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The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE), also known as the Council for Defending the Right to Education, has published a new report detailing the increasing persecution of and discrimination against university students in Iran. The report notes that this practice has become a trend since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ascension to power, and has only accelerated since: “The educational apartheid has specifically gained speed over the past three years, with hundreds of students … banned from pursuing their education through rulings issued by Disciplinary Committees on campuses and the Ministry of Science’s Disciplinary Committee.”

The report notes that the Minister of Science, Kamran Daneshjoo, “has given two insulting and threatening speeches against the students,” and raises concerns “that starring and banning students from their right to education will be spreading.” The report calls for an end to the violations of Iranian students’ rights to education, speech, and association from assembly, as well as a condemnation of Daneshjoo’s statements.

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE), an organization founded by students who have been banned from education and starred students, was formed in September 2008. According to the founders of this student organization, the Council has, from the beginning, remained an independent, apolitical, and guild organization whose sole purpose was concentrated on the basic human right to education. Since its establishment, many ACRE members have been imprisoned for following up on the right to education. Zia Nabavi, Majid Dori and Mahdieh Golroo are some of the prominent members of this student group that are currently in prison.

The full text of the report is below:

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Comprehensive Report by the Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) About Ban on Education

End the continuous, organized, and systematic educational apartheid

Seven years after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power, the trend to ban students from their basic right to education continues and starred and banned students remain prisoners, increasing in numbers. The educational apartheid has specifically gained speed over the past three years, with hundreds of students have been banned from pursuing their education through rulings issued by Disciplinary Committees on campuses and the Ministry of Science’s Disciplinary Committee who all pursue the illegal trend of starring students in the process of their graduate school entrance examinations.During this time, dozens of these banned students have been arrested and face long-term prison sentences.

Even so, during the past month, the coup government’s Minister of Science, Mr. Daneshjoo, has given two insulting and threatening speeches against the students, and we are concerned that starring and banning students from their right to education will be spreading.

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) publishes this report in keeping with its civil and guild activities to defend the basic and human right of education and to condemn Mr. Daneshjoo’s recent statements. This report comes in five sections as follows:

1. Government pursues second cultural revolution
2. Consistent, systematic, and planned educational apartheid in Iran
3. Starring students tantamount to shutting down the Constitution
4. Banning students from their right to education, an apartheid crime
5. Banned students in prison

 

1.Government pursues second cultural revolution

Following the trend to ban students from their right to education and starring students during Ahmadinejad’s first government, Kamran Daneshjoo is now continuing same destructive policies against the foundation of science and knowledge in the country from his seat as Minister of Science after his key role in coup during the presidential election of 2009. ACRE believes that Mr. Daneshjoo is in charge of holding second cultural revolution on behalf of the government.

Mr. Daneshjoo’s recent criminal statements and his threats on students for further purging are considered in the same direction. Such statements are made by an individual whose name has been reflected in the still-open case of the 2009 elections coup, the attack on Tehran University, and the biggest case of financial corruption in Iran’s economic history.

Kamran Daneshjoo who was exposed to have a fabricated Ph.D. and whose scientific article was perjured, leading to the publisher’s apology, remains in the head of the highest scientific organization in the country; yet he brazenly speaks of corruption in universities and threatens and bullies the students.

ACRE also states that since the arrival of Kamran Daneshjoo in the Ministry of Science and Technology, the rulers have attempted a quiet cultural revolution.ACRE believes that his choice as the Minister of Science, considering his closeness to the power structure and his multiple character flaws that make him prone to following orders from security organization, is intended to cleanse the universities of critical students and faculty members and ending all political, cultural, and guild activities inside the country’s universities.

Mr. Daneshjoo’s recent statement, “The university is a place of support for the regime and the government,” is evidence to support our claim that Kamran Daneshjoo’s mission is to head the second Cultural Revolution.

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) condemns Kamran Daneshjoo’s recent criminal statements that “there is no place in universities for critics” and expresses concern about the spreading trend of banning students from education, and believes that Kamran Daneshjoo consistently threatens students and bans them from education with the intent to deflect public opinion and cover up the dark points of his personal, political, and economically corrupt life.

It seems that his recent threats are also in reaction to his repeated scandals in the media about his life during education period in the UK. History of Mr. Daneshjoo during studying abroad and also his life before Islamic revolution in Iran shows his deception in speaking of “Islamization of universities” through approaches employed by the Taliban, and of “establishing separate boy and girl universities.”

 

2.Consistent, systematic, and planned educational apartheid in Iran

Between 2006 and 2011, each year dozens of student activists with distinguished rankings in Iran’s Graduate Entrance Examination, have been banned from enrolling in universities and pursuing their graduate studies. In 2006, student activists who had passed the Graduate Entrance Examination and whose names had appeared in the list of admitted students in the Sanjesh [measurement] Organization’s newspaper, faced stars next to their names in their enrollment forms when they appeared to enroll in their universities of choice.Students who had three stars next to their names were never allowed to continue their education.In the years 2007 and 2008, as Graduate Entrance Examination results started to appear on the internet, student activists who had scored passing and distinguished rankings were not given their score sheets and thus were unable to choose their areas of study.In 2009, when preliminary results for the Graduate Entrance Examination were announced prior to the presidential election, “starred” students were able to receive their score reports and choose their areas of study.But in September, they were informed that they had “failed academically.”None of them were issued a final score report and Sanjesh Organization announced that these students had failed to choose their areas of study.After the students appeared in person, Sanjesh Organization verbally informed them that they had been “starred.”These starred students were again banned from receiving their preliminary score report in the 2010 and 2011 Graduate Entrance Examination.

