More than 200 Kurdish activists in detention in Iran went on a hunger strike Aug. 25 to protest their treatment and sentences imposed by authorities in Tehran.
The letter asks the international community to compel Iran to adhere to internationally recognized human rights laws in its prison system.
"The Kurdish political prisoners of conscience have been subjected to severe torture, arbitrary arrest and denied the right to an attorney," the letter said.
Published on the Web site of Iraq’s dissident Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK, the letter says Iranian authorities have monitored and harassed any dissenters in an effort to create a climate of fear in the region.
The letter demanded the immediate release of so-called prisoners of conscience and reform of the Iranian legal system. It also called on the United Nations and the international community to express their solidarity for the plight of persecuted Iranian and Kurdish peoples.
PJAK is affiliated with Iraq’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist movement recognized as a terrorist organization by several nations, including the United States.
