Source: Amnesty International

Kurdish women's rights activist Zeynab Bayzeydi has been sentenced to four years' imprisonment, and internal exile to the Turkish-speaking city of Zanjan, 246 km from her home, by Mahabad Revolutionary Court. Her family learned of this on 10 August, when they went to the court to find out how her trial had gone. Amnesty International considers her a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression and association.

She was convicted of a number of offences, all of which she has denied, except the one arising from her work on the One Million Signatures Campaign, which was working against laws that discriminate against women.

She is also a member of the Human Rights Organisation of Kurdistan (HROK). She had been arrested on 9 July, after the police ordered her to present herself for interrogation at a police station in Mahabad, which is in West Azerbaijan province.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The HROK, which has over 200 members, was founded in April 2005. The authorities have never granted it official recognition as an NGO. Its founder, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for "acting against state security by establishing the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan" and "propaganda against the system."

For more information on human rights violations against the Kurdish minority in Iran, see: Iran: Human rights abuses against the Kurdish minority

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Persian, Kurdish, or your own language:

- calling on the authorities to quash the four-year sentence passed on Zeynab Bayzeydi, and release her immediately and unconditionally, as she is a prisoner of conscience.

APPEALS TO:

Head of the Judiciary

His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary

Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran

Email:                   info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)

Salutation:           Your Excellency

Governor of West Azerbaijan

His Excellency Dr. Rahim Ghorbani

PO Box: 775

Oromiyeh 57135

Islamic Republic of Iran

Salutation:           Your Excellency

COPIES TO:

President

His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The Presidency

Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection

Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Fax:      + 98 21 6 649 5880

Email:   dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir

via website: http://www.president.ir/email/

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 26 September 2008.

... Payvand News - 08/16/08 ...

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