During this period, rulings of Disciplinary Committees have temporarily banned hundreds of university students from their right to education, in some cases leading to the students’ expulsion.Only since 2009, Disciplinary Committees have banned hundreds of student activists from pursuing their education.The distribution of banned students across national universities is as follows:

Amirkabir University, 40 students; AllamehTabataba’i University, around 10 students; Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, more than 30 students; University of Mazandaran andBabolNoshirvani University of Technology, 20 students; Imam Khomeini International University (in Qazvin), 13 students; Iran University of Science and Technology (Elm-o-San’at University), more than 20 students; Shiraz University, 15 students; Shahrekord University, 10 students; Islamic Azad University-Shahrekord, 2 students; Urmia University (Orumiyeh), 4 students; Babol Science and Technology University, 5 students; Islamic Azad University-Central Tehran Branch (Tehran-Markaz), 5 students; University of Kurdistan, 7 students; ShahidChamran University of Ahvaz, 8 students;Yasouj University, 8 students; University of Tabriz, 9 students; Khoramshahr Marine Science and Technology University, 3 students; Shahrood University of Technology, 10 students; Islamic Azad University-Mashhad Branch, 15 students; Isfahan University of Technology and University of Isfahan, more than 10 students, and dozens of students in other universities nationwide.

Many of these students have faced illegal arrest and imprisonment simultaneous with their education ban.For example only at University of Mazandaran, 13 banned students were also detained and imprisoned.

In addition to these cases, many Iranian students are banned from education only for their religious beliefs. For years Baha’i students are banned from any educational right. In recent months, some of Baha’i banned students and also instructors of Baha’i’s online university (The Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, BIHE) were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment and Baha’i’s online university has been closed by the government.

Some other students were banned from education only for the connection of their relatives to government’s opposition groups. These students with no history of political activities and only because of their relatives’ political attitude were starred and banned from pursuing higher education. Such a deprivation and family punishments can only be seen in North Korea or Medieval.

Many other student activists remain in prison and are practically banned from education.For example, MiladAsadi who was recently released after two years in prison, is now in the process of expulsion from the university on excuses of “unauthorized absence” and the length of time it has taken him to graduate, even though he has not received any rulings from the Disciplinary Committee.

 

3.Starring students tantamount to shutting down the Constitution

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) has repeatedly emphasized the illegal nature of starring the students, and states that banning students from their basic education rights is considered educational apartheid and an indication of disregard for the Iranian Constitution.

Banning students from their right to continue their education is in violation of numerous articles of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran.For example, items 3, 9, and 14 of Article 3, and Articles 19, 20, 22, 30, 36, 37, and especially Article 23 of the Constitution explicitly states:”Inquisition is prohibited and no one can be mistreated and interrogated only for having an opinion.”In addition to contents of Item 3 of Article 3 and Article 30 of the Iranian Constitution which hold the government “responsible to the entire nation” for facilitating and spreading higher education, Items 9 and 14 of Article 3 and Articles 20, 22, 30, 36, and 37 of the Iranian Constitution also require the government to remove unfair discrimination and to provide fair opportunities for the entire nation, free of their type of religion, belief, and political orientation, and to make all human, political, social, and cultural rights available to them.

From a legal viewpoint, the word “nation” is a general word which does not allow exceptions and includes the entire Iranian peoples without regard for their color, ethnicity, language, religion, belief, and orientation.Therefore, it is obvious that the right to education, especially for higher education in universities, not only is a manifestation of “legitimate liberties,” but according to Item 3 of Article 9 and Article 30 of the Iranian Constitution, it is a part of every single Iranian’s undisputed human, political, social, and cultural rights and is consider one of the obligations and commitments the government has towards “the nation.”

Also, Article 9 of the Iranian Constitution explicitly states, “In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the freedom, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of the country are inseparable from one another, and their preservation is the duty of the government and all individual citizens…no authority has the right to abrogate legitimate freedoms, not even by enacting laws and regulations for that purpose, under the pretext of preserving the independence and territorial integrity of the country.”Therefore, the authorities’ reference to a resolution by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution as the basis for starring the students has no legal legitimacy.Even assuming the existence of such a resolution, which has never been presented to the students banned from education, this resolution is illegal and according to Article 9 of the Iranian Constitution, lacks legal legitimacy and those who approved it and enforced it deserve to be punished according to the Iranian Constitution.

There is a question about the legal legitimacy of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.Such an organization, with so much power and authority, capable of shutting down all Iranian laws and the Constitution, does not exist anywhere in the Iranian Constitution.Also, according to Articles 71, 72, and 85 of the Iranian Constitution, the legislative powers are only and only bestowed upon the Iranian Parliament.Thus, in order for any resolution by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution to become a law, unless where the resolution is against the law or Sharia, must be approved by the Iranian Parliament.Article 85 of the Iranian Constitution states , “The right of membership is vested with the individual, and is not transferable to others.The Assembly cannot delegate the power of legislation to an individual or committee.But whenever necessary, it can delegate the power of legislating certain laws to its own committees, in accordance with Article 72. In such a case, the laws will be implemented on a tentative basis for a period specified by the Assembly, and their final approval will rest with the Assembly.”Article 71 of the Iranian Constitution limits resolutions by the Parliament to the Iranian Constitution: “The Parliament can establish laws on all matters, within the limits of its competence as laid down in the Constitution.”

