PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee is seriously concerned about the arrest of literary translator and poet Mohammad Soleimani Nia, who has been held without charge since 10 January 2012. The reason for his detention is not known. PEN is seeking further information about his well-being and any charges against him as a matter of urgency, and it calls for his immediate and unconditional release if held solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.

According to PEN’s information, Mohammad Soleimani Nia, aged 39, was detained on 10 January 2012 after responding to a summons to report to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. After arriving at court, he was accompanied by security guards to his home in Karaj, outside Tehran, which he shares with his parents. The guards searched the house and seized computer equipment and documents before taking him away.
According to a source close to his family, Soleimani Nia has been under pressure since late November 2011, when he was questioned by security and intelligence officers and banned from leaving Iran. According to Iranian American writer Firoozeh Dumas, who worked closely with Soleimani Nia on the translation of her book Funny in Farsi, he had been developing a website similar to ‘LinkedIn’ designed to help Iranians find work. No information about his whereabouts or any charges against  him have been made known, although his family fear that he is being held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison, notorious for its harsh conditions. There are mounting concerns for his well -being.

Please send appeals:

• Protesting the detention of literary translator and poet Mohammad Soleimani Nia;
• Calling for his immediate and unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory;
• Seeking assurances of his well-being in detention.

Filed under: Blog Tagged: Evin Prison, Iran, Urgent Action ]]> http://1millionvoices.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/urgent-action-appeal-iran-translator-and-poet-arrested/feed/ 0 lissnup Nia Soleimani http://1millionvoices.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/rights-groups/ http://1millionvoices.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/rights-groups/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:42:02 +0000 lissnup http://1millionvoices.wordpress.com/?p=935 ]]> In a statement issued 3 Feb 2012, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which includes the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights, urge the international community to take a much firmer stance on respect for human rights in Iran by raising this essential issue in the talks currently under way with the country’s authorities.

The involvement of RSF usually has the effect of focusing on journalists or bloggers who have been sentenced to death, and the statement does urge the EU and the international community to publicly condemn the unacceptable treatment that imprisoned journalists and netizens receive, but also expresses support for the appeal that 39 political prisoners, journalists and intellectuals issued on 25 January, calling for the release of all prisoners of conscience including the leaders of the protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

The One Million Voices for Iran Campaign welcomes any and all calls for action to release those unjustly imprisoned in Iran, regardless of their sentence or their occupation. To date, discussions about human rights abuses and violations against prisoners of conscience in Iran have taken place on the sidelines of meetings to discuss economic or nuclear development issues. 

Saeed Malekpour

Farsnews, an Iranian news agency, reported on 29 January 2012 that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence that was passed on Saeed Malekpour, a computer specialist and Canadian resident. Farsnews also published a communiqué by the Centre for the Surveillance of Organized Crime expressing “satisfaction” with the Supreme Court’s decision. Malekpour’s execution is believed to be imminent.

Two other netizens, information technology student Vahid Asghari and website administrator Ahmadreza Hashempour have also had their death sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court in the past few days.

A fourth netizen, Mehdi Alizadeh, a website developer and humorist who was arrested for the second time in March 2011 in connection with his satirical posts, has just learned that he has been sentenced to death by Abolghasem Salevati, the head of a revolutionary court.

“We call on the international community to intercede directly with the Iranian authorities on behalf of these four netizens and to request the acquittal and release of all imprisoned journalists and bloggers,” the three human rights organizations said. “The issue of respect for fundamental rights must at the same time be raised during the ongoing economic and scientific discussions.”

These four netizens, aged from 25 to 40, are the victims of machinations by the Centre for the Surveillance of Organized Crime, an entity that was created illegally by the Revolutionary Guards in 2008. In March 2009, this centre announced the dismantling of a “malevolent” Internet network and the arrests of several website moderators, whose photos and “confessions” were published a few days later by the Gerdab website and other outlets.

Under torture, they admitted to having links with websites that criticize Islam and the Iranian government and to having intended to “mislead” Iranian youth by distributing pornographic content. They were also forced to confess to participating in a plot backed by the United States and Israel.

