Iran: Deepening Crisis on Rights

For Immediate Release
Iran: Deepening Crisis on Rights
Huge Spike in Executions; Lawyers Targeted for Championing Freedoms

(New York, January 26, 2011) – The Iranian government’s high rate of executions and targeting of rights defenders, particularly lawyers, in 2010 and early 2011 highlights a deepening of the human rights crisis that gripped the country following the disputed June 2009 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said in issuing its World Report 2011 Iran chapter. According to Iranian media reports, authorities have executed at least 73 prisoners – an average of almost three prisoners per day – since January 1, 2011.

The 649-page report, the organization’s 21st annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights issues in more than 90 countries worldwide. In Iran, since November 2009 authorities have executed at least 13 people on the vague charge of moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” following flawed trials in revolutionary courts. The government also harassed, arrested, detained, and convicted several lawyers in 2010 for their work defending the rights of others. At the same time, scores of civil society activists have spoken out against the government crackdown despite facing harsh consequences.

“The noose has tightened, in some cases literally, around the necks of activists in Iran,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The government’s crackdown has gone beyond silencing post-election demonstrators and is now a broad-based campaign to neutralize Iran’s vibrant civil society and consolidate power.”

The executions and mounting pressures against lawyers took place amid a broad crackdown following the election, and resulted in the killing of dozens of demonstrators by security forces and the detention of thousands of political opposition members and civil society activists. In early 2010 security forces announced that they had arrested more than 6,000 people in the months following the June 12, 2009 election. Those arrested included demonstrators, lawyers, rights defenders, journalists, students, and opposition leaders, some of whom remain in prison without charge. Iran’s revolutionary courts have issued harsh sentences, in some cases based on forced confessions, against dozens convicted of various national security-related crimes.
http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/iran

