Protest against inhuman conditions in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran

According to information received by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) several hundred Kurdish political prisoners have been on hunger strike since 25th August 2008. They are protesting against the inhuman conditions in the prisons, against the daily torture and mishandling. The Kurds who are in custody call for the respecting of the human rights of the prisoners, the end of executions, the end of torture and the mishandling and the improvement of the sanitary arrangements in the Iranian prisons.

Of the Kurdish prisoners who are on hunger strike the following have been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution: Adnan Hassanpur (journalist), Hiwa Bwtimar (journalist), Farzad Kamangar (journalist), Anwer Hussein Panahy (teacher), Farhad Wakily (human rights activist), Ali Haidrian (human rights activist), Arsalan Awliaiy (human rights activist), Habibulla Latify (human rights activist)

The following prisoners have been sentenced to several years in prison: Muhamad Sadiq Kabudwand (human rights activist) sentenced to 11 years), Hana Abi (human rights activist, sentenced to 5 years), Zainab Baiazidy (human rights activist) sentenced to 4 years, Fatima Gwftary (human rights activist) sentenced to 18 months, Amir Raza Ardalan (student) sentenced to 2 ½ years, Ali Shakry (student) sentenced to 2 ½ years and Suhrab Jalaly (student) sentenced to 3 years.

The following are awaiting trial:

Kawa Jwanmard (journalist), Ysir Guly (human rights activist), Hidayet Gazali (human rights activist), Sabah Nasry (human rights activist), Masud Kurdpur (journalist), Rwnak Safarzada (human rights activist), Kamaran Alaiy (teacher), Arsh Alaiy (teacher), Khdir Raswl Marwat (student), Salar Yare (student), Farhad Haji Mirzaiy (human rights activist), Muhamad Kahby

(human rights activist), und Sasan Babaiy (teacher).

The settlement area of the Kurds in Iran covers the four provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam, West Azerbaidjan and Kurdistan in the west of the country and has with its ten million inhabitants a total area of about 125,000 sq. km. Almost 98% of the Kurds profess Islam. 75% of them are Sunnis, 25% Shi’ites.

The state of Iran comprises many nationalities: besides Persians there are Aseri, Kurds, Arabs, Beluchi, Turkmens, Assyrian Aramaeans and other smaller ethnic and religious minorities. The non-Persian nationalities make up considerably more than half of the approximately 75 million citizens of Iran. They are not recognized as individual peoples each with their own language, culture and history, but are in Iran deliberately termed „ethnic groups”. They all suffer from suppression and discrimination.