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Behrouz Ghobadi, brother of
internationally acclaimed Iranian film maker, Bahman Ghobadi, was
arrested on 4 November 2012 by men in plain clothes, believed to belong
to the Ministry of Intelligence. He is reportedly being held in a
Ministry of Intelligence detention centre, placing him at risk of
torture or other ill-treatment. Behrouz Ghobadi, father of a newborn
baby boy and a member of the Kurdish minority in Iran , was arrested in
the early hours of the morning of 4 November. He was in a taxi driving
from Sanandaj, the capital of the north-western Kordestan province, to a
Tehran airport. Plain-clothes men, who were reportedly following him,
stopped his car and arrested him around 15 kilometres outside Sanandaj.
Judicial officials claim that they had an arrest
warrant but the reasons for his arrest do not appear to have been
disclosed to his family or lawyer.
Behrouz Ghobadi is believed
to be held in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Sanandaj
on suspicion of national security-related “offences”, although the exact
charges brought against him remain unclear. His family and lawyer have
not been able to visit him, despite their repeated requests. According
to his family, Behrouz Ghobadi is not affiliated with any political
group. He manages a shop in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and has worked
as the production manager for some of his brother’s films. He has also
directed a few short films himself.
Amnesty International is
seriously concerned about Behrouz Ghobadi’s health as he suffers from
various chronic medical conditions, including asthma and a heart
condition, both of which require medical care and medication.
Please write immediately in
Persian, Arabic, English, or your own language: ν Calling on the Iranian
authorities to ensure that Behrouz Ghobadi is protected from torture
and other ill- treatment and is granted adequate medical treatment; ν
Urging the authorities to allow Behrouz Ghobadi immediate and regular
visits from his family and a lawyer of his own choosing; ν Stressing
that if Behrouz Ghobadi has been arrested solely in connection with his
or his brother’s film-making activities, he is a prisoner of conscience
and must be immediately and unconditionally released. ….
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In recent years workers in
Iran ’s film industry have been facing growing repression. Several have
been arrested, detained and imprisoned solely for their peaceful
activities related to their work. Like some other film makers, Bahman
Ghobadi, an internationally acclaimed Iranian film maker, has left the
country as a result of the increasing repression. Amnesty International
fears that Behrouz Ghobadi’s arrest may be related to the film making
activities of his brother, Bahman Ghobadi.
The Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in his
September 2012 report, expressed concerns about receiving accounts of
independent journalists and employees of BBC Persian and Radio Farda
whose family members have been subjected to arrest, detention,
interrogation and intimidation by the security forces in attempts to
place pressure on them to cease their reporting activities.
Iran’s minority Kurdish
population live mainly in the west and north-west of the country, in the
province of Kordestan and neighbouring provinces bordering Kurdish
areas of Turkey and Iraq. They experience discrimination in the
enjoyment of their religious, economic and cultural rights. Parents are
banned from registering their babies with certain Kurdish names, and
religious minorities that are mainly or partially Kurdish are targeted
by measures designed to stigmatize and isolate them. Kurds are also
discriminated against in their access to employment, adequate housing
and political rights, and so suffer entrenched poverty, which has
further marginalized them.
Kurdish human rights
defenders, community activists, and journalists often face arbitrary
arrest and prosecution. Others - including some political activists -
suffer torture, grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts and,
in some cases, the death penalty.
Iran is a state party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 27 of
which states: “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic
minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be
denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to
enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or
to use their own language.”
In September 2010, the
Committee on the on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in
its concluding observations on Iran’s 18th and 19th periodic reports,
urged the Iranian authorities, among other things, to “take the
necessary steps to achieve effective protection from discrimination
against, inter alia, Arab, Azeri, Balochi and Kurdish communities and
some communities of non–citizens… in various domains, in particular,
employment, housing, health, education and freedom of expression and
religion”.
For more information on human rights violations against the Kurdish minority in Iran , see:
Iran : Human rights abuses against the Kurdish minority, at:
1 comments:
معلم دهانات بالرياض فني دهان بالرياض دهان ممتاز بالرياض دهان رخيص بالرياض عامل دهان بالرياض رخيص
فني تركيب ورق جدران بالرياض افضل معلم تركيب ورق جدران الرياض ارخص فني تركيب ورق حائط في الرياض
شركة مكافحة الحمام بالرياض تركيب طارد الحمام في الرياض و الخرج شبك طارد للحمام
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