Kaveh Javanmard
Iranian Kurdish journalist
According to PEN's information, officials from the Ministry of Intelligence arrested Kaveh Javanmard, a journalist for the weekly Krafto, at his home in Sanandej on 18 December 2006. He was held incommuncado in pre-trial detention at Sanandej prison, where he was feared to be at risk of ill-treatment. Javanmard's arrest came during a wave of arrests, bans and acts of intimidation against the media following a visit to the Kurdish north by the Iranian President and the Culture Minister in September 2006. During this time the authorities reportedly targeted other staff members of Krafto. International PEN is deeply concerned about an apparent pattern of repression against journalists and human rights activists in Iranian Kurdistan, which has been ongoing since unrest broke out in the Kurdish areas of Iran in July 2005, and was violently suppressed by the authorities.
Kaveh Javanmard was sentenced to two years in prison at a closed trial on 17 May 2007. He was denied legal representation and the charges against him have not been made known, although he is believed to be held for his legitimate professional activities as a journalist. An additional year was reportedly added to his sentence in May 2008 on charges of ‘acting against national security' in a separate case. He reportedly served his two-year sentence at a prison in the northern town of Maragheh, 300 miles from his family home, and was reported in April 2009 to have been transferred to Sanandaj to serve the additional one-year prison term.