THE HILL    |    BY VERNON BREWER    |    11/3/2019

Every year, on the first Sunday of November, churches across America dedicate a time during their services to pray for their Christian brothers and sisters who live in countries where they cannot practice their faith freely. This year, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church falls on Nov. 3.

Religious persecution – particularly against Christians – is at an all-time high. More than 245 million Christians live in countries where they experience high levels of persecution, according to Open Doors. But there are a few countries where the level of harassment and hostility is so intense that they’re classified as places of extreme persecution. One of these places is Iran.

While America’s conflict with Iran has generated concerns about the possibility of war in the Persian Gulf, few people are talking about the fact that Iran is one of the worst persecutors of Christians in the world.

Open Doors has listed Iran in its top 10 most dangerous countries for Christians for nearly a decade. Pew Research, in a recent report, also lists Iran as having one of the highest levels of government restrictions on religion in the world.

Being a Christian in Iran automatically puts a person’s life at risk, but it’s particularly dangerous for Iranians who have converted from Islam to Christianity. They have to live their faith secretly, pretending they are faithful Muslims when in reality they are Christians. These believers cannot go to one of the few churches the Iranian government has given limited permission to operate; they cannot hold services in Persian; they have to meet in secret to avoid attracting authorities.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has cataloged Christianity as an existential threat to the nation. In fact, the Iranian regime fears Christianity so much that Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Avali, recently expressed concern over Iranians who are becoming Christians.

Describing the threat, he said, “These converts are ordinary people whose jobs are selling sandwiches or similar things,” suggesting these are uneducated people, vulnerable to Christian “propaganda.”

The minister’s view is shared by other leaders in Iran. One of the members of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, which advises Iran’s Supreme Leader, in an interview with an Iranian news agency said, “No sane person abandons the pure religion of Islam. … The only reason for this deviation to Christianity is poverty.”

But when the government asked some of these converts why they chose Christianity, they received an unexpected answer: “We had no choice but to summon them to ask them why they were converting,” the intelligence minister recounted. “Some of them said they were looking for a religion that gives them peace.”

What Iran’s leaders might not realize is that when the Iranian Revolution ushered in an era of Islamic dominance, it also triggered a Christian revolution. Church historians point to an explosive growth of Christianity in Iran since the revolution.

Although it’s hard to determine exactly how many Christians are in Iran, given that most must keep their religious identity secret, it’s estimated there could be as many as 800,000 Iranian believers. Mark Bradley, who has written about Christianity in Iran, says that more Iranians have become Christians in the past 25 years than in the past 13 centuries combined. 

Today, Iran has one of the fastest-growing Christian communities in the world, and there are not enough Bibles to meet the demand.

To a Christian living in a country with extensive restrictions on religion, there’s nothing more precious than a Bible. We have heard stories of Iranian Christians who copy portions of the Bible by hand so they can share it with others. Others give the only precious copy of the New Testament they own to someone they believe needs hope, while others access the Bible through encrypted mobile apps so the government won’t be able to track them.

The Iranian regime has gone to great lengths to prevent people from having access to the Bible. The government even has begun throttling internet speeds and prohibiting people from owning satellite dishes so they cannot access Christian literature and TV programming, according to a country profile prepared by Open Doors.

About 12 years ago, World Help started working in Iran to distribute Bibles. Our donors helped fund a new Persian translation of the New Testament, which we help print and secretly distribute through a trusted network. Our partner recently completed a translation of the entire Bible, which has created increased excitement and demand among the underground church.

People often ask us why we provide Bibles to Christians in persecuted countries, especially when owning a Bible can get Christians in serious trouble with the authorities. I’ll let a believer from Iran answer that question. He said to our partners, “When I had the opportunity to read the Bible, I found true hope. We pray we can share the Good News with more Iranians desperate for hope.”

To Christians in Iran, North Korea and other countries where they face fierce persecution, the Bible is not simply a lifeless, religious text to be studied or memorized. It is a source of hope in the middle of darkness.

As we take time to pray for persecuted believers across the world today, I hope we will remember these Christians, pray for them and commit to do everything we can to help them practice their faith freely and without fear of retaliation.

Vernon Brewer is the founder of World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization serving the physical and spiritual needs of people in impoverished communities around the world. Since its inception in 1991, World Help has delivered humanitarian aid to people in 71 countries. Follow him @vernonbrewer.

