Iran: Kurdish Teacher Tortured, Sentenced to Death

Seng Yang/March3/Human Rights/6:55pm

Iran: Kurdish Teacher Tortured, Sentenced to Death

"Farzad Kamangar's case highlights how human rights abuses have become routine in Iran," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Kamangar was tortured, subjected to unfair trial and now faces execution."

Authorities arrested Kamangar in Tehran in July 2006 and held him in various detention centers in Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Tehran. Kamangar claims that during a period of detention in Unit 209 of Evin Prison in August 2006, officials tortured him to such an extent that they had to transfer him to the prison clinic to receive medical attention. Kamangar's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that the first time he met his client, Kamangar's hands and legs were shaking as a result of mistreatment during detention and interrogation. Kamangar himself outlined the details of how he was tortured in a letter written from prison.

Prior to his arrest, Kamangar worked for 12 years as a teacher in the city of Kamyaran, where he was on the governing board of both a local environmentalist group as well as the local branch of the teachers' association. Kamangar wrote for the monthly journal Royan, a publication of the Department of Education of Kamyaran. He was also a writer with a local human rights organization that documents human rights abuses in Kurdistan and other provinces.

This article talks about the torture a Kurdish man endured while being imprisoned in Iran. It is an example of the human rights article we read on prisons for our class outline.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/90855d96b973539a4a5549150d105c26.htm