UPDATE - IRAN
9 November 2007
Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Kurdish journalist; decision
should be "taken very seriously," says RSF
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris
**Updates IFEX alerts on the Hassanpour case of 7 September, 14 and 1
August, 23 July, 15 March and 30 January 2007; updates Botimar (Butimar)
alerts of 7 September, 14 and 1 August and 23 July 2007**
(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Supreme Court's
decision to uphold the death sentence for Kurdish-Iranian journalist Adnan
Hassanpour for "spying." The ruling was issued on 22 October 2007, but was
not revealed until this week.
The court quashed the conviction of another journalist convicted in the
same case, Abdolvahed "Hiva" Botimar, on the grounds of procedural
irregularity. Botimar had also been under sentence of death.
"We have been waiting for more than six months for the Supreme Court to
decide whether to reopen the case against Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra
Kazemi's alleged murderers, but it took the court only a few weeks to
uphold Hassanpour's death sentence, so the judicial system clearly
continues to have a pro-government bias," Reporters Without Borders said.
"We appeal to the international community to take every possible action to
get this journalist released," the press freedom organisation added. "This
sentence should be taken very seriously as Iran has already executed more
than 300 people since the start of the year."
Saleh Nikbakht, one of the lawyers representing the two journalists, was
notified on 5 November of the court's decision although he was not given
the details of the ruling. He said Hassanpour had been found guilty of
"espionage" because he had allegedly "revealed the location of military
sites and established contacts with the US foreign affairs ministry."
He added that the court overturned Botimar's conviction on the grounds of a
"procedural irregularity," and sent his case back to the same revolutionary
court in Marivan (in the Kurdish northwest of Iran) that convicted him and
Hassanpour on 16 July on charges of spying, "subversive activity against
national security" and "separatist propaganda."
Nikbakht told Reporters Without Borders: "This sentence is not only
contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international
conventions ratified by Iran, but is also contrary to Islamic law and the
laws of the Islamic Republic."
Hassanpour, 27, and Botimar, 29, used to work for the weekly "Asou",
covering the sensitive Kurdish issue, until the newspaper was banned by the
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in August 2005. Hassanpour also
worked for foreign news media including Voice of America and Radio Farda.
An ardent advocate of Kurdish cultural rights, Hassanpour was arrested
outside his home on 25 January and was taken to Mahabad, where he was not
allowed to receive visits from his family or his lawyer. Botimar, an active
member of the environmental NGO Sabzchia, was arrested on 25 December.
For the past several months, Hassanpour and Botimar have been held in
Sanandaj prison, where their lawyers have not been allowed to meet with
them in private in order to inform them of the Supreme Court's decision.