 

New York, October 22, 2019 – Association of Iranian Americans in New York strongly condemns irresponsible and grossly inaccurate reporting by NBC News in an article published about the Iranian resistance on October 17, 2019.  Apart from flawed reporting, the article purports to expose activities of the main Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-Khalgh Organization of Iran (MEK) is in fact nothing but an attempt by Iranian regime apologists intent on hiding their desire to defend the religious tyrants ruling Iran. 
The article quotes Daniel Benjamin and other regime apologist who have for years made baseless allegations and assertions, which have failed legal U.S. justice system’s comprehensive review.  NBC News reporting, truly unfortunate and an abject betrayal of fundamental journalistic principles, as it willfully whitewashes Iranian regime’s terrorist operations across the globe and its human rights record, choosing instead to demonize the regime’s democratic alternative and the honorable Americans who support them.
This and other biased NBC reports, including its distorted account of a June 2018 terror plot against Iranian opposition and our community members in Paris, establish at a minimum an unacceptable perversion of democracy and potentially a direct cooperation with the regime in Tehran.  
We are appalled of NBC’s not so subtle willingness to tow Ayatollahs’ false narrative and in the process put in further danger, the lives of the innocent in Iran.  Indeed, Iranian regime and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) quickly broadcast this regime friendly report on their restricted airways, using it to bolster their oppression apparatus. 
With such reports, the NBC is shamefully serving and regrettably strengthening a regime, which boasts world’s highest per-capita execution rate and is globe’s number one state sponsor of terrorism. Instead of such garbage, the NBC bears responsibility to write also on what Amnesty International has aptly called, Iranian regimes’ “blood-soaked secrets,” which are “ongoing crimes against humanity.”  Unfortunately with their actions thus far, Daniel Benjamin, NBC, and other Iran apologists are weakening America, compromising its security, and enabling continued murder of the innocent in Iran. 
We again submit that the palpable threat to Americans, the region, and the Iranian people is the dictatorial regime in Iran. While stressing our respect for honorable journalism as a pillar of democracy, we call on policymakers and concerned citizens to examine the details of NBC’s apparent relationship with the Iranian dictatorship.

Reporters Without Borders    |    Aug 26, 2019

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by a new wave of arrests and interrogations of women journalists since the start of August in Iran. The Islamic Republic is now the world’s biggest jailer of women journalists, with a total of ten currently held.

“Already one of the world’s five biggest jailers of journalists, Iran is now holding more women in connection with their journalistic activities than any other country in the world,” said Reza Moini, the head of RSF’s Iran/Afghanistan Desk.

“We call on Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, to intervene with the utmost urgency to obtain their release and to address the disastrous press freedom situation in this country.”

Here are portraits of the ten women journalists currently detained in Iran:

  • Noushin Jafari: This photojournalist’s detention was confirmed by the judicial system’s spokesman, Gholam Hossein Esmaili, on 14 August. A specialist in covering theatre and cinema, she was arrested at her Tehran home on 3 August by Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents in civilian dress, who seized data storage devices and CDs. Pro-Revolutionary Guard trolls were the first to report her arrest and the charge brought against her: “insulting Islam’s sacred values” on Twitter. Her family has not heard from her since her arrest and still does not know where she is being held. She used to work for the “arts and literature” section of the daily newspaper Etemad and was previously arrested in February 2010, when she was held for 28 days. According to relatives, she is being pressured by Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents to make a confession.
  • Marzieh Amiri: The revolutionary court’s 28th chamber refused to release her on bail on 13 August. A journalist with the daily newspaper Shargh, Amiri was arrested while reporting outside an intelligence police station in Tehran on 1 May. Her lawyer told the media that she is charged with “conspiracy and assembly against national security,” “anti-government propaganda” and “disturbing public order.”

According to her family, she has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and also 148 lashes.

