Iran sentences two Kurdish journalists to death

TEHRAN, July 31 (Reuters) Iran has sentenced two Kurdish dissident journalists to death for mounting an ''armed struggle against the system'', a judiciary spokesman said today.

''Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed 'Hiva' Botimar have been sentenced to death. But they have 20 days to appeal their verdicts,'' Alireza Jamshidi told a weekly news conference.

According to Iran's law, the verdict will be carried out if the Supreme Court rejects the two journalists' appeal.

When asked for more details on the case, a judiciary official said: ''They have taken arms to topple the system.'' It was not clear what they were initially arrested for or when.

Jamshidi said seven other convicted people would be executed on Wednesday for various crimes, including adultery and rape in the eastern province of Khorasan-e Razavi.

''Possibly the executions will take place in public.'' Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called the death sentences against Hassanpour and Botimar ''outrageous and shameful''.

''A Revolutionary Court in Iran's eastern Kurdish city of Marivan sentenced Hassanpour and Botimar to death on July 16,'' RSF said, adding the pair had written for a Kurdish magazine called Aso (Horizons) before it was banned in August 2005.

RSF said the death sentences ''show how little Iran is bothered by international humanitarian law. They also show how determined it is to use every possible means to silence the most outspoken journalists and human rights activists''.

Iran's rights record is criticised by the West and rights groups often report that Tehran imprisons pro-reform writers, journalists and intellectuals without due legal process.

Defying rights groups' calls to abolish the death penalty, Iran's judiciary hanged 16 men convicted for rape and other offences on July 22. Iran says it is acting on the basis of Islamic sharia law.

The hanged men were among those arrested in a crackdown on ''immoral behaviour'', during which dozens of drug addicts, smugglers, bandits and other criminals were arrested.

A newspaper said two assassins of a judge, who sentenced several reformist dissidents to jail, would be publicly hanged on Thursday.

Public hangings are rare in Iran.

''The two men will be hanged in front of the judiciary complex where they shot dead the judge two years ago,'' the Iran newspaper said.

REUTERS ARB ND1845