For Immediate ReleaseIran:Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual MinoritiesLaws, Policies Put Already Vulnerable People at Even Greater Risk(Amsterdam, December 15, 2010) –Discriminatory laws and policies against homosexuals and other sexual minorities in Iran put them at risk of harassment, violence, and even death, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Iran’s sexual minorities, especially those who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), are victimized both by state and private actors in part because those actors know they can get away with it.The 102-page report, “We are a Buried Generation: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities in Iran,” based on testimony from more than 100 Iranians, documents discrimination and violence against LGBT people and others whose sexual practices and gender expression do not conform to government-endorsed socio-religious norms. Human Rights Watch analyzed these abuses within the context of the government’s violations against its general population, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, invasions of privacy, mistreatment and torture of detainees, and the lack of due-process protections and fair-trial guarantees.“Members of sexual minorities in Iran are hounded on all sides,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The laws are stacked against them; the state openly discriminates against them; and they are vulnerable to harassment, abuse, and violence because their perpetrators feel they can target them with impunity.”Iran’s security forces, including police and forces of the hard-line paramilitary basij, rely upon discriminatory laws to harass, arrest, and detain individuals whom they suspect of being gay, Human Rights Watch found. The incidents often occur in parks and cafes, but Human Rights Watch also documented cases in which security forces raided homes and monitored internet sites for the purpose of detaining people they suspected of engaging in non-conforming sexual conduct or gender expression.The report also documents instances in which police and basij allegedly ill-treated and in some cases tortured real or suspected LGBT people, both in public spaces and detention facilities. Several individuals interviewed made allegations that members of the security forces had sexually assaulted or raped them.Navid, a 42-year-old gay man who owned a café outside Tehran, told Human Rights Watch about an attack he suffered in 2007 at the hands of two plainclothes agents whom he later discovered were members of the local basij. He said they picked him up as he was leaving work, handcuffed him, and drove him to his home. He said they pushed him out of the car, beat him, and forced him inside, where they sexually assaulted him."[One of them] forced his penis inside my mouth," he said. "I threw up and dirtied myself. They dragged me into the bathroom and washed me down with cold water. The whole time they continued to beat me all over."He described how the agents then took him to another residence, where they locked him in a foul-smelling and dirty kitchen full of cockroaches."[One of the agents] took my clothes off," he said. "He then raped me with a flashlight and a baton. He just pushed me down to the ground and raped me. The other two joined in."The report also documents serious abuses, including due-process violations that occurred during the prosecution of sexual minorities charged with crimes. Those charged with engaging in consensual same-sex offenses stand little chance of receiving a fair trial. Judges ignore penal code evidentiary guidelines in sodomy cases and often rely instead on confessions extracted through physical torture and extreme psychological pressure. Both Iranian and international law consider such evidence inadmissible.In other cases, courts have convicted defendants of sodomy charges solely on the basis of “the knowledge of the judge” as “derived through customary methods.” This evidentiary provision of Iran’s penal code enables judges to rely on tenuous circumstantial evidence to determine whether a crime has occurred even in the absence of other evidence or in the presence of exculpatory evidence.Iranian law reflects the state’s hostile attitude toward sexual minorities. The penal code criminalizes all sexual relations outside of traditional marriage. Same-sex “crimes” are subject to hudud, punishment fixed under Sharia or divine [Islamic] law, where the claimant is deemed to be God. Punishments are severe. Under the Penal Code, lavat (sodomy) is punishable by death where a judge determines that penetration was involved.Other forms of non-penetrative sex between men are punishable by 100 lashes for each partner and death on the fourth conviction. Same-sex relations between women, or mosaheqeh, bring similar punishments.Under the penal code, “lustful” kissing between two men or two women is punishable by up to 60 lashes, and two men “who are not related by blood … found naked under the same cover without any necessity,” is punishable by up to 99 lashes. A host of other morality laws enforce sexual and gender conformity, including those barring, organizing, or participating in an “immoral” or “corrupt” gathering, or encouraging others to engage in “corrupt” and “obscene” acts. The penal code also criminalizes the production, use, and dissemination of material considered immoral under Iranian law, including LGBT websites, literature, and other paraphernalia.Iran is one of only seven countries with laws allowing executions for consensual same-sex