  • Assal Mohammadi: A student at the Islamic Azad University and member of the editorial board of the student newspaper Game, she was returned to prison by a Tehran court on 4 August. Initially arrested on 4 December 2018, she had been released on bail of 400 million tomans (10,000 euros) but the bail amount was later raised to 1 billion tomans (212,000 euros). She appeared in court with Haft-Tappeh Sugarcane company workers, whose strike and protests for more pay she had covered.
  • Sanaz Allahyari: and her fellow-journalist husband Amir Hossein Mohammadi Far – Mohammadi’s colleagues at Game – are also being held for covering this strike and the mistreatment of the jailed workers.
  • Farangis Mazloom: The mother of Soheil Arabi, the recipient of RSF’s 2017 Press Freedom Prize in the citizen-journalist category, she was arrested by intelligence ministry agents on 22 July. Her only crime was informing the public about the conditions in which her imprisoned son is being held and the inhuman and degrading treatment to which he is being subjected.
  • Hengameh Shahidi: A reporter and editor of the Paineveste blog who has been held since 25 June 2018, she has been sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison for her revelations about the lack of justice within the Iranian judicial system and her criticism of its chief, Sadegh Amoli Larijani.
  • Sepideh Moradi, Avisha Jalaledin and Shima Entesari: These three women, who worked for the Sufi community news website Majzooban Noor, have been held since February 2018 and are serving five-year jail sentences in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
  • Narges Mohammadi: A journalist and human rights activist held since May 2015, she was sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison by a Tehran court. Under a 2015 law, which says a person convicted on several charges only serves the sentence applied to the most serious one, she will have to serve a 10-year term.

Iran is ranked 170th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

https://rsf.org/en/news/iran-worlds-biggest-jailer-women-journalists

Radio Farda    |    June 13, 2019

Amnesty International reports that more than one million people in 200 countries have signed a petition condemning the severe prison term handed out to Iranian rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh and demanding her release.

Iran has jailed the defender of women who have protested against forced hijab and dissidents in Iran, on dubious charges and two trials without safeguards. As a result, Sotoudeh has received a 38-year prison terms and 148 lashes.

She was re-arrested one year ago, following a previous imprisonment years earlier. Amnesty International says it is organizing a “global handover” of the signatures, “calling on Iranian authorities to release her immediately and unconditionally”. The Islamic Republic routinely arrests lawyers, rights defenders and dissidents and charge them with vague national security offenses.

“The cruel sentence handed down to Nasrin Sotoudeh for defending women’s rights and standing up against Iran’s discriminatory and degrading forced veiling laws has sent shock waves around the world. The injustice of her case has touched the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people who, in a moving display of solidarity, have raised their voices to demand her freedom,” said Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“Today we are sending them a clear message: the world is watching and our campaign will continue until Nasrin Sotoudeh is free,” Luther added.

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/one-million-people-demand-release-of-iran-rights-defender—amnesty/29997487.html

Amnesty International    |   July 1, 2019

Iran: mass secret killings of political dissidents in 1988

Between late July and September 1988, the Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed thousands of prisoners for their political opinions and dumped their bodies in unmarked individual and mass graves. Minimum estimates put the death toll at around 5,000.

Since then, the authorities have tormented the relatives by refusing to tell them when, how and why their loved ones were killed and by keeping their remains hidden. To reinforce secrecy, they have also destroyed mass grave sites and forbidden commemorations.

By refusing to acknowledge the killings and fully disclose the fate and whereabouts of the victims, the authorities have committed the crime of enforced disappearance under international law. The anguish caused to families by this ongoing crime constitutes torture.

Given their widespread and systematic nature, Amnesty International considers that the extrajudicial executions and the ongoing enforced disappearances amount to crimes against humanity, and is calling for urgent action by the international community. No official has ever been brought to justice for these atrocities. Indeed, key judicial and government bodies which must ensure victims receive justice include officials who were tasked with carrying out the killings in 1988.

Mothers and Families of Khavaran

MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A CENTURY HAS PASSED SINCE WE BEGAN THE QUEST FOR TRUTH REGARDING THE FATE OF OUR LOVED ONES.

BLOOD-SOAKED SECRETS

Building on the sustained campaigning and documentation efforts by survivors, family members of victims and human rights defenders over the last 30 years, Amnesty International has set out to reveal more of the blood-soaked secrets the authorities have tried to keep and advance the struggle for truth, justice and reparation.

Families kept in the dark

In late July 1988, thousands of imprisoned political dissidents across Iran were suddenly cut off from the outside world. These men and women were mostly serving lengthy prison terms imposed because of their political opinions and peaceful activities such as distributing opposition leaflets and attending demonstrations. Some were children when jailed.

As terrifying rumours circulated about mass secret executions, families frantically went to prisons and government offices to obtain information, only to be met by silence and abuse.

