Adnan Hassanpour (left) and Abdolvahed Botimar (right) (Photo: Defend Internat.)

Read the Interview with Dr. Roya Toloui

(Abdolvahed "Hiwa" Botimar is also known as Abdolwahed Butimar / Abdel Wahd Hiwa Butimar / Hiwa Boutimarthe)

Abdolvahed Botimar, sometime journalist and environmental activist, was arrested by Iranian authorities on 25 December 2006. His cousin, editor and journalist Adnan Hassanpour, was taken into custody exactly one month later. They were arrested in Marivan, situated in the north-western province of Kurdistan. For the first few weeks, the men were reportedly not charged.

Hassanpour and Botimar were imprisoned incommunicado in a Ministry of Intelligence facility until March 2007, when they were apparently transferred to a prison in Marivan. The men were reportedly denied access to a lawyer for four months. The circumstances of their arrest attracted immediate attention locally and internationally. In February, 20 Kurdish journalists, writers and artists issued a petition against the manner of their arrest.

Hassanpour is the former editor of Aso (Horizon), a now-defunct weekly Kurdish-Farsi journal, which was shut down by the Ministry for Culture and Islamic Guidance in August 2005 following its coverage of violent protests in Kurdistan. He has also worked as a correspondent for various foreign media, including Voice of America and Radio Farda, a U.S. government-funded radio station that broadcasts in Iran. Hassanpour primarily covered social issues and poverty amongst the Kurdish people of Iran, and was an advocate of Kurdish cultural freedom.

Hassanpour's work as a journalist was recognised with awards in 2004 and 2005 from the local government's cultural bureau (Farhang va Ershad Islami). He also acted as the managing director of the Marivan Literary Association from 2001-2004 and edited its literary magazine, Rawt. Hassanpour was 27 at the time of his arrest.

Botimar, 29, is an environmental activist and founding member of the NGO, Sabzchia (Green Mountain Society). He also wrote for Aso in the past.

Denied proper access to legal counsel and visits from their families, both Botimar and Hassanpour began a hunger strike in July 2007. In protest of the conditions of their arrest and detention, they refused to consume anything other than water mixed with a little sugar. It would be 50 days before either of them would eat solid food again.

The Iranian judiciary has denied that the two men were arrested because of their professional work, and insists they are being prosecuted for "taking up arms against the state." On 16 July 2007, two days after their hunger strike began, Hassanpour and Botimar were sentenced to death in a closed trial by the revolutionary court of Marivan. The charges included spying, "subversive activity against national security" and spreading "separatist propaganda." They were both convicted of "active armed resistance against the state." Such resistance is categorised under the vaguely-worded crime, "enmity against God" (Moharebeh), which is a capital offence.

Their case is rife with irregularities. As defence attorneys Sirvan Houshmand and Saleh Nikhbakht pointed out, the only legal basis for the case against Hassanpour was a "confession" made under physical and psychological duress in an interrogation setting. There was and is no other corroborating evidence. Also in breach of judicial norms, neither Hassanpour nor Botimar were informed that they had been sentenced to hang. They did not learn of the verdict until the next day, when a daily newspaper carried the story.

On 4 September 2007, Botimar and Hassanpour began accepting food again. They had not eaten in nearly two months. As a result of the publicised hunger strike, access to their lawyers and families reportedly improved.

An appeals court ruled on the journalists' cases on 22 October 2007. Hassanpour's death sentence was upheld, and he was found guilty of "espionage" - having allegedly "revealed the location of military sites and established contacts with the U.S. foreign affairs ministry."

Botimar's conviction, on the other hand, was overturned on the grounds of "procedural irregularities." This apparent civil rights victory proved a disappointing illusion, as Botimar's case was then sent back to the same revolutionary court where he had first been sentenced. Botimar was re-convicted in April 2008. He remains in prison, awaiting execution.

As of 4 September 2008, Hassanpour's death sentence has been overturned by a court of appeals. However, he faces a new trial on charges of "working for outlawed parties" and espionage. He faces up to 20 years in jail, reportedly a common prison term for convicts with commuted death sentences.