IRAN:
Open Letter to President Hassan Rouhani
Paris-Geneva, September 28, 2018
RE: Stop the persecution of human rights defenders
Mr. President,
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership
of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), is writing to you to
express its deepest concern over the ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests,
prosecutions, persecution and judicial harassment of human rights defenders in
Iran, including women’s rights defenders.
The Observatory is particularly concerned over the arrest of Mr. Reza
Khandan, human rights activist and husband of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh; Ms. Rezvaneh Mohammadi, Ms. Hoda Amid,
Ms. Najmeh Vahedi and Ms. Maryam Azad, four women’s rights
defenders involved in various campaigns for the defence of women’s rights,
including against the imposition of the hijab; and of Mr. Farhad Mayssami,
also involved in the promotion of human rights and opposition to the imposition
of the hijab.
Mr. Reza Khandan
Mr. Reza Khandan was arrested on September 4, 2018, at his home in
Tehran by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and subsequently taken to
Branch 7 of the Prosecutor’s Office in the capital’s Evin prison. He was
detained on charges of “gathering and colluding against national security”
(Article 610 of the Penal Code), “spreading propaganda against the system”
(Article 500 of the Penal Code), and propagating and promoting disregard for
hijab in the society. The Prosecutor’s Office ordered him to deposit bail to
the amount of 7,000 million Iranian rial (approximately 55,000 Euros). To date,
Mr. Reza Khandan has refused to pay the bail, arguing that he did not commit
any offence, and remains detained in Evin prison.
Mr. Reza Khandan has been consistently raising human rights concerns,
including the imprisonment of human rights defenders and the prosecution of
women who have campaigned against the imposition of the hijab. He had
previously been arrested several times, including on June 13, 2018 for a few
hours, while protesting the arbitrary detention of his wife, human rights
lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, in front of Evin prison.
Ms. Rezvaneh Mohammadi
Ms. Rezvaneh Mohammadi was arrested on September
3, 2018, at her home in Tehran by the security forces of the Islamic Revolution
Guards Corps (IRGC) and taken to the IRGC-run Section 2A, within Evin prison.
Her phone and other electronic devices were confiscated and her family was not
informed of her whereabouts for two days. The authorities did not provide a
reason for her arrest and she has since been denied
family visits.
Ms. Rezvaneh Mohammadi is a gender
studies student who has been promoting gender equality online and participating
in gender equality workshops. This is not the first time she suffers judicial
harassment. A few months ago, Ms. Rezvaneh Mohammadi was also arrested by the
Gorgan city morality police force for not wearing “Islamic clothing”. She was
held for one night in a police detention centre and released on bail. She was
then acquitted by the Gorgan city court.
Ms.
Hoda Amid and Ms. Najmeh Vahedi
Human
rights lawyer and women’s rights defender Ms. Hoda
Amid, was arrested on September 1, 2018, at her home in Tehran. Ms. Najmeh
Vahedi, another women’s rights defender, was also
arrested a few hours later on the same day. The authorities did not provide
reasons for their arrests. The two women’s rights defenders are known for
jointly organising educational workshops on topics related to marriage, women’s
rights and the legal status of women in Iran. They have been involved in
various campaigns for the defence of women’s rights. They are being held
incommunicado in the IRGC-run Section 2A of Evin prison. Ms. Vahedi spent the first 10 days of her
detention in solitary confinement. The authorities have not
disclosed the charges against the two women, who have also been denied access
to lawyers. While Ms. Vahedi has been allowed once to meet her mother, Ms. Amid
has been denied family visits to this date.
Ms.
Maryam Azad
A women
human rights defender very active in the promotion of gender equality from the
city of Shiraz, Ms. Maryam Azad was arrested on September 25, 2018, after she
boarded a flight at Tehran airport bound
for Turkey. The authorities did not provide any reasons for her arrest or
disclose charges against her. She is believed to be under incommunicado
detention with no access to lawyer in Ward 2A within Evin prison.
Mr. Farhad Mayssami
Mr. Farhad Mayssami was arrested on
July 31, 2018, at his office in Tehran, following an order of the Prosecutor’s
Office Branch 2 and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence-run Ward 209 within
Evin prison. On August 1, Mr. Mayssami started a hunger strike to protest
against his detention. He was kept in solitary confinement for 20 days before
being transferred to a dormitory ward. A friend of Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mr.
Farhad Mayssami was arrested for being in possession of copies of two books -
“Small Acts of Resistance” by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson, and a book on
human rights translated by Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, a translator and writer
assassinated by Ministry of Intelligence agents in 1998 – and a number of
badges reading “I am opposed to forced hijab.” He has been charged with
“gathering and colluding against national security” (Article 610 of the Penal
Code), “spreading propaganda against the system” (Article 500 of the Penal
Code), and insulting the hijab as one of the essential sanctities of Islam. Mr.
Mayssami was not given access to a lawyer and the authorities refused to allow
Mr. Arash Kaykhosravi to act as his lawyer, before the latter was
arrested in front of the Parliament on August 18, 2018.[1]
The authorities have also refused to allow another lawyer of his choosing, Mr.
Mohammad Moqimi, to have access to him. Mr. Mayssami is reportedly still on a
hunger strike and his health is deteriorating. On September 26, 2018, he was
forcibly transferred by force to Evin prison’s clinic and is being kept incommunicado.
The Observatory calls on you to ensure
the immediate and unconditional release of the aforementioned human rights
defenders. In the meantime, Iranian authorities should guarantee their physical
and psychological integrity. The Observatory also calls on you to instruct the
relevant authorities to cease the repression and prosecution of all human
rights defenders in Iran.
Lastly, the Observatory urges you to ensure that authorities conform to
the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1998, to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and to all other international human rights
instruments to which the country is a state party.
We thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Yours sincerely,
Dimitris
Christopoulos Gerald
Staberock
FIDH President OMCT Secretary
General
The Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by
FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this
programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights
defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by
international civil society.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency
line:
·
E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org
·
Tel and fax FIDH +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80
·
Tel and fax OMCT +41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / +41 22 809 49 29
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