Esmat Talebi, whose husband, Majid Simiary, and brother Adel Talebi were victims of the mass executions, described the desperation of families:

“We tried to go to all the government bodies we could think of. We went in front of parliament, to the office of [Speaker of Parliament Ali Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani. We handed in letters everywhere we went. We went to the Prime Minister’s office but were turned away [so] we sat outside on the street and wrote a letter and gave it to [his] office. In the letter, we wrote: ‘We are families of political prisoners and we have been barred from having visits with them… We want answers from you. Do something to stop the executions…’ Eventually, we ran out of places to turn to and were left helpless.”

Cruel notification of death  

Families’ worst fears were confirmed from late October 1988 onwards when prison visits resumed and officials began telling many families that their loved ones had been executed. The notifications were cruel and sudden with no information given about the reasons and circumstances of the killings. Most families were just summoned to prisons or a government office, handed a bag which an official said contained the personal belongings of their dead relative, and ordered not to hold a memorial ceremony. Jafar La’li described the way the authorities informed the family of his brother Jamshid La’li’s execution:

“The Revolutionary Guards summoned my father to their office… There, he was taken into a room and sat on a chair. An official then walked in, put a bag on his desk and said: ‘Here is your son’s bag; we have executed him. Now take his stuff and get out.’”

Some families were not even given these last mementos. As a result, they were thrown into further uncertainty and, after 30 years, some, particularly elderly mothers, still struggle to believe that their loved ones are indeed dead.

Ezzat Habibnejad described how her mother-in-law remains in agony and disbelief that her son Mehdi Gharaiee is dead:

“The authorities gave us nothing, absolutely nothing… Sadly, 30 years on, my mother-in-law is still waiting for Mehdi to come back. Sometimes, when the phone or the doorbell rings, she jumps for it saying it might be Mehdi… She struggles to accept that Mehdi is dead and says, if he had died, they would have returned his body or his belongings.”

Some families were given misinformation or contradictory information and led to believe that their loves ones were alive. They only learned the truth later from former prisoners or informal government contacts.

Hiding the bodies

The Iranian authorities did not return the bodies of any of the victims to families. They also refused to tell most families where the bodies were buried.

Amnesty International knows of only five cities where the authorities ultimately told some families verbally that their loved ones were buried in mass graves and revealed their locations. However, publicly and officially, they have never acknowledged these mass grave sites.

In at least seven other cities, the authorities gave a few families the location of individual graves, but many fear that the authorities may have deceived them and that these graves may be empty.

In the rest of the country, families have either remained in the dark about the whereabouts of their loved one’s remains or learnt, through informal contact with officials, cemetery workers or locals, about their burial in confirmed or suspected mass grave sites.

Thirty years on, the Iranian authorities have yet to acknowledge the existence of any mass graves in the country, let alone allow families to request exhumations and search for bodies. They keep the location of victims’ remains a secret and are destroying suspected or confirmed mass grave sites by bulldozing and constructing new burial plots, buildings or roads over them.

How the mass killings happened

Between late July and September 1988, the Iranian authorities carried out co-ordinated extrajudicial killings intended to eliminate all political opposition. Across the country, groups of prisoners were collected from their cells and brought before “death commissions” involving judicial, prosecution and intelligence officials. The prisoners were asked if they were prepared to express repentance for their past political beliefs and activities and denounce their political groups. In some cases, they were also asked if they were prepared to execute or inflict harm on fellow dissidents.

Many prisoners did not realize that their answers to these arbitrary and cruel questions could make the difference between life and death. Some thought they were appearing before a pardon committee. Most were hanged or shot by firing squad after giving answers deemed “incorrect”.

Across the country, the victims were primarily supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), both men and women.

In Tehran province, hundreds of men affiliated with leftist opposition groups were also executed. Their interrogations appeared more like a religious inquisition. They were asked: Are you a Muslim? Do you pray? Did your father pray and read the Qur’an?

Those who identified as non-believers and said their fathers prayed were condemned to death for deserting Islam. Others were spared the death penalty, but were ordered to be flogged until they agreed to pray.

Leftist women were asked similar questions. In their case, the “incorrect” answer led to five lashes every prayer time (that is, 25 lashes a day) until they agreed to pray regularly or die under torture.

TIMELINE

Crisis of impunity

Iran is facing a crisis of impunity that goes beyond the lack of accountability for the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions of 1988.

Since 2016, the authorities have increasingly glorified the perpetrators of the mass killings as “national heroes” and likened any criticism of the atrocities to support for “terrorism”.

