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Iran jails Kurdish students for
'propaganda'
26.8.2008
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August 26, 2008
TEHRAN, — Iran has sentenced two Kurdish
students to two years in prison each for propaganda
against the system and participation in an illegal
gathering, press reports said on Monday.
Sabah Nasri and Hedayat Ghazali, Kurdish students in
Tehran universities, have been in jail for the past
14 months, Kargozaran newspaper said, without
specifying when the trial had taken place.
Under Iranian law, time already served in prison is
deducted from the sentence.
"I received my clients' verdict on Sunday at a
revolutionary court," their lawyer Saleh Nikbakht
was quoting as saying by Etemad newspaper.
Nikbakht said he would appeal the sentence.
Iranian universities are a hotbed of student
activism and reformist students have complained of
increasing political pressure on university
authorities under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Earlier this month Iran released three Amir Kabir
university students who had been sentenced to up to
30 months in jail,www.ekurd.net
after over a year in
prison on charges that included allegedly insulting
Islam.
Their arrest drew wide condemnation and their
colleagues staged regular protests demanding their
release -- often leading to new arrests.
In a report released last month 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,www.ekurd.net
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.”
The International Alliance
in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI) provides the
following list of
persecuted activists:
* Sousan Razani, 36 years old, a resident of the
city of Sandandaj in Iranian Kurdistan, sentenced to 9 months
imprisonment and 70 lashes, for participation in the
2008 May Day rally in Sanandaj; charged with "the
breach of public order—participation in an illegal
assembly in front of the Social Security building."
* Shiva Kheirabadi, 25 years old, a resident of the
city of Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan, sentenced to
4 months imprisonment and 15 lashes, for
participation in the 2008 May Day rally in Sanandaj;
charged with the "breach of public
order"—participation in an illegal assembly in front
of the Social Security building.
* Seyed Qaleb Hosseini, 46 years old, a resident of
the city of Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan, was
sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and 50 lashes,
for participation in the 2008 May Day rally in
Sanandaj; charged with the "breach of public
order"—participation in an illegal assembly in front
of the Social Security building.
* Abdullah Khani, 49 years old, a resident of the
city of Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan, sentenced to
91 days prison and 40 lashes, for participation at
the 2008 May Day rally in Sanandaj; charged with the
"breach of public order"—participation in an illegal
assembly in front of the Social Security building.
* Seyed Khaled Hosseini, 49 years old, a resident of
the city of Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan, sentenced
to three months and one additional day in jail and
30 lashes, sentences suspended for two years;
charged with the "breach of public
order"—participation in a rally outside Sanandaj
prison in support of Mahmoud Salehi on March 23,
2008.
* Afshin Shams, a labor activist, a member of
Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers'
Organizations, a member of Committee in Defense of
Mahmoud Salehi and also a member of Caricaturist
Society; incarcerated since July 04, 2008 without
trial.
* Farzad Kamangar is a 33 year old teacher,www.ekurd.net
journalist and a human
rights activist from Kurdistan, Iran. Farzad
Kamangar has been sentenced to death, found guilty
of "risking national security and being a member of
the Kurdistan Workers Party." Mr. Kamangar has been
subjected to brutal torture and lengthy
imprisonment.
* Mansour Osanloo, President of the board of
directors of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and
Suburbs Bus Company. Mr. Osanloo has been jailed
numerous times. The last time, he was abducted on
July 10, 2007 and later was transferred to the Evin
Prison and never released since. He has been
sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. There have been
numerous international campaigns for his freedom.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, AFP |
ww4report com | Agencies
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.
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