Note 1 of Article 62 (Repeat) of the Islamic Penal Code defines social rights as, “Social rights are those rights that the Legislator has defined for the citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran and other individuals who reside within the realm of its rule, and taking [those rights] will have to be by law or a ruling by a qualified court.”Therefore, any ban on an individual’s social rights requires explicit laws or rulings by qualified courts and the Iranian Constitution has defined “qualified courts” for political crimes one with a jury in attendance.Even so, Article 9 of the Constitution emphasizes that even by passing new laws and regulations, people’s legitimate liberties, the right to education being one of its most obvious, cannot be taken from them.For almost all students who have been banned from education, no legal rulings have ever been issued by qualified courts (or even Revolutionary Courts) to deprive them from their right to education.

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) considers depriving students from their right to education a widespread and systematic educational apartheid which is tantamount to shutting down the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran and violating all international commitments of the Iranian Government in the area of human rights.According to Sharia laws, and especially as God said, “deliver on your promises,” this action by the ruling organizations is wrong.

Also, ACRE believes that “starring” the students by Sanjesh Organization, Ministry of Science, and Azad University, not only represents discrimination and educational apartheid, it is also a type of betrayal of trust and fraud, that has destroyed public trust in these educational organizations.

 

4.Banning students from their right to education, an apartheid crime

It is an apartheid crime to deprive students from continuing their education through enforcing political and ideological discrimination despite the Iranian Government’s international obligations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, additional civil-social conventions and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

The Iranian Government joined the “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid” in 1984 and is bound by the provisions of Islamic Republic of Iran’s accession ot the Convention, approved by the Iranian Parliament on 23 January 1984.

According to Item (c) of Article II of the said law, “Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association,” is considered a crime of apartheid.

In Article V of the said law it is stated, “Persons charged with the acts enumerated in article II of the present Convention may be tried by a competent tribunal of any State Party to the Convention which may acquire jurisdiction over the person of the accused or by an international penal tribunal having jurisdiction with respect to those States Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.”

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) seriously condemns “starring” students and depriving them from their basic and natural right to education and demands an end to this inhumane and illegal trend and return of the starred and banned students to universities.

Based on Iranian and International laws, ACRE identifies banning students from their right to higher education as a criminal act and a crime of apartheid and demands the trial of those responsible for this criminal act.

 

5.Banned students in prison

Despite the ACRE’s guild activities and its non-political policies, over the past three years dozens of starred and banned students have been detained and sentenced to long prison terms.Arrests of students in Iran is a continuous, systematic, and planned effort.

In a continuation of this trend, last week Kaveh Rezaei, a Hamadan University student banned from continuing his education, was transferred to the Quarantine Ward of Karaj Prison without regard for the requirement to separate prisoners, so that he may serve his unfair 18-month prison term to which he was sentenced for his student activism.Mo’in Ghamin, a student from Babol’s Science and Technology University, is another student banned from education who was recently arrested.

Eftekhar Barzegarian, a banned student from Mashad’sFerdowsi University, who previously served eight months inside Ward 5 of Mashad’sVakilabad Prison along with hundreds of death-row inmates, was summoned to this prison facility again and is now kept in an unknown location inside the complex.He has not had any telephone contacts or visits since his recent arrest.

Over the past three years, dozens of banned students have been arrested and many of them have been sentenced to long prison terms.Here are the names of some of those students:Seyed Zia Nabavi, Majid Dorri, Mahdieh Golroo, Ashkan Zahabian, Peyman Aref, Hessam Salamat, Majid Tavakoli, Emad Bahavar, Alireza Khoshbakht, Zahra Janipour, Zahra Tohidi, Ali Gholizadeh, Somayeh Rashidi, Hojjat Arabi, Eftekhar Barzegarian, Mahsa Jazini, Shiva Nazar Ahari, Kouhyar Goudarzi, Navid Khanjani, Esmaeel Salmanpour, Ali Nazari, Ali Taghipour, ImanSedighi, HosseinGhabel, Mohsen Barzegar, Saeed Jalalifar, Sara Khademi, Ehsan Ghashghaee, Vahid Abedini, Mehdi Arabshahi, Morteza Samhyari, Ali Ajami, Mehdi Gilani, Farzaneh NajjarNejad, Hossei Ahmad Nejad, Adel Taee Nia, Ali Parviz, Farshad Azizi, Kaveh Rezaei, Abdoljalil Rezaee, Mehdi Khodaei, Salman Sima, Amin Riahi, Ali Akbar Mohammad Zadeh, Milad Asadi, Arash Sadeghi, and Mo’in Ghamin.

Some of these banned students such as Zia Nabavi, Majid Dorri, Majid Tavakoli, Emad Bahavar, Mahdieh Golroo, Efthekhar Barzegarian, Kaveh Rezaee, Arash Sadeghi, Ali Akbar Mohammad Zadeh, Mohsen Ghami, and Ali Ajami remain in prison.

Majid Dorri, a member of The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE), was arrested on 9 July 2009, and is currently inside Behbahan Prison in exile, having had not even one day of furlough since his arrest.He is only in prison because he defended his right to education and that of his friends’.Majid was sentenced to six years in prison in exile onthe baseless and false charge of relations with an opposition political organization.They were hoping to question the legitimacy of defending the right to education, whereas Majid and other members of The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) have consistently emphasized the independent and non-political direction of the ACRE.

