The family of Shirko Jahani get news of him but not where he is being held

Reporters Without Borders expressed its relief after obtaining proof that Shirko Jahani is still alive. He was given permission on 13 December 2006 to contact his mother and his wife. But the journalist, who sounded frail on the phone, was unable to give any information about his whereabouts. "As long as secret detentions are frequently synonymous with torture and ill-treatment, we fear for the safety of Shirko Jahani and urge the Iranian authorities to demonstrate openness by providing fresh information about him,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. The journalist's family, who lives in the north-west of the country, has made constant calls to local prisons to try to find out where he is, but without success. ------------------------------------------------------------- 12.12.2006 Authorities asked to prove that detained journalist is still alive Reporters Without Borders today called on the Iranian authorities to provide evidence that Shirko Jahani, a journalist who was arbitrarily imprisoned on 27 November in the northwestern city of Mahabad, is still alive. It has been unofficially reported that he died in custody. “The family has received no word from him for a week,” the press freedom organisation said. “He was initially taken to Mahabad prison and placed with ordinary detainees. Then he was transferred to an unknown location on 6 December. Now we fear the worst and demand that the authorities inform us about his state of health.” Jahani's wife told Reporters Without Borders she received a phone call today from a person describing himself as a member of the Mahabad intelligence services who said Jahani died of a heart attack after falling into a coma. A contributor to the Turkish news agency Euphrat, Jahani was summoned on 27 November to the Mahabad prosecutor's office, where he was immediately arrested on the prosecutor's orders for writing critical articles that had been published in the foreign press. Jahani also belongs to an organisation founded by fellow journalist Mohammad Sedigh Kabovand that defends human rights in the Kurdish part of Iran. After refusing to pay of bail of 5 million tumen (about 4,000 euros), he immediately went on hunger strike in protest against the arbitrary nature of his arrest.