IMHRO condemns 11 years prison sentence for Kurdish activist

Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)

Ref.IMHRO.28

04/11/08

47 year old Kurdish human rights activist, journalist and thinker, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Iranian Revolutionary Court.

His lawyer, Nasrin Sotudeh, stated that Kaboudvand has been sentenced to 10 years for setting up a human rights organisation and one year for disseminating information against the government[i].

IMHRO strongly condemns this harsh sentence and calls for Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand’s immediate release.

Kaboudvand has already spent approximately 3 years in prison. During this time his health has worsened. He suffers from a number of medical conditions including heart and kidney illness. On a number of occasions he was denied access to medical assistance and his family were subjected to harassment when they visiting him.

IMHRO is concern about his health, and asks the UN to investigate and ensure that he has access to medical treatment.

IMHRO researcher Reza Washahi said “The Iranian government should reward him instead of putting him in prison; he was a peaceful activist who simply tried to remind the Iranian government of its own Kurdish indigenous people. Surely he does not deserve a long prison sentence”.

IMHRO, along with other international organisations such as Reporters without Borders and Amnesty International appealed to the Iranian government on Kaboudvand’s behalf, but the Iranian government once again ignored the international community.

Background

Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand is the founder of the Human Rights Organisation of Kurdistan, which published a significant number of reports about Kurdish people in Iran. His newspaper “Payam-e Mardom-e-Kurdistan” (the message of the Kurdish people) is banned by the Iranian government.



[i] http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVhKQ6wVtOCwPvUjd_cBuRX8D1iAD9467L780