conduct. The others are Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.Iranian newspapers and media outlets have published many accounts since the Iranian revolution in 1979 of executions for same-sex conduct. The overwhelming majority of those executed or on death row are males charged with sodomy, including juvenile offenders who were under 18 when they allegedly committed the act. The Iranian government maintains that most of these individuals have been charged for forcible sodomy or rape.Because trials on moral charges in Iran are usually held in camera, it is difficult to determine what proportion of those charged and executed for same-sex conduct are LGBT and in what proportion the alleged offense was consensual. Because of the lack of transparency, Human Rights Watch said, it cannot be ruled out that Iran is sentencing sexual minorities who engage in consensual same-sex relations to death under the guise that they have committed forcible sodomy or rape.“Iran is not only one of the rare countries that imposes the death penalty for consensual same-sex relations, it also has people sitting on death row who allegedly committed sodomy as minors,” Whitson said. “Every time the Iranian judiciary issues a death sentence for consensual sex, or against a juvenile offender, it is violating its international legal obligations.”Both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights categorically prohibit capital punishment of people who were under 18 at the time of the offense. Iran ratified the ICCPR in 1975 and the CRC in 1994.Iran is not unique in the region in criminalizing same-sex conduct or in the seriousness of the abuses suffered by its sexual minorities. There is, however, a very noticeable disconnect between Iran’s official stance against sexual minorities and the realities on the ground, especially in Iran’s larger urban areas. Despite President Ahmadinejad’s 2007 declaration that Iran has no homosexuals, thousands of Iranians identify themselves as LGBT and socialize in public and private, and contribute to vibrant and defiant LGBT communities in the Persian-language blogosphere.Since 1979, the Iranian government has implemented several policies designed to deal with the complex realities of sexual orientation and gender identity in Iran today. On their face, some of these policies may appear accommodating. For example, the state legally recognizes transgender Iranians – as long as they agree to undergo sex reassignment surgery. It also allows gays, transgender males, or men who have sex with men to apply for a “behavioral disorder” exemption from military service if they can establish that they are gay or transgender.But while these policies may accommodate, or even benefit some, they aim ultimately to control and enforce conformity, Human Rights Watch said. At times they expose sexual minorities to further harassment, abuse, blackmail, extortion, and torture.“Abolishing Iran’s discriminatory laws and policies is critical to ensuring protection of its vulnerable sexual minorities,” said Whitson. “Those who perpetrate violence against Iran’s sexual minorities do so because they know that their victims have nowhere to turn for protection or justice.”Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to:· Abolish all laws and other legislation under the Islamic Penal Code that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct;· Immediately rescind any and all convictions and sentences against individuals for consensual same-sex conduct or relations, and immediately release anyone serving sentences for such convictions;· Immediately rescind all death sentences imposed on individuals for the crime of lavat (sodomy) allegedly committed when they were under the age of 18, regardless of whether the act was consensual or forced;· Prohibit public harassment, abuse, and gender-based violence against sexual minorities by security forces, including the Iran’s basij units, and investigate and prosecute members of the security forces who engage in such actions;· Cease all targeting and entrapment, including internet entrapment campaigns and home raids, by security forces against sexual minorities or people with non-conforming sexual or gender identities;· Prohibit harassment, abuse, torture, and sexual assault of sexual minorities by security forces during detention, and investigate and prosecute members of the security forces who engage in such actions;· Prohibit the use of testimony or confessions that appear to have been secured under torture or threat of torture or other ill-treatment in all prosecutions, including those related to same-sex conduct;· Provide adequate access to physical and psychological services to transgender Iranians, including hormone therapy for individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery.Human Rights Watch also called on other states and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to implement policies and recommendations to safeguard the rights of Iran’s vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.During the past several years, Human Rights Watch intervened on several occasions to ensure that countries, including the Netherlands and Sweden, put a stop to the deportation of Iranian LGBT people who legitimately feared persecution if returned to Iran.The Human Rights Watch report, “We are a Buried Generation: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities in Iran,” is available at:http://www.hrw.org/node/94978For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran,please visit:http://www.hrw.org
Labels: HRW