The detainees were placed in solitary confinement for long periods – more than a year in some cases – and the confessions obtained under torture were used against them at their trials. Malekpour and Asghari described how they were tortured during interrogations in letters to the judges in charge of their cases. At the same time, their defence lawyers were unable to meet with them or have access to their case files.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime minister and owner of the closed newspaper Kalameh Sabaz, his wife, writer and intellectual Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karoubi, the former Speaker of Parliament and owner of the closed newspaper Etemad Melli, have been under house arrest since 24 February 2011. Karoubi’s wife, Fatemeh Karoubi (the editor of the magazine Iran Dokhte), who was arrested at the same time as him, was finally released in September.

Mousavi, Rahnavard and Mehdi Karoubi have been deprived of all their rights for nearly a year. Their relatives have not been able to visit them for months and are very worried about their state of health.

“The Islamic Republic must bring this unacceptable state of affairs to an end. Arbitrary arrest and the holding of political prisoners incommunicado violate international law. Such practices are tantamount to enforced disappearance, yet are widely and frequently practised by the authorities.”

via Rights groups urge international community to press Iran to end violations – FIDH.

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European Union (Photo credit: erjkprunczyk)

European Union governments could ban the sales of some telecommunications equipment to Iran in the coming months under plans for new sanctions discussed by EU experts in Brussels.

EU diplomats said on Friday the bloc’s 27 governments have reached an agreement in principle to target equipment that could be used by the Iranian authorities for monitoring of anti-government dissent.

The new round of sanctions could also raise the number of officials affected by asset freezes and visa bans under the EU’s program to target human rights abuses in the country.

Diplomats stressed that the measures were separate from EU efforts to ratchet up pressure against Tehran over its disputed nuclear program with sanctions against its oil industry and financial sector.

“There is a political deal to include in the next round of sanctions a mechanism to ban the purchase and sale of telecommunications equipments which could be used to carry out interceptions or to spy,” one EU diplomat said.

Discussions on the measures at an expert level will continue in the coming weeks, diplomats said, and there was no target date yet for reaching a final agreement or for implementation.

One diplomat said the EU could try to introduce the new package in April, when an initial round of sanctions related to human rights abuses comes up for renewal.

But others said there were still disagreements among some EU members states over which officials could be included.

The EU already has imposed sanctions against 61 Iranian officials under its human rights sanctions program. Some capitals are cautious about extending the list given concerns as to whether there is sufficient evidence to name individuals.

Iran has come under increased criticism from the United Nations in recent months over human rights violations.

The U.N. General Assembly’s rights committee passed a resolution in November expressing concerns about incidents of torture, excessive use of the death penalty, discrimination against women, and persecution of journalists and religious minorities.

U.S. lawmakers also are considering a bid to force President Barack Obama’s administration to blacklist Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as human rights abusers and ban companies from supplying Iran with equipment – including telecommunications equipment – used to commit human rights abuses. Neither man is targeted by the EU.

via America and Europe Planning More Human Rights Sanctions on Iran.

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(New York) – Iranian authorities should immediately release dozens of labor and independent trade union activists imprisoned for speaking out peacefully in defense of workers, Human Rights Watch said today. Convictions solely for the peaceful exercise of freedom of association and assembly should be quashed, and charges should be dropped against others facing prosecution for these reasons, Human Rights Watch said.

Alireza Akhavan

The latest round of arrests took place in Iran’s Tehran, East Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces. The authorities summoned four activists in mid-January 2012 to begin serving long sentences imposed in 2011. On January 28, authorities arrested Alireza Akhavan, a teacher and labor rights activist, in his home in Tehran. It is not know where he is currently being held.

Mohammad Jarahi

On January 18, security forces arrested Mohammad Jarahi in his home in Tabriz. Three days earlier, intelligence agents arrested Shahrokh Zamani, another Tabriz labor rights leader, and summoned two others also in Tabriz. Authorities also arrested Sheis Amani, a prominent rights activist and member of an independent trade union in the city of Sanandaj on January 16. Earlier in the month authorities detained Mehdi Farahi Shandiz and transferred to Ward 350 of Evin prison in Tehran. All those arrested are labor activists or members of independent trade unions not authorized by the government.

Shahrokh Zamani

“Independent trade unions have played a critical role in protecting workers’ rights under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This latest round of arrests continues a long and ugly tradition of targeting independent trade unions to enforce full state control over these groups.”

