Reply #6: Hang him after a fair trial? [View All]

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=918&theme=rights&country=iran

His lawyer, Kahlil Bahramian, said: “Nothing in Kamangar’s judicial files and records demonstrates any links to the charges brought against him.” Indeed, Kamangar was initially cleared of all charges during the investigation process.


I'd rather take action than stand by and sort things out. Once he is killed, proving he was innocent just wouldn't seem the same.


http://northerniraq.info/blog/?p=305

Farzad Kamangar is borned in 1975. He was a teacher during 12 years in Kamiaran, a village of Eastern Kurdistan. He is married and has children. He belonged to the Teachers’ Union of Kurdistan and to other activist associations. He wrote for the review Royan, the review of Education department of Kamiyaran and for newsapers of local Human Rights associations.

He has been arrested on August 19th 2006, by the secret services of Sine. During 4 months after his arrest, his family had no news and authorities denied to be responsible of his disappearance.

Farzad Kamangar had been in fact transfered in the 9th Prison of Evin in Tehran, a non-official center of detention of the VEVAK, the Iranian services. In a letter he secretly send out of his prison, he told how he was isolated and tortured, beaten at his first interrogatory just because he is Kurd. He should stayed also on a chair, bound during 24 hours, without food nor possibility to go to the lavatory. Then he was imprisonned in a small cell, without fresh air. He could not get in touch with his family or his lawyer. He faced also psychological pressures, for example threatenings against his relatives. Once, he attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself in stairs, but failed. His health was so bad that he had to be cured in a prison hospital. His lawyer tells that when he saw Farzand in their first meeting, his body was shaken, his hands were seriously burnt by boiled water. Beside, he suffers of kidney infection, and tracks of blood in his urine. ‎

Between 2006 and 2007, he was several times transfered in Kermanshan or Sine to be interrogated and severely tortured. In Kermanshan, his cell, where he was detained in February and March 2007 measured 1m x 1m x 0.6m. He was also sexually abused in Evin, a common pratice to psychologically break prisonner’s mind.

His mother and his borther were allowed to see him only seven months after his arrest. When they meet him, Iranian agents stayed all the tim with them and forbid they speak in Kurdish. Farzad Kamangar, at this time, did not know what were the charges against him.

Farzad made several hunger strikes, with other prisonners, to protest againt their conditions of detention. The last month, he was in the prison of Gohardacht, when prisonners revolted. After a raid of safety services, he has been taken and led in a isolated place, with Farhad Vakili and Ali Heydaran.

On February 25th, the 130 Branch of the Revolutionnary Court condemned Farzad Kamangar to the capital punishment, for “endangering national security”. He was charged also to belong to PJAK, though he pled non-guilty.

Human Rights Watch denounces the trial, the sentence and the tortures.