Mohammad Sadegh Kaboudvand is currently in the 9th year of his imprisonment in ward 350 of Evin prison.
In addition to the founding of the HROK, Kaboudvand is also the managing director and editor of the banned weekly “Payam Mardom.” After the establishment of the HROK on 9 April 2004, it quickly became a primary source of reports and advocacy on a wide range of human rights issues.
Kaboudvand also lead a peaceful campaign of advocacy with local and national authorities to bring attention to widespread violations of human rights in Kurdistan. The HROK grew to include 200 local reporters throughout the Iranian Kurdish region, enabling it to provide detailed and timely reports from throughout the region. Kaboudvand was instrumental in creating a civil society network for Kurdish youth and activists through the establishment of HROK. Kaboudvand thus made a very important contribution to flourishing civil society in Iranian Kurdistan through the establishment of HROK and publication of “Payam Mardom.”
Intelligence agents arrested Kaboudvand on 1 July 2007. He was then transferred to his house, which was searched. He was subsequently taken to ward 209 of Evin Prison, the ward under the control of the Intelligence Ministry. He was held in solitary confinement for five months.
Prosecutors charged him with “acting against national security by establishing the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan,” with “widespread propaganda against the system by disseminating news,” “opposing Islamic penal laws by publicizing punishments such as stoning and executions,” and “advocating on behalf of political prisoners.” He has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Kaboudvand’s wife, Parinaz Baghban Hassani, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he started the hunger strike on May 8, 2016 “because since last winter he has been summoned to the Judiciary three times and each time formally charged with new accusations.”
“He is on hunger strike to protest these false charges and because his multiple prison sentences have not been combined [under Article 134 of Iran’s New Islamic Penal Code],” added Hassani.
Article 134 allows for only the longest sentence to be served in cases that involve convictions on multiple charges.