Sheys Amani

Authorities initially arrested Zamani on June 7, 2011, in connection with his activities as a member of an independent painters’ syndicate and a board member of the Committee to Pursue the Establishment of Labor Unions. Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Tabriz sentenced him to 11 years in prison for “participating in the organization of an unlawful group opposing the state … with the aim of disrupting national security by way of workers’ strikes and armed rebellion,” “assembly and collusion to further illegal activities,” and “propaganda against the regime.”

Mehdi Farahi Shandiz

In the same case, the court sentenced Jarahi, who was arrested on June 20, to five years in prison for organizing an “unlawful” group called the Democratic Workers Movement, and Nima Pouryaghoub to five years on the same charge plus an additional year for “propaganda against the regime.” Sasan Vahebivash was sentenced to six months for related activities. Pouryaghoub and Vahebivash are engineering students at Tabriz’s Azad University.

Authorities freed the four defendants after they posted bail, but, in November 2011, Branch 6 of the East Azerbaijan appeals’ court confirmed the original sentences handed down by the trial court. Authorities did not summon the defendants to serve their prison terms until this year.

Sasan Vahebivash

According to Iranian media reports, Amani, a prominent labor rights activist in Sanandaj (Kurdistan province) and a board member of the Iran Free Workers’ Union (IFWU), was arrested after he went to the prosecutor’s office in Sanandaj to inquire about the status of two other activists who had been detained earlier in January.

Nima Pouryaghoub

Human Rights Watch is concerned about the well-being of several other prominent labor and trade union activists currently serving prison sentences, including Reza Shahabi, Ali Nejati, Ebrahim Madadi, and Behnam Ebrahimzadeh.

Madadi is vice-president and Shahabi is treasurer of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (SWTSBC). Madadi is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence on charges of endangering national security. Shahabi was arrested on June 12, 2010.

Reza Shahabi

A revolutionary court in Tehran tried him of endangering national security and “propaganda against the state” on May 25, 2011, but there has been no ruling in his case yet.

Ali Nejati

According to a source familiar with his case, Shahabi spent 18 months in Tehran’s Evin prison without charge, including several months in solitary confinement, and suffers from serious neck and back pain. Shahabi is in Imam Khomeini hospital in Tehran after ending a 30-day hunger strike on December 22 to protest his detention and the authorities’ refusal to provide proper medical care.

Ebrahim Madadi

Two other activists, Ali Nejati and Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, who are serving one and five-year prison terms, respectively, on national security charges related to their independent trade union activities, also suffer from serious medical conditions. According to information received by Human Rights Watch, both Nejati and Ebrahimzadeh asked for long-term furloughs from prison so they could seek proper medical care, but judicial officials have denied their requests.

Nejati is a former president and current board member of the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Syndicate (HTSCW), and is in Ahvaz’s Dezful prison in southwest Iran. Ebrahimzadeh is in Evin prison.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh

The IFWU and the bus workers’ and sugar cane workers’ unions, are among the largest and most active independent trade unions in Iran. Iran’s labor law does not recognize the right to create labor unions independent of government-sanctioned groups. Since 2005, authorities have repeatedly harassed, summoned, arrested, convicted, and sentenced workers who are affiliated with these independent trade unions and harassed their families.

Mansour Osanloo

Most of these arrests have taken place during International Workers’ Day celebrations or strikes the unions have called, often for back wages that have not been paid for months. Mansour Osanlou, the current president of the bus workers’ group, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “acting against the national security” and “propaganda against the state” following several arrests between 2005 and 2007. Authorities allowed Osanlou to leave Evin prison in June after he had served about four years of his sentence, but could still summon him to serve the rest. Human Rights Watch called on the judiciary to quash Osanlou’s sentence.

Independent unions have protested amendments to the current labor law introduced by President Ahmadinejad. The amendments, currently being reviewed by Iran’s parliament, make it easier for employers to fire workers and reduce workers’ benefits such as annual vacation days.

Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and Article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) protect the right to form and join labor unions. Iran is a signatory to both of these treaties. Iran is also a member of International Labour Organization (ILO), but has so far refused to sign covenants 87 (Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organize Convention) and 98 (Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention) of the ILO treaty.

