[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 29


IRAN:

2 journalists under sentence of death urged to call off hunger strike


Reporters Without Borders joins the families and lawyers of imprisoned
Kurdish-Iranian journalists Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed "Hiva" Botimar
in urging them to call off the hunger strike they began on 14 July. The 2
journalists are currently under sentence of death.

"They are now on the 47th day of their hunger strike and their condition
is very worrying," the press freedom organisation said. "We obviously
respect their perseverance and we support their demands, but they are
putting their lives at risk."

Reporters Without Borders added: "We demand that the judicial authorities
keep their promises and improve the conditions in which they are being
held, above all by allowing them the right to receive visits and to phone
their lawyers and their families. The supreme court must also agree to
review their convictions and quash their death sentences."

Hassanpour and Botimar, who are being held in a ministry of intelligence
detention centre in Sanandaj, in Iran's Kurdish northwest region, were
allowed to receive a visit from relatives and one of their lawyers, Sirvan
Hoshmandi, on 25 August. It was only the 2nd visit they have been allowed
since their arrest last December.

Hassanpour's mother and Botimar's wife reported that they appear to be
very weak and have lost a lot of weight. They said they have asked
Hassanpour and Botimar to abandon the hunger strike, in which they are
consuming nothing but water to which a small amount of sugar is added.

Hassanpour and Botimar began the hunger strike to press their demands for
improved conditions of detention, an end to their solitary confinement and
their transfer to a prison in the city of Marivan where their families
live. The also want a meeting with a senior justice department
representative and the right to see their lawyers whenever they want.

Hassanpour and Botimar, who write for the magazine Asou, were sentenced to
death on 16 July by a revolutionary tribunal in Marivan for spying,
"subversive activities against national security" and "separatist
propaganda."

(source: Reporters Without Borders)