Sherko Jihani, correspondent for the Turkish news agency Euphrat in Mahabad and member of the Human Rights Organisation of Kurdistan (HROK) was arrested on 27 November. He is been held incommunicado in an unknown location and at risk of torture and ill-treatment.

Jihani was arrrested in the town of Mahabad, in Kurdistan, northwestern Iran. He was reportedly interrogated about forming an investigative committee to object to the kidnapping on 8 January 2006 of a woman human rights activist, Sarveh Komkar (Kamkar), and for giving interviews to foreign stations about the July 2005 killing by Iranian security forces of Kurdish activist, Showan (Shivan) Qaderi. Sherko Jihani has been arrested and detained on nine occasions since 1999 during which he was allegedly subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

Sherko Jihani staged a hunger strike in protest over his detention on 30 November. Sherko Jihani's family visited him at Mahabad Central Prison, however two days later he was removed from Mahabad Prison and brought to an undisclosed location. Reports claim that he has been denied legal representation.

Front Line firmly believes that Sherko Jihani, is being detained solely because of his work in promoting and protecting human rights, in particular the rights of freedom of expression and opinion, freedom of assembly and freedom of association.

Front Line calls on the Iranian authorities to grant Sherko Jihan’s immediate and unconditional release and ensure that his treatment while in custody adheres to all those conditions set out in the ‘Basic Principles for Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by General Assembly resolution 45/111 of 14 December 1990’. Additionally, Front Line calls on the authorities to take measures to ensure that all Kurdish human rights defenders in Iran, carrying out their legitimate work in human rights, are able to operate free of all restrictions and harassment.