“Labor activists have been at the forefront of the struggle for freedom of association and assembly in Iran, and they have paid a heavy price,” Stork said. “Iranian law should recognize the right to organize independent unions and release activists who have committed no crime other than representing the interests of their constituents.”

via Iran: New Arrests of Labor Activists | Human Rights Watch.

https://creator.zoho.com/servisis/ipi/record-summary/Iran_Prisoner_List/236584000000311511/

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Marzieh Rasouli

The judicial authorities in Iran have arrested at least half a dozen journalists and bloggers over the past few weeks, according to their acquaintances, opposition Web sites and rights groups. The moves appear to be part of a pre-emptive campaign of intimidation to thwart protests surrounding the parliamentary elections that are scheduled to be held in early March.

It also was unclear what specific charges, if any, had been lodged against those who were arrested. None seem to have been politically active or to have published anything that might be considered seditious since the last major Iranian government crackdown on free expression in February 2011. At that time, the authorities arrested a large number of journalists as part of what turned out to be a successful effort to subvert any ambition by Iran’s largely silenced political opposition to celebrate the revolutions that were then sweeping Tunisia and Egypt.

The government “can’t come out publicly and name them or charge them with anything, because they can’t justify why they’re holding them,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, an advocacy group in New York that has researched the arrests, adding that the journalists and bloggers were “prominent enough that the news will get around quickly and intimidate others.”

Parastou Dokouhaki

Friends of the two arrested women, Parastoo Dokouhaki and Marzieh Rasouli, have started aWeb site to publicize their situation. Ms. Dokouhaki, a rights activist whose blog, Written by a Woman, attracted a wide following, has been held in Evin Prison in Tehran since Jan. 15, when agents raided her home and confiscated her laptop computer and other items. In a posting on Tuesday, the Web site said that Ms. Dokouhaki’s family had been told by prosecutors that she was in “temporary detention,” a catchall term that could leave her incarcerated indefinitely.

The site said that Ms. Rasouli, an award-winning literary and cultural journalist and social blogger who once worked for the Iranian Student News Agency as well as reformist newspapers, was arrested Jan. 17. Apparently, the site said, someone later used her seized laptop and e-mail account to send messages to friends that word of her arrest was a “mere rumor,” heightening the concern about her. She too was taken to Evin Prison, the site said, but unlike Ms. Dokouhaki, she had not been permitted to call her family.

A third journalist, Sahamoddin Bouraghani, who was the national press director for the Ministry of Culture during the tenure of a former president, the reformist Mohammad Khatami, was arrested Jan. 17 as well, rights activists said.

At least three more journalists were arrested the previous week, activists said, including Fatemeh Kheradmand, a freelance health and social reporter; Ehsan Houshmandzadeh, an ethnic researcher; and Said Madani, a former university professor who edited Social Welfare, a quarterly journal. The Committee to Project Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group that has called Iran one of the most repressive countries for press freedom, with at least 42 journalists imprisoned in 2011, said last week that it had documented the arrests of at least seven journalists there since Jan. 7.

“Tehran is sending a message to the opposition media that dissent will be treated with a heavy hand,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the group’s program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. “Not only are Iranian authorities detaining more journalists, but they also persist in mistreating those who have spent time in official custody.”

Human Rights Watch, in an annual appraisal issued last Sunday, said that Iran “imprisoned more journalists and bloggers than any other country” in 2011, and that Iran’s judiciary “works hand in hand with security and intelligence forces to harass, imprison and convict opposition and rights activists.”

Top law enforcement officials in Iran have issued cryptic warnings in recent weeks about hidden enemies they say are scheming to make trouble during the parliamentary election, which is scheduled for March 2. But they have not identified any by name or talked about the arrests of specific individuals.

The election will be the first time that Iran’s conservative Islamic hierarchy will face what amounts to a national plebiscite since the 2009 presidential election.

The official results announced then showed the conservative incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, winning by a suspiciously lopsided margin; his two major opponents, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, said the voting had been rigged. Both opponents have been under house arrest for nearly a year.

Even so, they have managed to get messages to followers telling them to boycott the elections. A low turnout in March would be an acute embarrassment for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who has described Iran as the Middle East’s only true democracy.

