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Human rights defenders / Urgent Interventions / Iran / 2000 / December

Iran: Iran: arrest

URGENT ACTION — THE OBSERVATORY
IRN 004/0012/OBS 125
Arrest
IRAN
11th December 2000

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.
Brief description of the facts:
The Observatory has been informed by the Iranian League for Human Rights of the arrest of Mr Nasser Zarafchan on Saturday 9 December 2000. Mr Nasser Zarafchan is a human rights defender and the lawyer of Ms Sima Pouyandeh, who is the widow of Mohammed Djafar Pouhandeh, a writer and human rights defender abducted and assassinated in December 1998 by intelligence service agents.
This arrest had been preceded by the publication of an article in the newspaper "Jomhouri Eslami", owned by the Guide of the Islamic Republic, in which Mr Zarafchan was considered as an anti-revolutionary element who ought to be deprived of his right to practise his profession as a lawyer.
Mr Zarafchan's arrest is closely connected with his position, during conferences, on the proceedings in the case of the murders of Iranian intellectuals, which will take place next 23 December before a military tribunal. Actually, 18 agents of the intelligence service have been charged and brought before this jurisdiction for having planned and carried out these assassinations in November and December 1998.
Mr Zarafchan, as well as the other lawyers of the victims' families, have protested against the procedural irregularities and the partiality of justice, by considering on the one hand that the military tribunal is not competent according to the Iranian Constitution and, on the other hand, by claiming that the real silent partners in these assassinations have not been prosecuted.
The Observatory recalls that after the arrest of Mr Chirin Ebadi and his suspended prison sentence of 15 months, in addition to the loss of his civil rights for five years, among which the right to practise his profession as a lawyer, Mr Nasser Zarafchan is the second lawyer of the murdered intellectuals' families against whom legal action has been taken. Such actions aim to impede the lawyers' free exercise of their activities in the defence of the above-mentioned families.
Action requested:
Please write to the Iranian authorities urging them to:
i.- ensure Mister Zarafchan's physical and psychological integrity and order his immediate release if no valid charge may be hold against him or, in the opposite case, bring him before a competent and impartial tribunal guaranteeing him the right to a fair process;
ii.- ensure freedom of action for all the human rights defenders;
iii.- abide by the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the international human rights instruments ratified by Iran.


Addresses:
- President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His Excellency Mr Khatami, Fax: 98 21 67 36 57 / 64 . 66 45, E-mail: khatami@president.ir
- The Iranian Embassy in your country
Paris-Geneva, 11th December 2000
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the reference number given above.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax: + 033 (0) 1 55 80 83 92
Tel: FIDH 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 OMCT +41 22 809 49 39
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch

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Date: December 11, 2000
Activity: Human Rights Defenders
Type: Urgent Interventions
Country: Iran

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