From Reporters Without Borders:
A Tehran appeal court has upheld the 11-year prison sentence that was imposed on journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand for creating a human rights organisation in Iran’s Kurdish northwest. Under Iranian law, sentences of more than 10 years in prison cannot be the subject of appeals to the supreme court.
His lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, [...]
The Middle East News reports:
Unknown gunmen shot dead a 28-year old journalist [Dyar Abbas Ahmed] and an artist on Friday in the northern province of Kirkuk, according to Iraqi police sources.
CNN reported that Dyar worked with Ain, an Iraqi news agency.
In July of this year, 23 year old Soran Mama Hama, also a Kurdish journalist, [...]
As reported last week by the Kurdish Human Rights Project: Some 200 Kurdish prisoners of conscience in Iran are undertaking a hunger strike to protest against use of the death penalty and the prevalence of torture in detention centres throughout the country. Take Action Now - Sign the petition
Kurdish prisoners have been on hunger strike [...]
Kurdish activists are still calling for an investigation of Soran Mama Hama’s death, which was detailed in July by the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Mama Hama, 23, a reporter with the Sulaymania-based Livin magazine, had received threatening messages before the slaying, local journalists told CPJ today. Mama Hama had written articles critical of local authorities, those [...]
As reported earlier this month, an estimated 200 Kurdish prisoners of conscience have initiated a hunger strike in the prisons of Iran. The Committee for the Support of Hunger Strike for Kurdish Political Prisoners released the following three reports on their conditions, translated to English by Iranian activist, Sayeh Hassan:
21st Day of the Hunger [...]
Several Kurdish women and other women’s rights activists in Iran have been arrested throughout the year. Amnesty International has released another public statement renewing it’s demands that the Iranian authorities end their pressure and discrimination against these women’s rights defenders.
From the Kurdish Human Rights Project:
Some 200 Kurdish prisoners of conscience in Iran are undertaking a hunger strike to protest against use of the death penalty and the prevalence of torture in detention centres throughout the country.
The individuals involved are spread across a number of locations including jails in Kermanshah, Saghez, Mahabad and Uromieh, as [...]
Reporters Without Borders Reports:
Reporters Without Borders today called for the release of a Kurdish contributor to national and foreign media, Massud Kurdpoor, who was arrested by intelligence ministry agents at his home in Bukan, Iranian Kurdistan on 7 August 2008.
The teacher had been broadcasting regularly on foreign radio stations Voice of America, Radio France International [...]
Massoud Kordpour is a Kurdish human rights activist who has been arrested for the second time by the Iranian authorities supposedly for “spying” for foreign governments:
This time authorities accused him of being a spy after he gave interviews to foreign news sources that broadcast in Farsi and Kurdish languages.
Kordpour is the founder of the Foundation [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) recommends that engagement with Syria should include human rights:
Western countries looking to increase engagement with Syria should know that Syrian authorities continue to arrest, try, and harass political and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. In May 2008, Syrian authorities detained a political writer, began the trial of two [...]
