalist’s most basic
rights have been flouted, beginning with his right
to appropriate medical treatment. The Iranian
authorities are responsible for the health of their
detainees. Kabovand urgently needs to be allowed out
of prison for a medical examination.”
Kabovand, who has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison
since July 2007,www.ekurd.net
is suffering from
prostate pains and has not yet been granted
permission to receive treatment outside the prison.
His wife, Parinaz Hassani, told Reporters Without
Borders that she has not been allowed to visit him
since 24 September.
In its ruling, issued on 23 October, the appeal
court upheld Kabovand’s conviction on a charge of
“activity against national security” but dismissed a
second charge of “publicity against the government.”
It did not however reduce the sentence he received
in June.
In an unrelated case,www.ekurd.net
10 journalists who were
about to leave for the United States to cover the 4
November presidential election were detained on 25
October at Tehran international airport. Their
passports were confiscated and they were ordered to
report to the ministry of intelligence.
In a report released in July 2008, the human rights
organisation, Amnesty International
expressed concern
about the increased repression of Kurdish Iranians,
particularly human rights defenders.
The report cited examples of religious and cultural
discrimination against the estimated 12 million
Kurds who live in Iran.
“We urge the Iranian authorities to take concrete
measures to end any discrimination and associated
human rights violations that Kurds, indeed all
minorities in Iran, face,” Amnesty said in its
report.
“Kurds and all other members of minority communities
in Iran, men, women and children, are entitled to
enjoy their full range of human rights.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency, rsf org
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