IRAN. KURDISH TEACHER SENTENCED TO DEATH

February 25, 2008: Branch 30 of Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar to death on charges of "endangering national security." The prosecution claimed that Kamangar is a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
According to Kamangar's lawyer, this trial violated the Iranian legal requirements that such cases must be tried publicly and in the presence of a jury.
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 also alleges torture and ill-treatment while in detention in the cities of Sanandaj in Kurdistan province and Kermanshah. (Sources: HRW, 27/02/2008)