On July 15, 2010, Mr. Mohamad Sadigh Kaboudvand lost consciousness in prison of Evin due to irregularities in his blood pressure. After been transferred to the prison’s infirmary, he was visited by a practitioner who attributed the loss of consciousness to severe blood pressure fluctuations. Since then, Mr. Kaboudvand reports suffering from severe dizziness, sensory-motor dysfunctions and optical disorders, which could indicate that he has suffered another stroke.
The Observatory recalls that Mr. Mohamad Sadigh Kaboudvand, who was arrested on July 1, 2007 and has been detained at the prison of Evin in Tehran since then, already suffered two heart attacks while in detention, in May and December 2008, and that he also suffers from a renal prostatic disorder.
At the end of May 2008, Mr. Kaboudvand was sentenced by the Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran to ten years’ imprisonment for “acting against State security by establishing the [RMMK]” and one year in prison for “propaganda against the system”. The sentence was later confirmed by the Appeal Chamber of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on October 28, 2008.
Previous to his arrest, in 2006, Mr. Kaboudvand had already been condemned to a one-year suspended imprisonment sentence and to five years of privation of his journalistic activities for his involvement in the defence of human rights as well as for the publication of some articles defending cultural, social, and political rights of the Kurds in the Kurdish newspaper Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdistan (The Message of the People of Kurdistan). Mr. Kaboudvand is the Editor-in-chief of this banned newspaper.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern about Mr. Kaboudvand’s health condition, and urges the Iranian authorities to guarantee in all circumstances his physical and psychological integrity and to grant him immediate access to adequate medical treatment, including outside the prison if necessary, as well as to release him immediately and unconditionally as his detention is arbitrary.
More generally, the Observatory calls upon the Iran authorities to put an end to any act of harassment, including judicial harassment, against all human rights defenders in Iran and to conform in all circumstances with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights instruments ratified by Iran.