(WiPC/IFEX) – Mohammad Ja’frar Pouyandeh, an essayist and translator from French, reportedly disappeared on 9 December 1998. He left his office to attend a publishers’ meeting at about 2:00 p.m. (local time) but never arrived at the meeting. His family are reported to be gravely concerned about his safety; they visited the morgue in Tehran […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – Mohammad Ja’frar Pouyandeh, an essayist and translator from
French, reportedly disappeared on 9 December 1998. He left his office to
attend a publishers’ meeting at about 2:00 p.m. (local time) but never
arrived at the meeting. His family are reported to be gravely concerned
about his safety; they visited the morgue in Tehran on 10 December, but he
was not there.
Mohammad Ja’frar Pouyandeh was previously questioned in October 1998 along
with five other prominent Iranian writers, in connection with their
initiative to found a new Writers’ Association called Kanoun. A
Revolutionary Court questioned him along with novelist Houshang Golshiri,
poet and essayist Mohammad Moukhtari – who was found dead in suspicious
circumstances in a morgue only on 9 December – essayist Kazem Kordawani,
novelist Ali Ashraf Darwishian, and essayist Mansour Koushan (who has since
left Iran for Europe). The group were warned to cancel a meeting they had
planned to ratify the new association’s constitution.
Mohammad Moukhtari disappeared on 3 December. On 9 December, his body,
reportedly bearing marks of possible strangulation, was found in a morgue in
Tehran (See IFEX alerts of 10 December, 9 December and 7 December 1998). On
24 November, the translator and author Majid Sharif was found dead after
disappearing four days earlier (see IFEX alerts of 10 December, 8 December,
7 December and 27 November 1998).
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
Pouyandeh’s
disappearance
two weeks, and that the other two have been found dead
Appeals To
His Excellency Hojatoleslam val-moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue
Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 64 66 415 or 98 21 673 177 (via foreign affairs, ask to be
forwarded)
e-mail: iranemb@salamiran.org
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
