Kurdish journalist gets 11-year prison sentence,
Tehran daily closed for criticising Ahmadinejad
June
25, 2008
Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the
11-year prison sentence imposed on Kurdish
journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand on 22 June for
“activity against national security.” The
organisation has also learned that the daily Tehran
Emrooz was closed on 21 June, a few days after
running several articles criticising President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic record while mayor of
Tehran.
“The authorities have no scruples about using unfair
trials to convict journalists on trumped-up
charges,” Reporters Without Borders said. “No
consideration was given to Kabovand’s poor health,
either. This especially severe sentence is a message
to all those who do not kowtow to the regime,
especially in the Kurdish northwest. The decision to
close Tehran Emrooz was taken without referring to
any court. President Ahmadinejad uses government
commissions to settle his political scores.”
The former editor of Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan, a
weekly closed down in 2005, Kabovand received his
11-year sentence from a Tehran revolutionary court
for creating a human rights organisation in Iran’s
Kurdish region. Since his arrest in July 2007, he
has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison, where he
spend the first five months in solitary confinement.
Despite his health problems, Kabovand was unable to
taken advantage of a provisional release order prior
to his trial because his family was unable to raise
the exorbitant bail that was demanded - 150 million
toumen (145,000 euros).
Kabovand suffered an acute dizzy spell in his cell
on 19 May and his wife, who visited him the day
before his sentence was pronounced,www.ekurd.net
told Reporters Without
Borders he continues to have periods of dizziness
and headaches against which the medicine he is being
given in prison is having no effect. “This verdict
shows how the authorities persecute journalists and
human rights activists in Iran,” she said.
Kabovand’s lawyers, Nemat Ahamadi and Mohammad
Sifzadeh, protested vehemently against the sentence,
describing it as “political.” They also condemned
the court’s decision to hold the trial behind closed
doors.
Tehran Emrooz is owned by current Tehran mayor
Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, who plans to run against
Ahmadinejad in next year’s presidential election. It
was closed by the Commission for Press Authorisation
and Surveillance, an offshoot of the Ministry of
Culture and Islamic Guidance, after publishing a
detailed report mocking Ahmadinejad’s economic
record while mayor from 2003 to 2005.
The newspaper’s printer was summoned by a court the
day after the article came out to answer to charges
of “printing images and editorial content insulting
to the president” and “spreading lies with the aim
of upsetting public opinion.” The newspaper was
forced to publish an official apology, acknowledging
that the criticism had not been “moderate.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency, rsf 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
PJAK
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.
More about PEJAK- Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan
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