Seyed Zia Nabavi, another member of The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE), has also been sentenced to 10 years in prison in exile on the unfounded and absurd charges of “relations with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization.”He was arrested only three days after the election and after the 15 June 2009 demonstrations, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in exile by virtue of his activities in The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE).He was exiled to Karoon Prison in Ahvaz on 21 September 2010.Security authorities have repeatedly told the Nabavi family that charges raised against Zia Nabavi were unfounded and were only used as an excuse for confronting his activities in The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE).Judge Pirabbasi who was in charge of his case told his lawyers that this charge is not sustained and therefore there is no need to defend the suspect in this area, but he received the heavy sentence of 10 year in prison in exile on insistence and pressure from security authorities.

In a letter to Sadegh Larijani, Zia Nabavi wrote, “Because of my special familial situation and considering the special sensitivities around my family, I was constantly careful to never, not eveninadvertantly, not to establish even the slightest contact with the said group.This is why, and as mentioned in the Intelligence Ministry report, I never responded to any suspicious contacts, even from news agencies.It is beyond belief that my refusal of contacts which should be an evidence in my favor, is used against me as the evidence for my 10-year prison sentence on charges of ‘contact and cooperation with the Mujahedin-e Khalgh,’” said Zia Nabavi in his letter to SadeghLarijani.

Mahdieh Golroo is another imprisoned member of The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) who established The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) in 2008 along with Zia Nabavi, MajidDorri, and a group of other banned students. Ms. Golroo was expelled from the university for her student activities and was sentenced to three years in prison for defending the right to education.

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The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE) is aligned with other student groups to represent the voices of imprisoned students and demands that Iran’s ruling authorities respect the articles of the Iranian Constitution and Iran’s international obligations, and to end the trend of depriving students from their right to education and starring the student activists, and to free the banned students who have been imprisoned only for demanding their basic right to education, and to make it possible for the starred and banned students to resume their education.

The Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE)

May 2012

Nature, one of the world’s premiere scientific journals, has been following the case of imprisoned physics student Omid Kokabee in Iran. Citing the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Nature’s most recent article about Kokabee is below:

 

 

 

Iranian physicist sentenced to prison

Omid Kokabee gets 10 years in jail for ‘communicating with a hostile government’

by: Michele Catanzaro

(15 May 2012) Omid Kokabee, an Iranian graduate student who has been imprisoned in Tehran for the past 15 months, was sentenced to 10 years on Sunday for allegedly conspiring with foreign countries against Iran.

Judge Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolution Court — who is famous for his harsh sentences — tried 10 to 15 people in the same trial, under the collective charge of collaborating with Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.

Kokabee, a graduate student who previously worked on the physics of optics at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain, and more recently at the University of Texas in Austin, was arrested in Tehran in February 2011 on charges of “communicating with a hostile government” and “illegal earnings” (see ‘A year in jail without trial for Iranian student accused of spying’).

Close contacts of Kokabee in Iran have lamented the fact that no proof was presented at the trial to justify the sentence. Whereas other prisoners in the group declared themselves guilty in a television broadcast on the evening before the trial, the physics student has consistently denied all charges and refused to speak in court. (Faces are obscured in the broadcast, but Kokabee may be the person who appears at 24 seconds in a blue shirt.) He plans to appeal the sentence, according to his contacts.

International concern

Since Nature first highlighted Kokabee’s case (see ‘Missing physicist may have been jailed in Iran’), various organizations have written to the Iranian authorities asserting his innocence and asking for a fair trial — including the Committee of Concerned Scientists, a human-rights group based in New York; the American Physical Society in College Park, Maryland; and a group of four international optics organizations. His case has been included as a cause for concern in the report of Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.

In an open letter written while in prison, Kokabee claimed that the authorities were trying to obtain his “collaboration” through threats to him and his family; in another, he insisted that he was not a political activist, something that his friends confirm. Kokabee’s friends speculate that his frequent trips to Iran — totalling four or five in 2010 — may have aroused the suspicions of the Iranian authorities.

“This will send chills through the Iranian higher-education system, particularly scholars and students who seek to enhance and expand their horizons abroad,” says Hadi Ghaemi, a physicist previously at City University in New York and director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, an association that has recently promoted aninitiative for imprisoned students.

Meanwhile, Majid Jamali Fashi, convicted in August last year of murdering nuclear scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in Tehran in 2010 (see ‘Iranian academics fear more killings’), was executed this morning, according to the Iranian state news agency.

The family of Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-Canadian who was sentenced to death in January 2012, was finally allowed to see him after three months of not being able to visit him. His sister, Maryam Malekpour, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Saeed’s interrogators have prevented him from seeing his family.

“During these three months, authorities never answered any of our requests or questions, and the numerous letters I wrote were left unanswered. Only some reliable sources whose names I cannot reveal said that Saeed’s interrogators do not authorize visits for him. Even when the case judge issued a permit for visitations for Saeed, we were not allowed to see him. We guess that because they took Saeed in front of a television camera three times in order for him to make confessions and to show that he was remorseful and each time Saeed refused to give a confession, perhaps they did not allow him to have visitors to punish him,” said Maryam Malekpour.

36-year-old Saeed Malekpour, a web developer and resident of Canada, has been sentenced to death on the charge of “insulting Islamic sanctities,” for alleged “management of pornographic websites.” Malekpour’s family has maintained that he simply developed image-sharing software that was used, without his knowledge, to post pornographic photos.

