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Iranian Kurdish activist Masoud Kurdpour
detained
30.8.2008
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August 30, 2008
BOKAN, Iranian Kurdistan,— Human rights
monitors are concerned over the detention of Iranian
Kurdish teacher and human rights activist Masoud
Kurdpour. According to Iran Human Rights Voice, a
web-based Iran human rights advocacy group, Mr.
Kurdpour was summoned to the offices of Iran's
security service in the Kurdish city of Bokan in
Iranian Kurdistan (Eastern Kurdistan) on August 5th
and subsequently detained. In an interview with the
Voice of America's Kurdish Service, Ja'far Kurdpour
said family and friends fear for his safety:
"On Monday [August 25th] Kurdish prisoners in Iran's
prisons started a hunger strike and issued a
statement protesting the bad conditions in the
prisons and the unlawful treatment and violations of
[international] agreements of which Iran is a
signatory. My brother is one of the prisoners on
hunger strike. Masoud Kurdpour's lawyers have not
yet been allowed to see him. Family members who
visited him in the prison in Bokan city say he looks
very weak and his health is in danger." |
Masoud Kurdpour , Iranian Kurdish Activist |
Masoud Kurdpour is a known teacher active in
journalism who is also active in social issues such
as environmental preservation, labor rights, human
rights, civil rights, and cultural activities. Mr.
Kurdpour was summoned to the ministry of
intelligence on Friday (August 8, 2008) in the city
of Bokan and was subsequently detained.
In a report released in July, 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.”
Among the Iranian Kurdish prisoners of conscience
identified by Amnesty International is Mohammad
Siddique Kabudvand. In May of this year, Mr.
Kabudvand was sentenced, after a closed trial, to
eleven years imprisonment for "acting against state
security" by establishing the Human Rights
Organization of Kurdistan and one year in prison for
what Iranian authorities called "propaganda against
the system."
In it human rights report for Iran, the U.S. State
Department noted that Mr. Kabudvand was sentenced in
September 2006 to one year in prison for allegedly
inciting rebellion.
Vague and unsubstantiated charges like "inciting
rebellion," "acting against state security" and
"propaganda against the system" are routinely
leveled by Iranian authorities against Iranian
citizens who seek only to exercise basic human
rights, including the right of peaceful, political
dissent. The U.S. calls on Iran to respect the
rights of Iranian Kurds, and all the people of Iran.
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, voanews
com | ihrv org | 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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