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Human Rights Watch urge Iran to release
and provide urgent medical care to jailed Kurdish
activist 29.7.2010 |
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Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand May Have Suffered Stroke;
Family Claim He is Not Receiving Adequate Health
Care
July
29, 2010
NEW YORK,— The Iranian Judiciary should
provide urgent medical care to Mohammad Sadigh
Kaboudvand and free him from his unfair detention,
Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
Kaboudvand, a leading advocate of Kurdish rights in
Iran, is serving an 11-year sentence on politically
motivated charges. He suffered what may have been a
stroke on July 15, 2010, and his family says he is
not getting the medical attention he needs.
On July 20, Kaboudvand wrote an open letter to the
public prosecutor’s office saying that he
experienced “brain and neurological problems... that
caused loss of consciousness during the afternoon of
July 15.” Prison authorities transferred him to the
Evin prison clinic, which diagnosed a sharp rise in
his blood pressure, but failed to treat him.
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Muhamad Sediq Kaboudvand, the founder and head
of Human Rights Organisation of Kurdistan in Iran |
In his letter,
Kaboudvand wrote that since he lost consciousness he
has been experiencing “intense light-headedness and
neurological issues associated with sensory, motion
and sight difficulties.” His lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh,
told Human Rights Watch that on July 15 she appealed
to judiciary officials to allow Kaboudvand access to
the medical treatment he needs, but that her request
has gone unanswered.
“Kaboudvand needs an immediate and thorough
assessment of his worsening condition. Denying a
prisoner necessary medical care is both cruel and
unlawful,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch. “Iranian authorities
are responsible for his well-being and should
immediately ensure he can get the medical attention
he needs.”
Kaboudvand has suffered two heart attacks since his
arrest and detention in July 2007. Information about
Kaboudvand’s condition comes on the heels of reports
by the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran and Amnesty International indicating that
prison authorities are systematically denying needed
medical care to political prisoners.
International and Iranian law requires prison
authorities to provide detainees with adequate
medical care. Iran’s State Prison Organization
regulations state that if necessary detainees must
be transferred to a hospital outside the prison
facility. The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners require that authorities
transfer prisoners needing specialist treatment to
specialized institutions, including civilian
hospitals.
On July 23, Kaboudvand’s sister told Human Rights
Watch that authorities finally allowed her brother
to see a neurologist in prison earlier that day. She
said that instead of examining her brother
thoroughly or administering tests, the doctor
prescribed a series of pills and instructed
Kaboudvand to take them daily without telling him
what they were. Kaboudvand’s sister also told Human
Rights Watch that authorities have denied him
visitation rights and allow him to talk on the phone
for only two minutes a day.
Kaboudvand is a prominent human rights defender,
journalist, and founder in 2005 of the Human Rights
Organization of Kurdistan (HROK). The group grew to
include 200 local reporters throughout the Kurdish
regions of Iran and provided timely reports in the
now banned newspaper Payam-e Mardom (Message of the
People), of which Kaboudvand was the managing
director and editor.
Intelligence agents arrested Kaboudvand on July 1,
2007, and took him to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, which
is under Intelligence Ministry control and is used
to detain political prisoners. They held him without
charge in solitary confinement for nearly six
months. In May 2008, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary
Court sentenced Kaboudvand to 10 years in prison for
“acting against national security” by establishing
the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan,www.ekurd.netand
another year for “widespread propaganda against the
system by disseminating news, opposing Islamic penal
laws by publicizing punishments such as stoning and
executions, and advocating on behalf of political
prisoners.” In October 2008, Branch 54 of the Tehran
Appeals Court upheld his sentence.
Kaboudvand is among dozens of Kurdish dissidents
imprisoned by Iranian authorities, some of them on
death row. The authorities routinely accuse Kurdish
dissidents, including civil society activists, of
belonging to armed separatist groups. Iran’s
revolutionary courts have convicted many Kurdish
dissidents of moharebeh, or “enmity with God.” Under
articles 186 and 190-91 of Iran’s penal code, anyone
charged with taking up arms against the state, or
belonging to organizations that take up arms against
the government, may be considered guilty of
moharebeh and sentenced to death. Earlier this year,
authorities executed Farzad Kamangar and three other
Kurdish dissidents on these charges.
Currently, 16 Kurdish dissidents face execution,
they are: Zeynab Jalalian, Rostam Arkia, Hossein
Khezri, Anvar Rostami, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi,
Ghader Mohammadzadeh, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko
Moarefi, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Tali, Iraj Mohammadi,
Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad
Pouladkhani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, and Sayed Jamal
Mohammadi.
Human Rights Watch has previously called on the
Iranian government to end Kaboudvand’s unjust
sentence and allow him access to urgent medical
care. In 2009, Human Rights Watch awarded Kabouvand
a Hellman/Hammett grant given to writers who face
persecution for criticizing officials or policies,
or writing about controversial topics.
“The Iranian authorities have unfairly jailed
Kaboudvand because of his work as a human rights
defender and journalist promoting ethnic minority
rights,” Stork said. “Now they appear to be denying
him appropriate medical assessment as a way of
further punishing him for his peaceful political
activities.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
hrw org | Human Rights Watch
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