IRAN: Journalist’s Trial Opens Amid Health Concerns

4 June 2008

Update #2 to RAN 30/07

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is seriously concerned for the health of Iranian Kurdish journalist Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, who reportedly suffered a stroke in Evin prison on 19 May 2008 and has been denied access to adequate medical care. He has been held since 1 July 200 on charges of ‘acting against national security'. His trial reportedly began on 25 May 2008.

International PEN is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of writer Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). International PEN seeks assurances of his well being, guarantees that his basic rights are being respected and that he is given full access to all necessary medical care as a matter of urgency.

Background

According to PEN's information, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, editor of the banned weekly Payam-e mardom-e Kurdestan, was arrested on 1 July 2007 at his place of work in Tehran by plain-clothed security officers. Following his arrest, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand was initially taken to his house in Tehran, where security officers confiscated three computers, books, photographs and personal documents, before taking him away to the Intelligence Ministry's Section 209 of Evin Prison, where he is said to have been ill-treated. He is believed to have had no contact with his family since his arrest. No reason has been given for his arrest, although it could be linked to a previous one-year prison sentence which he has never served. His family has been unable to raise the bail that could have enabled him to be freed pending trial.

Amnesty International gives the following background:

‘Chair of the Kurdish Human Rights Organization (RMMK) based in Tehran, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, is also the editor of Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan (Kurdistan People's Message) a weekly published in Kurdish and Persian, which was banned on 27 June 2004 after only 13 issues for ‘disseminating separatist ideas and publishing false reports'. Convicted of ‘disseminating tribal issues and publishing provocative articles' and ‘spreading lies with the intention of upsetting public opinion' by a Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, western Iran, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand received on 18 August 2005 a suspended prison sentence of 18 months, and a five-year ban on working as a journalist. His conviction was reportedly upheld on appeal, but the suspended prison sentence was increased to one year's actual imprisonment. In September 2006 he was summoned to begin his prison sentence, but remained free pending an appeal against his conviction to the Supreme Court.'

Kabudvand has reportedly written two books on democracy and a third on the women's movement in Iran, which were not given publishing licences.