Judicial, prosecution and government bodies, which should be responsible for ensuring justice for both past and ongoing crimes, include senior officials alleged to have been involved in the killings.

The authorities have for decades suppressed freedoms of belief, expression, association and peaceful assembly; conducted unfair and predominantly secret trials; committed widespread torture; executed hundreds of people every year; and kept thousands more on death row.

This painful reality is intractably linked to the impunity enjoyed by the authorities since the 1980s; the authorities believe they can commit human rights violations without repercussions.

Amnesty International is calling on the UN to establish independent and effective investigations into the extrajudicial executions conducted in 1988, as well as the ongoing enforced disappearance of the victims and the torture and other ill-treatment of victims’ families.

Will you stand in solidarity?

Three decades on from the mass killings of 1988, a burning sense of anguish, uncertainty and injustice continues to haunt the families of victims. Many families say that without a body to mourn over, their relatives have remained for them somewhere between life and death.

Their pain is compounded by the knowledge that those who orchestrated and perpetrated the massacre are getting away with their crimes. Many families have faced decades of harassment, intimidation, threats and attacks for daring to demand truth and justice. The authorities have even banned families from commemorating their loved ones. Officials have beaten and detained those who have tried to lay flowers at mass grave sites and forced families to sign undertakings that they will not hold any form of funeral, erect any memorial or place any objects on unmarked grave sites. This has left families in a permanent state of torment.

Now. Send messages of support using an image of a tulip, a flower that has cultural significance going back more than a millennium for the people of Iran, particularly in the context of popular struggles against political oppression and state violence. By doing this you will demonstrate global solidarity with the families and survivors, who have for decades seen the Iranian authorities trample on the flowers placed on mass grave sites and deny them justice.

The Iranian authorities relentlessly seek to hide the truth. With your help we are determined to stop them.

“They are even afraid of us placing flowers on the burial site. We tell them these are only flowers. They tell us your flowers are even more dangerous than guns and hand grenades” – Human rights defender Mansoureh Behkish, who lost a sister, four brothers and a brother-in-law in the mass executions of the 1980s.

Tehran, Kavaran Cemetery is one of the unmarked mass graves sites of 1988 political prisoners mass executions in Iran

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/10/blood-soaked-secrets/

Issues & Insights    |    Moe Alafchi    |    6/21/2019

Thousands of Iranian expatriates are expected to gather in Washington, D.C., on Friday, June 21, to demonstrate in support of a firm U.S. policy toward the dictatorship, which echoes what thousands of their fellow Iranians conveyed in Brussels last weekend. That might seem surprising to some readers, especially in light of some commentary that the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy may lead to a conflict with Iran.

The Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC) rejects that characterization, and so do the various American policymakers and foreign policy experts who plan to participate in the rally outside the State Department building. I am proud to say that I will be one of them. The Iranian Resistance has been marginalized in U.S. policy for far too long because various administrations have consistently sought to cajole the ruling regime.

They have disastrously failed to realize that appeasing and accommodating the regime produces more terrorism and chaos promoted by the regime in Tehran, which has no intention of changing its behavior. When the West appeased them through the nuclear deal, the mullahs accelerated, not decelerated, their destructive regional designs and support for terrorism.

The organized Iranian opposition represents a vital counterpoint to the pressure and misinformation that has contributed to the recurrence of various policies of conciliation and appeasement over the years. The Trump administration has conclusively turned away from those policies, but the same pressure continues to be exerted in favor of the status quo.

Lobbyists for the Iranian regime would have the world believe that war is inevitable if other governments follow the administration’s relatively more firm policy. But nothing could be further from the truth, and the Iranian people know it.

That population is represented to the world by a highly organized resistance movement in the form of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The NCRI is led by a charismatic woman, Maryam Rajavi, who has called for a secular, democratic and non-nuclear Iran that respects human rights and gender equality, among other progressive elements.

This, in turn, has been a source of vital support for domestic activists fighting against the clerical regime. That fight has reached crucial milestones in recent years, and it has shown increasingly bold defiance of the regime’s worsening repression. Yet references to Iran’s domestic affairs are almost completely absent from policy discussions.

Worse, even in the midst of ongoing ballistic missile development and testing, the European Union seems eager to take it for granted that Iran has no military ambitions for its nuclear program, and no desire to more effectively threaten the West.