For Immediate ReleaseIran:
Escalating Repression of University StudentsDozens Imprisoned, Others Barred as Classmates Mark National Student Day(New York, December 7, 2010) –

Dozens of university students are behind bars and several hundred others have been expelled from campus because of their political activism or religious affiliation, Human Rights Watch said today as Iran marked National Student Day. Many of those in prison hold leadership positions in well known student organizations critical of the government.Iran’s universities have increasingly become targets of government efforts to consolidate power and stifle dissent. Since 2005, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration has pursued a multi-phased campaign to neutralize dissent at universities and “Islamicize” higher education. This campaign, spearheaded by the Ministries of Education, Science and Technology, and Intelligence, includes imprisoning student activists; barring other politically active students and members of Iran’s Baha’i community from higher education; using university disciplinary committees to monitor, suspend, or expel students; increasing the presence of pro-government student groups affiliated with the basij (a hard-line Islamist paramilitary group); and restricting the activities of student groups.“The government accuses student activists of endangering national security and being manipulated by ‘foreign elements’ as cover for its campaign to eliminate the student movement and stifle academic freedom,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Despite these pressures, students are at the front line of the struggle for greater freedoms at universities and throughout society.”The latest spate of arrests of student leaders was in November 2010, when security and intelligence forces arrested four members of Tahkim-e Vahdat (Office to Foster Unity), one of Iran’s largest student organizations, which the government considers illegal.National Student Day, marked on the 16th of Azar on the Iranian calendar, commemorates three students killed at Tehran University on December 7, 1953, by the Shah’s security forces. On Student Day 2009, demonstrations erupted on university campuses throughout Iran as many students expressed outrage over the disputed June 2009 presidential election.
Authorities arrested dozens of protesters, including Majid Tavakoli, an Amir Kabir University student and member of the school’s Islamic Student Association, who gave a speech criticizing the government. A revolutionary court sentenced Tavakoli to eight-and-a-half years in prison on various national security charges including “conspiring against the national security,” “propaganda against the regime,” and “insulting the Supreme Leader” and president. He is in Tehran’s Evin prison.As of November 2010‎ more than 70 students were in prison throughout the country as a result of their political activities or affiliation with banned student groups, according to sources close to Tahkim-e Vahdat.In the latest arrests, security agents arrested Ali Qolizadeh on November 5 at his father’s home in the northeastern city of Mashhad without producing a warrant, as required by law. Two days later, plainclothes Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Ali-Reza Kiani outside Mazandaran University. On the same day, authorities arrested Mohsen Barzegar in the town of Babol, and Mohammad Heidarzadeh in Shahrekord, in western Iran. Authorities transferred all four to Evin prison in Tehran, but released Qolizadeh, Kiani, and Heidarzadeh in late November and early December. They are still holding Barzegar in section 240 of Evin prison and denying him access to his lawyer and family members.In a statement issued on November 8, Tahkim-e Vahdat accused the authorities of targeting these four members because they had just been elected to the organization’s central committee. Several sources close to Tahkim-e Vahdat told Human Rights Watch that authorities arrested the students just before the group was to announce the official results of its annual elections, which took place over the internet this year due to security concerns.On October 31, Raja News, a Persian-language website thought to be close to the Intelligence Ministry, reiterated Tahkim-e Vahdat’s illegal status and ran an article accusing several of its members of having ties with the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) and the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), both of which the Iranian government considers terrorist organizations. Tahkim-e Vahdat and several Persian-language websites affiliated with other student groups have rejected these allegations and said the arrests were part of the government’s latest campaign to discredit the student movement and stifle dissent.The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Research declared Tahkim-e Vahdat illegal in 2009. During the wide-ranging crackdown that followed the disputed June 2009 presidential election, security forces arrested more than 200 students, including several high-ranking members of Tahkim-e Vahdat. Many of these arrests took place in November and early December 2009, months after security forces attacked Tehran University and killed several students, and weeks before National Student Day events were to take place.Authorities held scores of students incommunicado for weeks before prosecutors filed charges against them and lawyers gained access to their clients. Many alleged that security and intelligence agents had tortured and forced them to confess to crimes they had not committed. The judiciary prosecuted the students in closed trials in Iran’s revolutionary courts.Bahareh Hedayat and Milad Asadi are two other central Tahkim-e Vahdat committee members that were arrested in 2009. They are currently serving time in Evin prison. Hedayat is the first secretary of the Women’s Commission of Tahkim, and the first – and so far only – woman elected to the national student organization’s central committee. Authorities arrested her on December 30, 2009, and charged her with various national security crimes, including “propaganda against the system,” “participating in illegal gatherings,” and “insulting the president.” In May, a revolutionary court sentenced her to nine-and-a-half years in prison. Security forces arrested Asadi on November 30, 2009. Judge Moghiseh from Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to seven years in prison for similar national security-related “crimes.”The administration has also targeted several other student organizations and their members, including Advar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat (Tahkim-e Vahdat's alumni group) and the Committee to Defend the Right to Education (CDRE). Several central committee members of Advar are in Evin prison, including Ahmad Zeidabadi, Abdollah Momeni, Ali Malihi, Ali Jamali, and Hasan Asadi Zeidabadi. Security forces arrested Zeidabadi and Momeni, the group’s secretary-general and spokesperson respectively, during the aftermath of the election protests last year. Zeidabadi, Momeni, and Malihi are each currently serving sentences of 14 years and 11 months on various national security charges such as “participation in illegal gatherings,” “propaganda against the regime,” and “insulting the president.”In September 2009 Momeni sent an open letter to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, detailing abuse and torture he said he suffered in Evin prison. Momeni was one of the student leaders of the July 1999 student protests.Zia Nabavi, a co-founder of CDRE, is serving a 10-year sentence in Ahvaz’s Karun prison. Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Nabavi on June 15, 2009, and prosecutors charged him with various national security-related crimes, including “links to and cooperation with the MEK.” Mahdieh Golroo, a student activist and another member of CDRE, has been in prison since November 3, 2009. In April, a revolutionary court convicted her of national security crimes and sentenced her to 28 months in prison. Another co-founder of CDRE, Majid Dorri, is serving a six-year prison sentence for his student activities.Since 2005 the Ahmadinejad government has barred more than 200 students from university education on political and religious grounds, according to a recent report 01released by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.Nabavi, Golroo, and Dorri formed CDRE in 2008 after authorities barred them from continuing their university studies. It is one of several student groups that publicized and resisted the government’s policy of preventing students from continuing their higher education on political or religious grounds. Another such group is the Population to Combat Educational Discrimination, which largely addressed the government’s official policy of preventing Bahais admission to or expelling them from universities “once it becomes known that they are Bahais.” In 2009 authorities also prevented Qolizadeh and Barzegar, two of the members of Tahkim-e Vahdat who were recently arrested, from continuing their studies.“Rather than honoring and celebrating its students, the Iranian government routinely marks 16 Azar by tightening the screws on academic freedom,” Stork said. “Instead, the authorities should use this occasion to release the dozens of students who remain in prison on baseless charges, and allow back into the classroom the hundreds of others who are being deprived of their education for political and religious reasons.
”For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran,
please visit:http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran

***Media Advisory***
Iranian Activist Honored for Rights Work
(New York, November 9, 2010) –

Sussan Tahmasebi, a women’s rights and civil society activist, will receive the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism in November 2010 for her work to promote civil society and women’s rights in Iran.
Tahmasebi is a founding member of the award-winning One Million Signatures Campaign, which collects the signatures of Iranians who support ending the bias against women under Iranian law. She has also worked to strengthen civil society organizations by providing training and by serving as an advocate both within Iran and internationally. As a result of her work in Iran, Tahmasebi was arrested and interrogated, her home was searched, and she was barred from traveling abroad for more than two years. Now living in the United States, she continues to work to improve the situation for civil society and women’s rights activists in Iran.
“For more than a decade, Sussan Tahmasebi has worked to empower Iranians, particularly women, and has pressed for change through grass roots participation and reform of the country’s discriminatory laws,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Sussan Tahmasebi embodies the patience, persistence, and resilience of an Iranian civil society that continues its march toward recognition and equal rights for women despite numerous roadblocks.”
The Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism celebrates the valor of individuals who put their lives at risk to protect human dignity and create a world where people live free of violence, discrimination, and oppression. Human Rights Watch honors Tahmasebi for her dedication to promoting civil society and striving to make women’s rights a national priority in Iran.
For more information about Sussan Tahmasebi, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/08/sussan-tahmasebi-iran
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iran

HRW: Iran Human Rights Crisis Requires International Scrutiny‏

For Immediate Release
Iran: Human Rights Crisis Requires International Scrutiny
(New York, October 28, 2010) – Human Rights Watch and a number of other international and Iranian groups have issued the following statement seeking action by the United Nations General Assembly in light of the human rights crisis that continues to unfold in Iran:In the light of the severity of the human rights situation in Iran, the Iranian authorities’ refusal to cooperate with existing international human rights mechanisms, and their rejection of many specific recommendations from member states under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, Democracy Coalition Project, Human Rights Watch, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and the International Federation for Human Rights and its affiliate, the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights, call on the United Nations General Assembly to:
· request the UN Secretary-General to issue a more comprehensive report on the human rights situation in Iran;
· request the Secretary-General to report periodically to the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Iran;
· urge the UN special procedures mandates to report periodically to the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Iran;
· and appoint a special envoy of the Secretary-General with a mandate to investigate and report on the human rights situation in Iran.
The mass human rights violations that unfolded in Iran after the disputed presidential election of 2009 were a reminder of the precarious nature of fundamental freedoms in the country. The authorities imposed severe additional restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Peaceful demonstrations were banned and protestors beaten, arbitrarily arrested, and in some cases shot. Scores were killed, both in the streets and in custody.The Iranian authorities subsequently tried hundreds unfairly, including in mass “show trials”, the main aim of which appeared to be to validate their version of events and identify scapegoats. In January 2010, two men convicted after “show trials” were executed for their involvement in demonstrations, despite their having been in custody since before the election. At least seven men and one woman remain on death row for alleged offences related to the election and its aftermath, while others have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 15 years after conviction of vaguely worded “offences” relating to “national security. ” Their trials make a mockery of justice.The trials typically take place after defendants have been held for long periods of detention – often in solitary confinement or incommunicado detention – in centers where torture and other ill-treatment are common. Poor prison conditions, including denial of adequate medical care, have also been used to bring further pressure to bear on those held and their families.
Read more:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/28/iran-human-rights-crisis-requires-international-scrutiny

End Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyer and His Family

For Immediate Release

Iran: End Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyer and His Family

Unable to Arrest Mohammad Mostafaei, Officials Detained His Wife, Brother-in-Law

(New York, July 30, 2010) – Iranian authorities should immediately charge or release the wife and brother-in-law of a prominent lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also stop harassing and intimidating Mohammad Mostafaei who has spent his career defending juveniles and the underprivileged, including many who were sentenced to execution.
Mostafaei has been missing since July 24, 2010, when he was questioned by the authorities and then released. Later in the day, security officials went to his office with a warrant to arrest him, several Persian-language media reported. Unable to find him, security forces arrested Mostafaei’s wife, Fereshteh Halimi, and his brother-in-law, Farhad Halimi, in the vicinity of Mostafaei’s office. Both remain in detention but have not been charged.
“The authorities have provided no reason for the arrests of Fereshteh and Farhad Halimi,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The burden is squarely on the Iranian government to explain why these arrests do not essentially amount to state-sanctioned hostage-taking.”
On July 24, Mostafaei wrote in his online blog, Modafe’, that the public prosecutor’s office in Evin Prison had summoned him for questioning. He wrote that most of the questions were about the source of financial assistance to clients who had been sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed when they were juveniles. During the past year, Mostafaei helped set up a fund for his juvenile clients to help them pay diyeh, or blood money, to families of victims so they would forgive the alleged offenders and spare them from execution.
A few hours after this post, Mostafaei sent another: “Today after being interrogated by Branch 2 of the prosecutor’s office they contacted me again and I was summoned for a second time.” Mostafaei continued, “I don’t know what the problem is this time, but in any case I have to go to the prosecutor’s office at Evin again tomorrow. They may even arrest me today. I don’t know.” He has not posted any other messages since.
The Iranian Judiciary has not said why it issued the arrest warrant for Mostafaei.
Mostafaei is one of the most prominent human rights lawyers in Iran. In recent years, he has handled numerous high-profile cases, including that of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43 year-old mother of two whom a court sentenced to death by stoning earlier this month after convicting her of adultery. After international pressure and outrage, Iran’s Judiciary announced that she would not be executed by stoning, but it has not quashed her death sentence.
Mostafaei also has handled numerous cases of juvenile offenders sentenced to death for crimes involving murder and rape, and is a leading advocate in Iran of ending the death penalty for those who committed crimes as minors. Over the past few years, Mostafaei has provided important information and gripping accounts exposing the dire situation of juvenile offenders on death row.
In 2009, he described Delara Darabi’s last moments to Human Rights Watch. Prison authorities secretly executed her in Rasht Prison for a killing she was alleged to have committed when she was 17. Darabi was one of at least four juveniles executed by the Iranian government in 2009.
This is not the first time that Mostafaei and other prominent rights lawyers have been harassed or arrested by Iranian security forces and the judiciary. Human Rights Watch has documented a persistent pattern of harassment and intimidation by the Iranian government against high-profile human rights lawyers and their families, including the Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, whose sister and husband have been repeatedly harassed and interrogated during the past several years. Government authorities shut down Ebadi’s Human Rights Defenders Center (HRDC) in December 2009.
Since the disputed presidential election on June 12, 2009, authorities have either arrested or harassed numerous human rights lawyers, such as Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Hadi Esmaielzadeh, Manijeh Mohammadi, Kambiz Noroozi, Shadi Sadr, and Mohammad Olyaeifard. The judiciary convicted Olyaeifard of “propaganda against the regime” and sentenced him to a year in prison in February, after he spoke to foreign media about his client, Behnoud Shojaii, a juvenile who was executed by prison authorities on October 12, 2009. Olyaeifard is serving his prison sentence. Authorities also detained Mosatafaei after the disputed June 12 elections, but released him shortly after his arrest.
“It has become increasingly clear that the Iranian government targets rights lawyers not only as retaliation, but to cut off the outside world from vital information.” Whitson said. “The international community needs to stand behind lawyers such as Mostafaei, and support their right to continue their important work free from state intimidation and interference.”