Activists said it was particularly troubling that none of the latest journalists to be arrested had written anything politically provocative. Ms. Dokouhaki’s last blog post, on Dec. 31, for example, was an emotional narrative about her inability to cope with the death of her father. According to Mr. Ghaemi, Ms. Rasouli “was never politically active and never wrote about political affairs.”

Some speculated that they were arrested because they knew how to navigate their way around the Internet and to transmit information to their circles of friends abroad.

Ms. Dokouhaki studied at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, where she received a master’s degree in media studies in 2007 and became acquainted with researchers and translators for the BBC’s Persian service, which the Iranian government has vilified as an agent of subversion and imperialist arrogance. Ms. Rasouli also had a large number of contacts outside Iran.

Mehrad Vaezinejad, a contributor to the BBC and a friend of both women, said by telephone from London that the timing of the arrests so close to the election and the dearth of official information reflected the judicial authorities’ dual purposes. “One was to make reporting inside the country very difficult during the 2012 elections,” he said. “Two was to make an example out of Marzieh and Parastou and instill fear in the hearts of potential citizen-journalists or political activists.”

via Iran Steps Up Arrests of Journalists and Bloggers – NYTimes.com.

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Reblogged from Laaska News:

© Flickr.com/Truthout.org/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0       The US has slapped sanctions on three foreign energy companies doing business with Iran as part of its effort to put more economic pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program, Reuters reports. …

More economic sanctions against companies dealing with Iran, whatever happened to he idea of focusing on human rights based sanctions?

In 2009, in the aftermath of elections that saw Ahmadinejad’s return to power as president, millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the result. But the demonstrations were brutally repressed and the hopes of the “green revolutionaries” dashed.

Since then Iran has closed itself off to international media, making it difficult to determine what happened to the many thousands of dissidents arrested and imprisoned during the protests, or the current scale of political opposition to the regime.

Yet this film reveals that opposition is still alive and kicking and just as eager for change as before. Letters from Iran paints a fascinating portrait of the aftermath of the Green Revolution and a country holding its breath.
Letters from Iran – YouTube.

Roxana Saberi
Oct. 6, 2011

Ms. Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist detained in Iran’s Evin Prison in 2009, is the author of “Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran” (HarperCollins, 2010).

Roxana Saberi – Official Website.

Masih: “Hello Mr. Shahid. I have studied your report and as a reporter who has interviewed the families of the slain in the past two years, I believe that real reporters were those who were sending out information from inside Iran; people like Parvin Fahimi, the mother of Sohrab Arabi who was killed on June 15, 2009 during a peaceful demonstration. She was the first woman who transmitted the news about the killing of her son from inside Iran. I would like to ask your permission to call her so that she can ask the first question from you as a real reporter.

Parvin Fahimi: “I am the mother of Sohrab Arabi, one of the people killed in the aftermath of the presidential election in Iran in June 2009. My son along with many other children of this land participated in a peaceful civil protest. They were killed by the Basij and Revolutionary Guards forces.
After many inquiries, I was finally able to receive the body of my son after 26 days! I would like to ask regime officials what crime did my son commit to deserve being killed? and why is it that Mr. Larijani who is the head of judiciary in Iran claims that only one person was killed in the aftermath of the presidential election? And the president, Mr. Ahmadinejad says that only a few were killed and they were from the Basij and security forces!
But the pictures, films and documents printed all point to the fact that our youngsters were being murdered. Why does the judiciary refrain from holding a public hearing? and why do they always stop us from mourning the death of our children? Dear Mr. Ahmad Shahid, my expectations are that you pay closer attention to those who died after the election. And when you come to Tehran, please pay a visit to us and the families of the dead.
‪When our voices do not get anywhere in our own country, we are forced to take refuge with the United Nations and shout about seeking justice for our children. This is to prevent the repeat of this type of irresponsible actions both in Iran and in other places around the world; and no injustice is done against innocent people. Mr. Shahid, I have promised to forgive my son’s blood if all political prisoners and Mr. Mousavi, Mrs. Rahnavard and Mr. Karoubi are freed.‬
I shall let God to carry out justice for the crimes committed against me and my son. I wish peace for all people around the world.

