27/04/2012
ERBIL, April 27 (AKnews)- The U.S. called on Tehran today to release Kurdish journalist and human rights activist Mohammad Seddigh Kaboodvand along the 90 other journalists held in Iranian prisons, according to international media reports.
Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Victoria Nuland said Kaboodvand who has been reporting on "torture in Iranian prisons and the human rights violations against Iranian Kurds" has been held in detention since 2007.
Kaboodvand was charged with "acting against national security and propaganda against the state" in 2008 and sentenced to 11 years in jail.
His family said that he has suffered several heart attacks in prison.
Kaboodvand was the head of the Kurdistan Human Rights Defense Organization and director of the Payam-e Mardom (People's message) newspaper. He was arrested in 2007 and held in solitary at Evin Prison for more than six months.
In 2009, he was awarded the Hellman-Hammett international award and the annual British Press Award.
