(RSF/IFEX) – After getting new information about the death of Ayfer Serçe, Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its appeal to the Iranian authorities to explain how she died. A Kurdish journalist with Turkish citizenship, Serçe was killed after entering northwestern Iran to report on suicides by Kurdish women in the region. “We at first thought […]
(RSF/IFEX) – After getting new information about the death of Ayfer Serçe, Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its appeal to the Iranian authorities to explain how she died. A Kurdish journalist with Turkish citizenship, Serçe was killed after entering northwestern Iran to report on suicides by Kurdish women in the region.
“We at first thought Serçe was killed by the Iranian army in Keleres, during an operation against Kurdish rebels,” the press freedom organisation said. “Now we have learned that in fact she was killed as she was heading back towards the border with a colleague after completing her reporting. We would like to be told the full truth about her death.”
When asked on 12 August, Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry foreign press director Mohammad Hussein Khoshvaght said he knew nothing about Serçe and that no one of that name had ever filed a visa request. But it was Khoshvaght who previously admitted, in a letter published in the press, that he lied about Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in 2003 as a result of blows to the head received while in custody in Tehran.
Serçe’s family has still not been able to recover her body, which was removed by the Iranian authorities from Salmas hospital after being taken there following her death. The authorities have still not issued an authorisation for the repatriation of her body.