Maryam Malekpour told the Campaign that authorities have not given her brother clear information about his upcoming execution: ” …  [W]e were able to see Saeed two weeks ago. Saeed’s morale was good. They had not informed him of the confirmation of his death sentence, so we didn’t tell him anything either, lest the news upsets him. His death sentence remains in the Judiciary’s Sentence Enforcement Unit. Neither he nor his lawyers have been served the confirmation, but we are really fearful that his death sentence may be carried out suddenly.”

“I heard a while back through Saeed’s cellmates that he has developed kidney stones and is in a lot of pain. His cellmates had also asked the prison guards several times to take him to a doctor, but they only transferred him to the prison infirmary. When I heard this I spoke with a specialist and got him his medicine and sent it to him,” added Maryam Malekpour, explaining that since he has begun taking the medicine, his condition has improved.

Security forces arrested Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour, 36, when he returned to Iran in 2008 to visit his ailing father. He appeared on Iranian state TV in 2009 and confessed to charges raised against him. In October 2010 he was sentenced to death on charges of “insulting Islamic sanctities” for alleged “management of pornographic websites.” The Supreme Court overturned the sentence in November 2011 because of deficiencies in investigations and insufficient evidence, and forwarded his case to the Revolutionary Court. Even so, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on 30 January 2012.

Intelligence Agencies Exert Increasing Control over Media in Iran

A source in the Iranian government told the Campaign that Iran’s drive to restrict the ability of foreign media to operate freely in Iran is due to the fears of some officials that international press coverage can undermine their political interests.

(14 May 2012) Iranian authorities should end their undue restrictions on and intimidation of foreign-based journalists and media outlets, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

“Iranian authorities have long been repressing domestic journalists. Now it’s clear that they have turned an eye to neutering international press freedoms also,” said Campaign spokesperson Hadi Ghaemi. “We are increasingly seeing Iranian authorities using intimidation, arrests, censorship, and other methods to restrict foreign media from reporting on Iran.”

A source in the Iranian government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Campaign that Iran’s drive to restrict the ability of foreign media to operate freely in Iran is due to the fears of some officials that international press coverage can undermine their political interests.

“The Intelligence Ministry, the Revolutionary Guards, and the National Security Council are pressuring the Deputy Minister of Culture who oversees the foreign press to give [these security agencies] more control over the way foreign media reports Iran’s politics and economy, as we approach the 2013 presidential election,” the government source said.

The government source also said that the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Unit is more active than other intelligence agencies in curbing press freedom in Iran. “The Guards believe that the Iranian government showed negligence and ineptitude in allowing foreign journalists to cover the 2009 presidential election and post-election unrest. So, they are trying to exert more control over the presence of foreign journalists in Iran,” the government source said.

Since the June 2009 election, authorities have threatened and interrogated several journalists, contributors, and their family members, as well as Iranians appearing in foreign media, including BBC Persian, Reuters, Newsweek magazine, and The New Yorker magazine.

Sources reported that Iranian intelligence officers threatened a Reuters journalist after the release of a video report about female ninjas in Iran.

On 16 February 2012, London-based Reuters News Agency released a report profiling Iranian women practicing the Japanese martial art of Ninjutsu. The report, originally entitled Thousands of Female Ninjas Train as Iran’s Assassins, misleadingly and distastefully referred to the female athletes as “assassins.” As a result, Iran suspended the press licenses of 11 Reuters journalists in Iran.

Press TV, an English-language news network run by the Iranian government, reported that the women in the Reuters report were pursuing a defamation lawsuit against Reuters.

The Campaign has recently learned that a few days after the ninja video’s release, the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and Culture (Ministry of Culture) summoned the journalist who was responsible for the report. According to an eyewitness, when the reporter was at the Ministry of Culture’s offices in Tehran, the staff left the offices at one point, and then officers from the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Unit arrived and interrogated the reporter for several hours. The eyewitness said that the reporter was extremely frightened and was shaking after the interrogation session by the Revolutionary Guards.

The aforementioned government source alleged that representatives of the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Unit told the Ministry of Culture that “no word was to be said about the interrogation session.”

The Reuters reporter was also allegedly threatened and told that she should not speak about the interrogation, or else she and her family will face further difficulties. The government source claimed that authorities told the Reuters office in Tehran that if any news about the interrogation was ever published, their offices would never re-open.

“Iranian intelligence and security agencies are resorting to harassment, intimidation, censorship, and arrest of foreign media that produces stories it disapproves of in order to exert undue control over news coverage,” said Ghaemi. “The Minister of Culture himself has a responsibility to make sure security agencies don’t use his office to conduct politically-motivated intimidation campaigns against journalists.”

Laura Secor, contributor to The New Yorker magazine, described to the Campaign how Iranian officials tried to limit her ability to report on the March 2012 parliamentary elections.

“The week of the parliamentary election, visiting foreign correspondents were forced to comply, at times, with a program that confined us to buses and kept us together as a group and under watch,” Secor wrote in an email to the Campaign. “On the day of the election, we were expected to spend eleven hours on a bus, being taken to polling stations together with Iranian state television, which was filming us, and intelligence agents who were watching us. The only other option was to go back to our hotels, which we were forbidden to leave.”

“Over the course of the week, at least two of us were detained and questioned. In my case, I was questioned about my movements and my contacts, I was accused of being a spy, and some of my personal papers were confiscated,” Secor added.

Secor details her account in full in the 7 May 2012 issue of The New Yorker.

Since 2009, the number of foreign journalists allowed to enter and operate in the country has decreased notably. One Canadian journalist told the Campaign that Iranian authorities told her directly that they were rejecting her visa application because they were unhappy with her past coverage of Iranian affairs.

