April 29, 2011
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT – IHRDC mourns the death of Siamak Pourzand who died in Tehran today. A journalist in the 1970s, Pourzand was seized illegally by Iranian officials in November 2001, held in a series of secret detention facilities and then forced to publicly confess to a number of serious offences he had not committed. Although suffering from a chronic illness, Pourzand spent the remainder of his life in prison or under house arrest. Despite his family’s repeated requests to allow him to travel outside Iran to receive medical care, he had been denied permission to travel abroad for further medical treatment. In 2008, IHRDC published a detailed account of his ordeal that may be found here.
We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, both in Iran and in exile, during this time of sadness, particularly to his wife, Mehranghiz Kar, exiled in the United States, and his three daughters, Lily, Azadeh, and Banafsheh who are also living in exile.