Alireza Sepahi Laine, a well-known Kurdish journalist and poet of Northern Khorasan who was arrested on Tuesday, Nov 28, 2017, has gone on a dry food hunger strike due to his illegal arrest.
A Kurdish activist in North Khorasan confirmed Sepahi Laine’s hunger strike and told Kurdistan Human Rights network (KHRN) that “Mr Sepahi Laine has started his dry food hunger strike yesterday December 06 in protest to his illegal detention.”
“On Tuesday, Nov 28, 2017, the Prosecutor’s Office of Revolutionary and Public Court of Kalat sent a written summons to the brother of Kurdish journalist in the village of Sangdiyar. The summons had asked this Kurdish journalist to attend the court. Considering that the Kurdish poet resides in Mashhad, he had referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at Kalat Revolutionary Court on Thursday, Nov 28, after receiving notice of this summons.”, An informed source told KHRN.
Mr Nazari (Deputy Chief of Public Prosecutor’s Office) issued a bail order for this Kurdish journalist on the pretext that he had not attended the court on-time regardless of the fact that the summon was addressed to Sepahi Laine’s brother.
“Mr Sepahi Laine objected to the issue of the bail, but he was arrested and transferred to Vakil Abad Prison on the order of Mr Nazari (Deputy to Kalat Prosecutor’s Officer).”, the source continued.
According to the source, “On Saturday, Dec 2, when Laine’s family referred to submit the bail, the prosecutor told them that the case had been forwarded to one of the Interrogation Offices for further investigation. Razavi (interrogator) also refused to accept the bail request on the pretext that the bail could only be submitted after completion of the case review which will take until Tuesday noon. “
“Seyyed Jalal Fayyazi, a jury member of the press and chairman of the board of directors of the Khorasan Razavi Province Press Office, contacted with the director of the” Inak Emrouz” yesterday. Mr Fayyazi told the director of ‘Inak Emrouz’ that he had made some arrangements for the release of Laine if a civil employee refers to the Interrogation Office before 12 noon as the guarantor of Sepahi Laein. But unfortunately, when the family and colleagues of this arrested journalist referred to the Interrogation Office, the case interrogator refused to agree with Laine’s conditional release.”, the source continued.
“Mr Sepahi Laine has been on dry hunger strike since Tuesday morning in protest to his illegitimate arrest. He has been deprived of the right to visit the family since the day of detention except for one short telephone call.”, the source added.
On Wednesday, Kurdish Centre PEN of Diyarbakir issued a statement in condemnation of the Laine’s arrest and called for his immediate release.
Alireza Sepahi Laine, a well-known Kurdish journalist and poet of the north of Khorasan, has published more than 10 volumes of literary and poetic books in Kurdish and Persian languages. He was previously arrested by security forces on July 30, 2011, on charges of cooperating with an opposition party Kurdish forces. He was detained in Mashhad Intelligence Detention centre but released on bail after spending 7 months in Vakil Abad Prison.