Policymakers are being asked to operate on the assumption that the U.S. is uniquely responsible for the recent increase in tensions. But the regime’s pattern of human rights abuses and its status as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism are well-established.

As the White House continues to develop its maximum pressure strategy and the international community contemplates whether to participate in it, the Iranian people must be given a voice in determining the proper course.

This can be done by listening to the expatriates’ message at the Washington, D.C., gathering and a number of other rallies that are being planned throughout Europe in the coming days and weeks. Those demonstrations will surely underscore that the maximum pressure strategy has helped Iran’s domestic Resistance movement to reach some of its latest milestones, including the outbreak of an uprising that has spanned much of the country since the beginning of 2018. It inspired a “year full of uprisings,” in the words of Mrs. Rajavi, the president-elect of the democratic coalition NCRI.

The Iranian people have said time and again in their massive protests that change from within the regime is impossible. Tehran has also been greatly weakened by economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation, to the extent that it is ripe for regime change. Widespread and endemic corruption by the office of the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has robbed millions of Iranians of prosperous futures.

Now, the people’s right to change the regime should be recognized.

This means that the U.S. should sanction human rights violators in Iran. It should designate the regime’s suppression intelligence service (Ministry of Intelligence and Security) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and place further sanctions on Ali Khamenei’s office, which leads the dictatorship’s corruption and wholesale theft of Iran’s resources.

A recent resolution introduced in the House of Representatives perfectly captures what should be done. H.Res.374 says condemns the regime’s state-sponsored terrorism and “stands with the people of Iran who are continuing to hold legitimate and peaceful protests against an oppressive and corrupt regime.

It adds that it “recognizes the rights of the Iranian people and their struggle to establish a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic of Iran.”

Moe Alafchi is the Director of the Association of Iranian Americans in N.Y

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/06/20/decisions-on-iran-policy-should-reflect-understanding-of-public-discontent/

Amnesty International    |    June 3, 2019

Responding to the news that Iranian human rights lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and 111 lashes for his human rights work, including publicizing violations through a channel he set up on the Telegram mobile messaging app and giving media interviews, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, said:

“This shockingly harsh sentence is an outrageous injustice. Amirsalar Davoudi is blatantly being punished for his work defending human rights.

“Setting up a Telegram channel to expose human rights violations is not a crime. The Iranian authorities must release Armisalar Davoudi immediately and unconditionally.

“Amirsalar Davoudi is the latest victim of a vicious crackdown waged by the Iranian authorities against human rights lawyers over the past two years, which has seen Iranian courts hand out increasingly harsh sentences to stop them from being able to carry out their work.

This shockingly harsh sentence is an outrageous injustice. Amirsalar Davoudi is blatantly being punished for his work defending human rights.

Philip Luther, MENA Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International

“With this sentence, Iran’s authorities have demonstrated that human rights lawyers in Iran today are effectively treated as enemies of the state and that the authorities will go to any lengths to deny individuals in detention access to justice.”

Under Iran’s sentencing guidelines, Amirsalar Davoudi will have to serve 15 years of his prison sentence.

The news of his case follows the sentencing of prominent lawyer and women’s rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh to 38 years and six months in prison and 148 lashes, prompting an international outcry. In accordance with Iran’s sentencing guidelines, the actual term she has to serve is 17 years.

Amnesty International is calling for the international community, including EU states, which have an ongoing dialogue with Iran, to demand the authorities immediately stop targeting human rights lawyers.

Background:

Amirsalar Davoudi was arrested on 20 November 2018 and has been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison with extremely limited access to his family and lawyer.

On 1 June 2019, his wife, Tannaz Kolahchian, announced on Twitter that he had been convicted by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on multiple charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison and 111 lashes. The punishment of flogging violates the prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment under international law.

The charges on which he has been convicted include “insulting officials”, “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “spreading propaganda against the system”. In accordance with Article 134 of the penal code, which stipulates that, when individuals are convicted on three or more charges, they shall serve the lengthiest single sentence imposed for the most serious charge, the actual term he is due to serve is 15 years. The single lengthiest charge on which he was convicted was “forming a group with the purpose of disrupting national security”, relating to his Telegram channel.

Amirsalar Davoudi is well known for representing human rights activists and other individuals detained for their social and political activities.

