Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness: Iran - Further information on fear of torture or ill treatment/ arbitrary arrest of Adnan Hassanpour & Manso

Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness: Iran - Further information on fear of torture or ill treatment/ arbitrary arrest of Adnan Hassanpour & Mansour Tayfouri: "Iran - Further information on fear of torture or ill treatment/ arbitrary arrest of Adnan Hassanpour & Mansour Tayfouri

Amnesty reports.

Adnan Hassanpour and his cousin Abdolwahed (known as Hiwa) Butimar have been sentenced to death. Adnan Hassanpour, a Kurdish journalist and advocate of cultural rights for Iranian Kurds, was detained on 25 January and environmentalist Hiwa Butimar on or around 23 December 2006, both in Marivan, Kordestan province. They were reportedly held incommunicado in a Ministry of Intelligence facility in Marivan, and transferred to Marivan prison on 26 March.

Following his arrest Hiwa Butimar‘s home was searched by members of the Intelligence Service, who are said to have confiscated items including Kurdish flags, videos in Kurdish and family pictures of a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan. The confiscated items were also reportedly used as evidence against the cousins, who reportedly appeared before a Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj on 12 June, in the presence of their lawyer.

Adnan Hassanpour and Hiwa Butimar were reportedly returned from Marivan prison to an unconfirmed place of detention, possibly the detention facility run by the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan province, early in the morning of 15 July. On 17 July the men were told that they had been sentenced to death on charges of espionage and Moharebeh (being at enmity with God). If confirmed on appeal, the sentences would then have to be further confirmed by the Supreme Court.

In an interview carried by the online publication Rooz, the two men's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said that Adnan Hassanpour’s charges related to "a phone conversation he had with a staff member of Radio Voice of America". He also said that Hiwa Butimar had been charged with carrying lethal weapons, although he denied his client had ever done so, and stressed he had not been in contact with any armed group (see: http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2007/07/006302.php).

By Noggr the Bloggr at 18:13