In practice, the Ministry of Culture keeps a file, which includes all published reports, of all foreign journalists working in Iran. This file is used when authorities decide whether or not to grant visas to applicants looking to enter Iran as journalists.

“In selecting journalists to report from Iran, a general effort was made to select reporters who had never covered Iran, or who had never published critical articles; though a few experienced reporters were also included in the list,” the government source told the Campaign.

As a result of growing restrictions on foreign journalists, only a limited number of journalists were invited to cover the Iranian Parliamentary elections this past March, the government source explained to the Campaign.

The Campaign has also previously reported the government’s obsessive attack on BBC Persian, which included satellite jamming, harassment of BBC journalists, and arrests of BBC contributors. In September 2011, authorities detained six independent documentary filmmakers because their films were licensed and aired on BBC Persian. In late January 2012, authorities seized a family member of a BBC Persian employee based in London, and then tried to pressure the family member to denounce the employee’s work with BBC Persian.

“A family member of one of the BBC Persian employees was detained and pressured to make online connections with the BBC employee,” Sadeq Saba, the head of BBC Persian, told the Campaign. “During that communication, the BBC employee was remotely interrogated to get information about BBC,” he continued.

Recently, Iran’s Press TV broadcast a report critical of BBC Persian called “Eye on the Fox.” In the report, several prisoners were shown “confessing” to working for BBC Persian, an act the government sees as a crime. The footage, reportedly provided to Press TV by the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Unit, was filmed secretly in Evin Prison interrogation rooms. The government’s Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) ran a similar program for domestic audiences.

According to the Campaign’s source inside the government, this production was not solely a media operation.

“Press TV is acting as the media arm of the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Unit at this time. This is why during the production of ‘Eye on the Fox,’ an IRIB program about the BBC, some of the film’s components were compiled by the Intelligence Unit. They use Press TV to put pressure on different media outlets,” the government source said.

Iranian intelligence agencies have a track record of using coercion and torture to extract false statements and confessions. At times, intelligences officers have worked closely with Press TV and other state media outlets to film and televise forced confessions, often of detainees before they have faced trial. Maziar Bahari, a former reporter for US-based Newsweek magazine, reported being made to make such a taped confession in July 2009.

According to the government source, Press TV was the government agency that turned the Reuters ninja report into a controversy. Reuters’ Tehran bureau was shut down only after Press TV complained publicly about the Reuters report. Press TV plays an important role in the Iranian government’s efforts to monitor and limit foreign media. “The channel [Press TV] has become the government’s watchdog as well as its prosecutor, judge, and jury when it comes to the foreign media,” said the Iranian government insider.

“In my opinion, Press TV, as the media arm of the Iranian government in general and the IRGC [Revolutionary Guard] in particular, tries to cut off the flow of information between Iran and the rest of the world,” Maziar Bahari told the Campaign.

“They try to do this through different means,” he continued. “First, they try to poison the environment through Press TV and to slander different individuals in the media. The second step is to try, through legal means, to prevent the activities of foreign press and media. The third step, which is a well-known and established method in Iran, is to use threats, force, and dismissal of reporters to limit and control their efforts to disseminate the news,” Bahari said.

“Foreign journalists, more than domestic journalists, need government cooperation to be able to work in the country,” Campaign spokesperson Ghaemi said.“Because of the fear that they might not get visas or might lose their ability to work in Iran, some journalists do not expose these threats and intimidation. But the government has taken advantage of this fear to prevent the international press from reporting critically on Iran.”

Human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he has been under immense pressure during recent days to make false televised confessions. ”Tomorrow is my last day to either make television confessions or go to prison. I will go to prison, and I will not [be forced to] leave my homeland,” he said.

Dadkhah told the Campaign that he would never make fake confessions. “They told me that if I didn’t confess, they would enforce my sentence. They talked to me for long periods of time and I did not accept it. I will say now that if one day I say things, they are not credible and I must have been under conditions where I was forced to say those things. I hope God maintains my power.”

“Under intense pressure, they asked me to say before television cameras that the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) received funds from foreigners, meaning that we were operators for foreigners, which is not true,” said Dadkhah. The now-banned Defenders of Human Rights Center was co-founded by prominent human rights lawyers including Narges Mohammadi, Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.

Dadkhah described the work of the DHRC: “We were a number of lawyers who for our love for our land, our capabilities, and our professional knowledge started the Center and we worked there. Among Iranian lawyers, perhaps a group like ours is rare, a group that has knowledge, capability, and awareness about their work and is so affectionate towards our homeland.”

On 28 April, when Mohammad Ali Dadkhah appeared at Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court to defend his client, Arjang Davoodi, who has been sentenced to death, the Judge informed him that he was not allowed to defend his client, as his nine-year prison sentence has been upheld by an Appeals Court, and that he would be sent to prison soon.

The prominent lawyer has represented dozens of cases of prisoners of conscience, including Ebrahim Yazdi, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, and Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor sentenced to death for moharebeh (enmity with God).

“I believe it unjust to put someone under pressure and tell him to go talk on television and say that he received money from abroad. I was nominated for several foreign awards, and I said that I would only accept these awards if they are not accompanied with money. I have only accepted awards that have no money. Also, I never received any money from my clients whom I defended for their human rights and I consider this my honor. Now, I find it inappropriate for myself to go say those things on TV,” Dadkhah told the Campaign.

