Freedom of the Press Award to Butimar and Hassanpoor

Two Italian rights groups, Article 21 and Information, Safety & Freedom have on 30 November in the central Italian city of Sienna conferred the Freedom of the Press award to the two Kurdish journalists Hiwa Butimar and Adnan Hassanpoor.

* Relatives of Hassanpoor and Butimar attended the ceremony.

* The prize was organized jointly by Information, Safety & Freedom and the municipality of Sienna.

* Hiwa Butimar is environmental activist.

* Adnan Hassanpoor is an advocate of cultural rights for Kurds within Iran s border.

* Hiwa Butimar and Adnan Hassanpoor have been detained since last December and January respectively. They were in July sentenced to death by Iranian Revolutionary court.

* Proceedings before Islamic Revolutionary Courts in Iran do not meet international standards for fair trial.

* Iran s Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence handed to Hassanpour for being an "enemy of God". The court referred the case of Butimar sentenced to death on the same charges, to a tribunal of re-examination.


Defend International in collaboration with Observatory have together launched an international campaign to call on the Iranian authorities to release them immediately and unconditionally since their detention is arbitrary, as it only seems to sanction their human rights activities.

The organizations recall that numerous United Nations bodies, including the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee Against Torture and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, have called for the abolition of capital punishment.

For more information about the campaign please visit:
www.defendinternational.org

Rate the article
Bad	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Very good
Result : 100%							Participated in the vote : 10