IMHRO: Kurdish human rights chairman suffers stroke as result of long imprisonments and torture

Iranian Minorities’ Human Right Organisation (IMHRO)

Ref.IMHRO.12

2008-05-20

Mohammad Sadigh Kabodwand

Mohammad Sadigh Kabodwand the founder and chairman of the Kurdish human rights organization suffered a stroke on Saturday 17th May.

IMHRO has learned that he is in a stable condition, but needs urgent medical help.

“He was denied access to medical help before and was held in very bad conditions in solitary confinement as well as being subjected to torture”, IMHRO researcher Reza Washahi said.

IMHRO asks the international community to put pressure on the Iranian government to make sure that Mr. Mohammad Sadigh Kabodwand has access to all available medical services for treatment. IMHRO believes that this is the responsibility of the Iranian government to make sure that prisoners are healthy.

Ebrahim Lotf Allahi

The Iranian government has cleared the officer of any wrong doing, who was involved in torturing Mr. Ebrahim Lotf Allahi, a law student at the time when he died during detention.

In January 2008 news came out that they had buried him in the middle of the night and did not allow a medical report to establish cause of death.

The Iranian government told his family that he had committed suicide in prison.

IMHRO are appalled by the fact that the Iranian government is backing their security officer and have cleared him of manslaughter. Reza Washahi told IMHRO that this clearly shows that the Iranian government is systematically authorising torture against minorities.

Kaveh Aziz Poor

Kaveh Aziz Poor, a Kurdish man from the villages near Mahabad city, lost consciousness as a result of torture and after 20 days died in hospital in the city of Uromiyeh. He was arrested on the charge of being a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

IMHRO again wants to remind the international community of the Iranian government’s policy with regard to human rights and to political activists belonging to minorities, especially the Kurdish minority in Iran. The case of Kaveh Aziz Poor provides evidence of this.

Background
The Kurdish minority in Iran number up to 6 million people who live in the west midland, the North West and also in the north east of Iran.

Iranian Kurds are denied social and political rights. Various human rights organisations have reported that hundreds of Kurds are in prison, some of them there for long time.

Kurdistan is the only area in Iran where revolutionary guards’ bases are situated near almost every village. As the Kurds mainly belong to the Sunni minority, the government deliberately diverts investment from the Kurdish area.

In recent years the situation in Kurdistan has worsened. Papers and magazines even in cultural form have not been tolerated by the government and they have had to close down. Magazines and papers closed down by the government in recent years include Manisht, Payame Mardom Kurdistan, Heh Naran, Rojeh Lat, Asu, Asdhti, and Rasan.

In recent months the Iranian government has arrested Mamosta Ayub Ganji, Sunni Imam of Ghaba mosque in Sanandaj city. He reportedly has lost his memory and is unable to speak.

Action
Please write to one of the following and express your concern for the medical condition of Mr. Mohammad Sadigh Kabodwand. Ask the Iranian government to give assurances that they will do what is necessary to restore him. Point out that his condition is the result of long imprisonments and being subject to torture.

Please write to one of the following and express your concern about the death of Kaveh Aziz Poor and Ebrahim Lotf Allahi. Ask the Iranian government to do a full investigation into the cause of the deaths of these two men and to bring the people responsible to justice.


Secretary-General United Nations
The Honorable Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Headquarters
Room S-3800
New York, NY 10017

Supreme Leader of Iran
Sayyed Ali Khamenei
E-mail via web site
http://www.leader.ir/

Iranian President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad
E-mail via web site
http://www.president.ir/en/

Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave.,
south of Serah-e Jomhouri,
Tehran 1316814737,
Islamic Republic of Iran

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ms Louise Arbour
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland

Chairwoman of European Parliament Human Rights Committee
Ms Hélène FLAUTRE
Bureau d'Hélène Flautre au Parlement européen
8G130, rue Wierz
B-1049, Bruxelles,
Belgique