When asked what would happen to his clients’ cases when he is sent to prison, he said, “Those who have violated my human rights should answer that. I have done nothing but to do my professional work. My field is international law. My human rights thesis received an A+. If there is a fair and just system, I should not be treated like this.”

Related Links: Prominent Lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah Sentenced To Nine Years

Lawyer’s ‘Nationalism’ on Par with Apostasy Says Deputy Prosecutor

On 20 May 2011, Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court tried Dadkhah on multiple charges such as “membership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center,” “interviewing with foreign media,” and “representing the Isfahan Underground Metro case.” According to the lower court’s ruling, which was announced in July 2011, he was sentenced to nine years in prison and a ten-year ban on practicing and teaching law. The appeals court upheld Dadkhah’s sentence in its entirety.

Currently, almost all prominent members of the DHRC, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, are in prison.

Kasra Nouri, a member of the Gonabadi Dervish order, was ordered to remain in detention just prior to his release. Authorities have increasingly targeted Gonabadi Dervishes, arresting over 100 in the past year.

Just prior to his release, Kasra Nouri, a member of the Gonabadi Dervish order, was ordered to remain in prison, his mother, Shokoofeh Yadollahi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

“Following the efforts of the lawyer and the family, Kasra was supposed to have been released last week, but, unfortunately, on orders from the investigative judge in charge of Kasra’s file, his detention orders have been extended,” Yadollahi told the Campaign. “I hope he is released soon, as my son does not deserve to be detained. He is just a Dervish and should not be detained for being a Dervish or for interviewing with a news outlet,” she added.

On 14 March 2012, Kasra Nouri was arrested on the charges of “propagating against the regime in favor of foreigners” and “contact and interview with Radio Farda.”

Yadollahi explained to the Campaign that her son has faced bad prison conditions, particularly the two weeks he spent inside the Quarantine Ward of Shiraz Central Prison: “This detention center has tragic conditions and its inmates are exposed to the worst hygienic circumstances. The inhumane treatment by authorities and interrogators, accompanied with torture, is against laws for citizens’ rights.”

Nouri had also spent some time in the Detention Center of the Shiraz Intelligence Office, unbeknownst to his family. “After several days of no information about the detention location of my son and a search by his family and lawyer, it turned out that Kasra had been transferred to the Shiraz Intelligence Office’s Detention Center, known as No. 100. After multiple attempts, we were able to visit with him on Tuesday, 11 April, a whole month after his arrest,” said Shokoofeh Yadollahi.

Nouri’s mother added that her son had previously been arrested on 11 January 2012 on the charges of “acting against the regime” and “membership in a deviant group.” After spending 46 days inside the Shiraz Intelligence Office and Adel Abad Prison, he was released on a $50,000 bail.

Judicial authorities have cracked down on the Gonabadi Dervish order, resulting in hundreds of arrests last year. On 3 May, a trial for 189 Gonabadi Dervishes began at Branch 104 of the Boroujerd General Criminal Court in Lorestan Province. The Dervishes on trial face charges of “acting against national security” and “creating public anxiety through assembly and issuing petitions and statements.”

The trial is expected to last ten days. Several Dervishes under trial at this court have not received summonses yet. According to the lawyers representing the Dervishes, considering the court hours and the number of individuals under trial, it is expected that during each day of the trial, the cases of 18 to 20 individuals are reviewed.

Some of the lawyers representing the 189 Dervishes include Gholamreza Hersini, Ehsanollah Heydari, Saeed Gholamian, and Maryam Moshfegh, along with 17 other lawyers.

Kasra Nouri’s mother told the Campaign that government officials have also harassed her family: “Last week, Kasra’s 16-year old brother Amir Nouri was interrogated for five hours inside Intelligence Office’s Detention Center, known as No. 100. We remain under pressure during our visits and [the authorities] do not treat us properly.”

In a statement released today, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya, and Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Gabriela Knaul condemned the Iranian government’s practice of targeting and prosecuting human rights defenders.

“The conviction and extremely harsh sentencing of human rights defenders is an indication of mounting repression against the legitimate activities of human rights defenders and represents a serious setback for the protection of human rights in Iran,” the statement quotes Shaheed saying.

Noting the arrests and lengthy prison sentences of distinguished human rights defenders Narges Mohammadi, Abdolfattah Soltani, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, the experts called for the immediate release of all human rights defenders and the need to guarantee their future protection.

The full text of the statement is below:

__________________________________________________________

Independent UN experts urge Iran to ensure protection for rights defenders

4 May 2012 –A group of independent United Nations experts today condemned the ongoing arrests and harsh sentencing of human rights defenders in Iran, and urged the Government to ensure they are provided with adequate protection.
“The conviction and extremely harsh sentencing of human rights defenders is an indication of mounting repression against the legitimate activities of human rights defenders and represents a serious setback for the protection of human rights in Iran,” said the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not United Nations staff, nor are they paid for their work. Along with fellow experts, Mr. Shaheed voiced particular concern about the situation of Nargess Mohammadi, whose state of health is reportedly extremely fragile.

Ms. Mohammadi, the former vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, founded by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, was rearrested on 21 April to resume a six-year prison sentence handed down by an Iranian appeal court for ‘assembly and collusion against national security, membership in Defenders of Human Rights Centre, and propaganda against the regime.’

The Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, emphasized that human rights defenders play a fundamental role in ensuring a democratic society which respects human rights.

“They must be allowed to carry out their work without facing intimidation, harassment, arrest, and prosecution,” she said.