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran

For Immediate Release

Iran: Release and Provide Urgent Medical Care to Jailed Activist
Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand May Have Suffered Stroke; Family Claim He is Not Receiving Adequate Health Care

(New York, July 28, 2010) – The Iranian Judiciary should provide urgent medical care to Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand and free him from his unfair detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Kaboudvand, a leading advocate of Kurdish rights in Iran, is serving an 11-year sentence on politically motivated charges. He suffered what may have been a stroke on July 15, 2010, and his family says he is not getting the medical attention he needs.

On July 20, Kaboudvand wrote an open letter to the public prosecutor’s office saying that he experienced “brain and neurological problems... that caused loss of consciousness during the afternoon of July 15.” Prison authorities transferred him to the Evin prison clinic, which diagnosed a sharp rise in his blood pressure, but failed to treat him. In his letter, Kaboudvand wrote that since he lost consciousness he has been experiencing “intense light-headedness and neurological issues associated with sensory, motion and sight difficulties.” His lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, told Human Rights Watch that on July 15 she appealed to judiciary officials to allow Kaboudvand access to the medical treatment he needs, but that her request has gone unanswered.

“Kaboudvand needs an immediate and thorough assessment of his worsening condition. Denying a prisoner necessary medical care is both cruel and unlawful,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iranian authorities are responsible for his well-being and should immediately ensure he can get the medical attention he needs.”

Kaboudvand has suffered two heart attacks since his arrest and detention in July 2007. Information about Kaboudvand’s condition comes on the heels of reports by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and Amnesty International indicating that prison authorities are systematically denying needed medical care to political prisoners.

Link:
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran’s restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly in the Kurdish regions, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/01/08/iran-freedom-expression-and-association-kurdish-regions

Eutelsat: Explain Efforts to Counter Censorship by Iran

***Media Advisory***
Eutelsat: Explain Efforts to Counter Censorship by Iran

(New York, June 25, 2010) – The French satellite operator, Eutelsat, should share any policies and procedures it has in place explicitly to safeguard freedom of expression when dealing with governments that systematically engage in censorship, Human Rights Watch said today. It should also explain its decision to suspend certain Persian-language programming from its most popular satellite after Iranian authorities began jamming its signals earlier this year.In a letter sent to Eutelsat on June 25, 2010, Human Rights Watch repeated its requests for more information regarding the company’s efforts to counter Iran’s jamming of satellite signals carrying Persian-language broadcasts from BBC Persian TV and Voice of America. Human Rights Watch sent an initial letter to Eutelsat on February 8 asking the company to explain its decision to suspend the programs from its popular Hotbird 6 satellite. A follow-up letter with additional questions, including a request for information regarding Eutelsat policies and procedures in place to protect freedom of information, was sent to Eutelsat on March 17.
Human Rights Watch has yet to receive a response to the second letter.“With Tehran systematically trying to silence Iranian civil society and to cut off Iranians’ access to information, telecommunications companies doing business with Tehran are on the front line of the struggle to protect freedom of information," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "These companies should have adequate policies and procedures to make sure the information keeps flowing."For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit: http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran

Iran: Political Prisoner’s Life in Danger

Free 1999 Student Protester Behrooz Javid-Tehrani
May 23, 2009

(New York) -The Iranian government should immediately release ailing political prisoner Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, a human rights activist first arrested during 1999 nationwide student protests, and ensure he has access to adequate medical care, Human Rights Watch said today.