In recent years, Iranian courts have handed out increasingly harsh sentences against human rights lawyers. Another lawyer, Mohammad Najafi, was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison and 74 lashes in three separate cases. Other lawyers who have either been arrested or have faced prosecution since January 2018 include Arash Keykhosravi, Ghassem Sholeh-Sa’di, Farokh Forouzan, Mostafa Daneshjoo, Mostafa Tork Hamadani, Payam Derafshan and Zeynab Taheri.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/06/iran-sentencing-of-human-rights-lawyer-to-30-years-in-prison-and-111-lashes-a-shocking-injustice/

Center for Human Rights in Iran    |    May 20, 2019

May 20, 2019 – Iran must end the cruel and unlawful imprisonment of Maryam Akbari-Monfared, who has already served nearly 10 years on baseless charges and should have been eligible for release last year, and free her immediately, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) and Justice for Iran (JFI) said in a joint statement today.

Not only were the charges against Akbari-Monfared never substantiated, but under Iran’s New Penal Code, her conviction should have been overturned. Even if she had been convicted of new charges again, she would have been eligible for release in 2017, the two organizations noted, but the Iranian judiciary refuses to enforce the law.

“For almost 10 years Maryam Akbari-Monfared has languished behind bars for a conviction that even Iran’s own laws say should have been thrown out. The whim of a judge should not overrule the laws of the land,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI’s executive director.

“As her judge himself has confirmed, she is paying such an immense price not for her actions but merely for the fact that her relatives have been members of an opposition group. This is a crystal-clear case of collective punishment and an outrageous breach of the principle of individual criminal responsibility recognized in both the Iranian legal system and international law,” said Shadi Sadr, JFI’s executive director.

Original Charges Never Substantiated

Akbari-Monfared was originally tried on charges of supporting the banned Mojahedin-e Khalgh organization (or MEK, also known as MKO and PMOI) and convicted in May 2010 of the offence of “waging war against God” (moharebeh) which belongs to the category of hodud offences with fixed and serious punishments under Islamic Shari’a.

Her conviction was based solely on the fact that she had made phone calls to her relatives, who are members of MEK, and had visited them once in Iraq. She has always denied being a member or follower of MEK and there was no evidence to prove otherwise.

She was sentenced by the notoriously hardline Judge Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran to 15 years in prison. In August 2010, her sentence was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. She has been jailed ever since her initial arrest on December 29, 2009.

Under Iran’s New Penal Code, Charge Would Have Been Thrown Out

Akbari-Monfared’s conviction was issued under the old Penal Code, which was replaced by the New Penal Code in 2013. Under Article 186 of the old code, any member or supporter of an organization that sought to overthrow the Islamic Republic by taking up arms was considered a mohareb, even if they did not personally take part in the military activities of the organization.

In the New Penal Code, enacted in 2013, Article 186 of the old code was repealed and replaced with several Articles, including 279 and 287. These new provisions adopted a significantly more restrictive scope for the traditional crime of moharebeh, limiting it to situations where the individual is either a member of an armed group or personally takes up arms. It was no longer applicable to supporters of such organizations and thus would not apply to the act of making contact with members of such organizations or showing personal support for their views.

As a result, if tried under the New Penal Code, Akbari-Monfared would not have been convicted of the offence of moharebeh, since visiting relatives in the Ashraf camp in Iraq (where her family members were located) is not evidence of being a member or follower of the MEK.

In addition, according to Article 10 of the same code, this type of change to the law—i.e. when a new law comes into effect and is more favorable to the defendant—should also have retroactive effect, applying to all those who were already convicted. As such, Akbari-Monfared should have been acquitted and released from prison immediately.

In early 2016, Akbari-Monfared submitted a request from prison for a judicial review of her case (e’adeh dadresi) to the Supreme Court, arguing that according to Articles 10 and 279 of the New Penal Code, her conviction should be overturned. The Supreme Court rejected the request for review in April 2016.

Yet the Supreme Court referred to Article 10 of the New Penal Code and stated that she could apply to the court of first instance to reduce or commute her sentence on the ground that a new law has come into effect, which is more favorable to the defendant. Following this ruling, Akbari-Monfared’s case was returned to Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

In complete disregard for the Supreme Court’s decision and the legal obligation under Article 10 of the New Penal Code, Judge Salavati refused to make any change to her sentence and maintained the original verdict, while providing no argument or justification. Had the court followed the law and the ruling of Supreme Court, Akbari-Monfared’s conviction for the offence of moharebeh should not have stood. It should have been replaced either with an acquittal or conviction for a less serious offence.