Ahmad Shahid: “I thank you very much for the opportunity to hear a question directly from Tehran. Yes if I get to travel to Tehran, I would be very interested to meet with families of those who lost their lives after the June 2009 election. I would like to find out more about their condition in Iran.
Of course there are other people I would like to meet as well but I would definitely want to meet with the families of those who lost their lives after the presidential election in 2009. Regarding the other part of her question, I must say that yes there are problems and challenges regarding Iran’s judiciary. My report has also pointed out that there are many issues with Iran’s judiciary.

Iran must act transparently regarding this matter. My report is not a complete document. This report is only a sample of issues of concern. This report is not all encompassing. The report is a tool to force Iran to open the doors to the United Nations so we can do more investigation regarding the human rights situation in Iran.
So my response to her is yes I would very much like to meet the families of those who lost their lives and to hear first hand information from these families. Their worries are also my worries.

Masih: “I would like you to hear the second question from another family member of someone who was killed after the presidential election”

Second Witness: “Hello, I am very happy that finally at least one person is willing to listen to our stories. I am the spouse of Ali Hassanpour who was killed on June 15, 2009. They did not return the body of my husband for 105 days! I would like to ask you now that we cannot meet you in Tehran, is it possible that we could talk to you on the phone directly  so that we can present to you all the documents we have? These are documents that have been certified by judges in my own country. They have testified that my husband has been shot by a gun belonging to the Basij. Is it possible for us to make a trip to the U.N. to meet you in person; can you guarantee our safety; or is there another way for us to present our documents to you?

Ahmad Shahid: “My response to her is yes. There are ways for her to present details of her situation to me using email, skype and other means. But what I cannot guarantee is her safety because I am outside the country and of course we are in a situation where most regime officials are threatening, harassing, intimidating and in some instances injuring those who spread the news. These are problems. But there are ways to contact me. But I would be happy to create the avenues for these families to contact me.
They can contact me through email. My offices are in Geneva and New York. It’s correct that I will not have the opportunity to travel to Iran in the near future. But I am very interested to gather more information to do more research and to shine a light on the truth. I will report to the council and when I report to them they might decide to do more investigations on certain subjects.
That’s their choice. I must say that I am very open to the idea of families of the slain to travel to Europe. I would be happy to meet them in Geneva or any other country. But I really cannot guarantee their safety. Unfortunately none of the special rapporteurs are able to guarantee that.

They cannot protect people of Iran inside their own country. We can take their information anonymously. Also it would be great to get the coroner’s office reports. I need such documents to include in my report and to give to member countries of the U.N.

Iran’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Eshagh al-Habib, on Thursday denied allegations in a recent UN report that human rights violations in Iran are on the rise. Al-Habib criticized the report for being poorly sourced, non-neutral and simply untrue. The report cited an increase in persecutions among political activists and journalists, detention conditions for opposition leaders and their wives, the torture and mistreatment of detainees, the significant administration of the death penalty to people under 18 years of age and “exorbitant bail requirements” for human rights defenders and religious practitioners. However, UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Ahmed Shaheed, the author of the report, stated that he was encouraged by Iran’s willingness to cooperate with him  and that Iran “needs to be seen in a better light.” He further focused on the need to maintain dialogue with Iran’s political leaders in order to improve conditions in the country. The US issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing Iran’s “‘intensified’ campaign of abuse” : “Under international law and its own constitution, Iran has committed to protect and defend the rights of its people, but officials continue to stifle all forms of dissent, persecute religious and ethnic minorities, harass and intimidate human rights defenders, and engage in the torture of detainees.”

Iran has been heavily criticized for its alleged human rights abuses. Jailed Iranian journalist Isa Saharkhiz in July urged  Shaheed to investigate prison conditions in Iran. In May, rights groups decried [JURIST report] Iran’s persecution of lawyers. In January, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran [official website] claimed that Iran is on an “execution binge” , killing one prisoner every eight hours. In January, prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Sotoudeh was found guilty of “acting against national security” and “making propaganda against the system” for which she will serve five and one years, respectively. She was the lawyer for Arash Rahmanipour, who was arrested for his role in the post-election protests on charges of moharebeh, or being an enemy of God. Rahmanipour was executed in January 2010. Also in January, Iranian chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi delivered a speech at Tehran University indicating that he would prosecute opposition leaders for political unrest that took place after the country’s 2009 presidential election.

via JURIST – Paper Chase: Iran denies UN report on increasing human rights violations.