Javid-Tehrani, who has been continually detained since 2005, is on hunger strike and suffers from health problems caused by prolonged torture.
A student activist and leading defender of the rights of political prisoners and their families, Javid-Tehrani has spent the last 10 years in and out ofprison. He is currently held in the "doghouse" section of the infamous Gohar Dasht prison in Karaj city, north of Tehran, with his hands and feet cuffed.
"Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, who is critically ill, is in prison for his peaceful political dissent and his human rights advocacy," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "He should never have been imprisoned in the first place and he should be released at once or he will likely die in prison."
Javid-Tehrani, 29, has never had access to a lawyer, and has had limited access to his family since his 2005 arrest. Despite an independent medical examination in 2006 that confirmed he had been tortured while in prison, Javid-Tehrani has been refused release to obtain needed medical care. Amongst his current known ailments are fresh bruises and wounds to his body as well as the loss of 50 percent of his eyesight due to head injuries inflicted by his interrogators in prison. In addition, authorities have not provided adequate medical care during his 18-day hunger strike, according to his friend Kianoosh Sanjari, a human rights activist who was a fellow inmate during part of Javid-Tehrani's term inEvin prison in Tehran.
Iranian officials first detained Javid-Tehrani on July 9, 1999, when he was 19, as he participated in student demonstrations that spread across Iran. He was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of "acting against national security." Four years into his sentence, his sister phoned him to say their mother had passed away but the Iranian Judiciary refused to let him attend his mother's burial. His sentence was later commuted and he was released in late 2003.
In 2004, he was detained twice, both times for demonstrating for the rights of political prisoners and their families in front of the United Nations offices in Tehran. Prison officials interrogated and tortured him in Section 209 of Evin prison in Tehran, Kianoosh Sanjari told Human Rights Watch. Sanjari became aware of Javid-Tehrani's torture in Evin because of the close proximity of their cells and the fact that they shared the same interrogator, an official who goes by the name of Saeed Sheikhan.
In 2005, ahead of the presidential elections won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Javid-Tehrani and others in an organization called Jebhe-ye Democratic-e Iran(the Iranian Democratic Front), organized activities such as putting up posters, distributing fliers, and writing political graffiti to protest the lack of transparency and lack of democracy in Iranian elections. The group also raised funds to help families of political prisoners and made short films interviewing the families.
After Javid-Tehrani interviewed political prisoner Akbar Mohammadi during the latter's temporary release and shortly before Mohammadi's death under suspicious circumstances during a hungerstrike in prison, he was again arrested in 2005. According to Sanjari, that interview was of special interest to prison officials, who raised it repeatedly during their interrogations of both friends.
The head judge at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Judge Hasan Zare Dehnavi, known as Judge Hadad, sentenced Javid-Tehrani to four years in prison for membership in an "illegal" organization (the Iranian DemocraticFront) that "acts against state security," 40 lashes for "insulting the leadership and the state," and three-and-a-half years on charges of belonging to the Mojahedin'e Khalgh Organization (MKO). According to Sanjari, this charge was fabricated by the interrogator Sheikhan and furthered by a personal conflict with Judge Hadad, the judge who later sentenced Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi to eight years for espionage.
An appeals court reduced the sentence on the MKO charge by six months. Javid-Tehrani has now served more than half his 2005 sentence. Most prisoners in Iran are eligible for release after serving half of their sentence, but he has not been granted even one day of customary temporary release since 2005.
Human Rights Watch is concerned that Javid-Tehrani's life is in immediate danger, in light of the suspicious deaths of political prisoners at Gohar Dasht prison (also known as Rajayi Shahr), most recently that of Amir Heshmat Saran in March 2009. Gohar Dasht was one of the main sites of the 1988 mass summary executions of political prisoners which killed thousands.
"Amongst Iran's political prisoners, Gohar Dasht prison is known as the ‘doghouse' because prisoners are sent there to die," said Whitson. "The Iranian government is legally bound to ensure safety and provide healthcare for all its prisoners. But it has consistently failed to do so for political prisoners, with deadly results."
Human Rights Watch urged Iranian authorities to release Javid-Tehrani immediately and end its persecution of peaceful critics and dissidents.

*** Media Advisory ***
Iran Frees Jailed Journalist
The release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, following her appeal of an eight-year sentence for espionage, shows that Iran can uphold international standards of due process when it wishes, Human Rights Watch said today.“We are glad that the Iranian authorities decided to address this travesty of justice and release Roxana Saberi,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “But Saberi’s experience reflects the treatment of many Iranians who find themselves in custody for no good reason. We hope that they, too, will be given justice by the Iranian courts.”An appeals court in Iran reduced Saberi’s sentence to a two-year suspended sentence and a five-year ban on reporting in Iran. Her parents said that she will return with them to North Dakota as soon as possible.For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iranFor more information, please contact:In Washington, DC, Joe Stork: +1-202-612-4327; or +1-202-299-4925 (mobile)