Eligible for Release since 2017, According to Iranian Law

In the event that the judicial review of her case resulted in a conviction and the court refused to acquit her, the conviction would have been of a less serious offence, from the different category of ta’zir offences. Under these offenses, she might be given a more lenient penalty and shorter term, for example, no more than five years under Article 499.

In any event, she would not have received a sentence as harsh as the one she originally received for the moharebeh conviction. At most, if she was given the same 15-year sentence, it would mean that she would already have been eligible for conditional release. According to Article 58 of the New Penal Code, if sentenced to more than 10 years of imprisonment for a ta’zir offence, the convicted person shall be eligible for conditional release after serving half of the term.

Under Iranian law, her pre-trail detention and the time she has spent in prison prior to her conviction also count towards her total imprisonment term. Thus, in Akbari-Monfared’s case, even in the unlikely event that the current 15-year sentence was issued again as a ta’zir punishment, she would have been eligible for conditional release after 7.5 years—and could have been released as early as June 2017.

Denial of Medical Care and Furlough throughout Her Imprisonment

Akbari-Monfared has received harsh and punitive treatment throughout her imprisonment. The authorities have not granted her any medical leave, despite serious thyroid and other medical issues that require treatment. Nor has she ever received a single day of furlough (temporary leave traditionally granted to Iranian prisoners for familial occasions).

According to Akbari-Monfared’s husband, Hassan Jafari, repeated requests for medical furlough and the posting of a deposit to secure it have remained unanswered. In a September 2017 interview with CHRI he stated, “In 2014, we left a 1.15 billion tomans (then $362,000 USD) security deposit as demanded for the furlough, but so far nothing has happened. They won’t grant her furlough and they won’t tell us why. They just say the Intelligence Ministry or the prosecutor is against granting her furlough.”

Punitive treatment is standard fare for political prisoners in Iran, especially those who remain outspoken regarding their unjust imprisonment or the inhumane conditions of their incarceration.

In open letters from prison, Akbari-Monfared has protested both the routine denial of medical care for political prisoners in Iran, and also the extra-judicial executions of her siblings.

Akbari-Monfared’s four siblings were executed in the 1980s for allegedly engaging in political opposition. In an October 2016 open letter, Akbari-Monfared demanded a judicial inquiry into the execution of her siblings and the locations where they were buried.

“Three of my brothers and one of my sisters were executed in prison in the 1980s,” she wrote. “My youngest brother, Abdolreza Akbari-Monfared, was executed in 1980. He was only a 17-year-old high school student when he was arrested. He was charged with distributing MEK literature. Although he was sentenced to only three years in prison, he was incarcerated until his execution in the summer of 1988 along with scores of other prisoners.”

In 1988, thousands of prisoners, primarily MEK supporters but also other prisoners, were secretly executed in mass hangings, by “death commissions” that were established by then Supreme Leader and Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. There has never been any accounting for those mass murders and any investigation into or mourning of their victims is forbidden.

Akbari-Monfared’s letter continued: “Another brother, Alireza Akbari-Monfared, was arrested on September 8, 1981 and he was tried and executed 10 days later… On the seventh night of mourning for my brother Alireza, agents raided our house and arrested a number of guests as well as my mother, and sister Roghieh Akbari-Monfared. My mother was released after five months but my sister was sentenced to eight years in prison. She was executed in August 1988 near the end of her prison term… My other brother, Gholamreza Akbari-Monfared, was arrested in 1983 and died under torture in 1985.”

https://iranhumanrights.org/2019/05/iran-release-political-prisoner-maryam-akbari-monfared/

 

 

Iran Human Rights    |    May 20, 2019

Mohammad Reza Haddadi, a juvenile offender on death row in Iran, has been denied access to medical care outside prison despite suffering from severe intestinal bleeding. According to IHR sources, Mohammad Reza Haddadi, a prisoner on death row in Shiraz Central Prison (also known as Adelabad) suffers from severe intestinal bleeding. “Despite an order by prison’s doctor to transfer Mohammad Reza to a hospital for treatment by specialists, the authorities refused to grant him the permission,” one of Mohammad relatives told IHR.

Mohammad Reza Haddadi, currently held at Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, was born on March 17, 1988, and has been in prison since 2002. He is sentenced to death for an alleged murder during a robbery along with three other people.

https://iranhr.net/fa/articles/3747/