KurdistanObserver.com Wife of Kurdish Journalist On death-Row Speaks Tehran, 25 July (AKI) - The wife of Hiwa Boutimarthe, a dissident Kurdish journalist sentenced to death in Iran, has pleaded for her husband's life saying the court's ruling was "an error". Hiro, 19, spoke to Adnkronos International (AKI) by phone from Mariwan, a city in Iran's Kurdistan region (Eastern Kurdistan). "I want to believe that the judge has made an error since in the death sentence Hiwa is described as being single when in fact we got married three years ago", Hiro told AKI. Hiro, a university mathematics student, described the sentence as "against every humane principle" and as having "trampled on the penal code of the Islamic Republic". She said she last saw her husband when she visited him in a Mariwan prison some 10 days ago. At that stage the death sentence had not yet been delivered. Hiro, said that like her husband, she was proud of her Kurdish heritage. "Kurdistan has for centuries suffered central government injustice and repression. Every family here has at least one member who was shot for no reason other than being proud of belonging to the Kurdish nation". She said she hoped the international community would intervene to save her husband's life. “Free men cannot accept that in the 21st Century intellectuals and journalists are hanged for speaking about freedom or asking for democracy", she said.       Copyright © 2002, Kurdistan Observer