The experts also highlighted the plight of other human rights defenders arrested or convicted for carrying out their legitimate work, such as Abdolfattah Soltani and Nasrin Sotoudeh, two lawyers who have represented many high-profile political and human rights activists.

Mr. Soltani was arrested in September 2011 on charges of collusion, propaganda against the system and acquisition of property through illegitimate means. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and a 20-year ban on practicing law.

Ms. Sotoudeh was arrested in September 2010 and sentenced by an Iranian appeal court to six years’ imprisonment along with a ten-year ban on practising law.

“The Government has an obligation to ensure that lawyers can perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference and that they do not suffer prosecution for any action taken while carrying out their duties,” said the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul.

The experts called for the immediate release of the human rights defenders concerned, along with all those people who have been arrested and detained for peacefully promoting human rights observance in the country.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation has published a statement calling attention to the human rights crisis in Iran and, in particular, urging for authorities to drop the charges against Mourning Mothers supporter Mansoureh Behkish, who was recently sentenced to four and a half years in prison. CIVICUS is an organization dedicated to empowering various forms of civil society worldwide.

“The sentencing of Mansoureh Behkish is motivated solely by her legitimate activities as a human rights defender, and is in clear violation of Iran’s international law commitments,” says David Kode, Policy and Advocacy Officer at CIVICUS, in the statement.

The statement, released on 24 April, criticizes the Iranian government’s continuing persecution of the Mourning Mothers group. Mansoureh Behkish is only one of the many supporters of the Mourning Mothers that has faced arrest, unfair trials, and harsh prison sentences.

CIVICUS also calls for an end to the systematic persecution and prosecution of women human rights defenders, an issue that is “continuing unabated in Iran. Additionally, the statement urges Iran to release all prisoners of conscience, and end its systematic repression of the Iranian people’s civil liberties.

The full text of the statement is below:

 

Press Statement
CIVICUS: Iran must revoke harsh sentences against human rights defenders

24 April 2012, Johannesburg.

Serious violations of the fundamental rights of women human rights defenders are continuing unabated in Iran, says CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.

In the latest instance, Mansoureh Behkish was sentenced to four and a half years in jail for her human rights work on 3 April 2012. Mansoureh was sentenced to four years for colluding against the Republic through the Mourning Mothers Group and an additional six months for instigating propaganda against the government.

The Mourning Mothers Group, of which Mansoureh is a member, campaigns against unlawful killings, arrests, torture and enforced disappearances of Iranians. The group is composed of women whose children have been murdered, detained or disappeared in Iran since June 2009, and also includes family members of victims of serious human rights violations perpetuated by the Iranian government.

Mansoureh has long been subjected to arbitrary arrest and interrogation stemming from her campaigning work against violations of the rights of Iranians. She was first arrested in August 2009 and detained and interrogated at the notorious Evin Prison for three days. She was re-arrested on 11 June 2011 and released on 8 July. Her passport was also confiscated and a travel ban imposed to prevent her carrying out legitimate human rights activities. Her trial began on 24 December 2011 and she was notified by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran of her sentencing on 4 April 2012. She is in the process of lodging an appeal against the sentence.

“The Iranian government is waging a systematic campaign to silence civil society and discourage Iranians from engaging on human rights issues,” says David Kode, Policy and Advocacy Officer at CIVICUS. “The sentencing of Mansoureh Behkish is motivated solely by her legitimate activities as a human rights defender, and is in clear violation of Iran’s international law commitments.”

Iran continues to imprison numerous human rights defenders for acts of dissent, making it one of the most difficult places for civil society to operate. Arbitrary arrests and judicial harassment resulting in harsh prison sentences for exercising basic democratic freedoms are rife. A critical mass of human rights defenders has had to flee Iran to avoid persecution.

Recently, supporters of the Mourning Mothers Group Leyla Sefollahi and Jila Karamzadeh-Makvandi were handed two-year jail terms for “acting against national security.” Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotendeh, who is widely known for her work in defending juveniles facing the death penalty and campaigning for prisoners of conscience, is herself serving an 11-year sentence for “threatening the security of the state.”

CIVICUS urges Iran to immediately and unconditionally free all prisoners of conscience, whose continued incarceration is a blight on Iran’s human rights record.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global movement of civil society dedicated to   strengthening citizen action and civil society across the world.
__________________________________________________________________
For more information please contact CIVICUS:
David Kode ( david.kode@civicus.org ), Policy and Advocacy Officer, CIVICUS or
Kiva LaTouche( kiva.latouche@civicus.org) Communications Officer, CIVICUS
Tel: +27 11 833-5959
__________________________________________________________________

CIVICUS House, 24 Gwigwi Mrwebi Street, Newtown, Johannesburg, 2001, South Africa
PO Box 933, Southdale, Johannesburg, 2135, South Africa
tel +27 11 833-5959 | fax +27 11 833-7997 | email info@civicus.org.

After detaining 33-year-old Christian pastor Farshid Fathi for 16 months without indictment, judicial authorities finally sentenced him to six years in prison in April 2012. Fathi’s indictment is part of a continuing pattern of discrimination and prosecution of Christian converts in Iran.

Authorities allegedly kept him in solitary confinement the vast majority of his detention, and according to one family friend, beat him. Behnam Irani, a Christian pastor whose prison sentence was extended by five years just before his October 2011 release, is reportedly in dire physical condition. Irani and Fathi have both appealed their sentences.

In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a source close to Farshid Fathi and his family said that all of Fathi’s alleged “crimes” were simply his work as a pastor: “The Bibles we brought to the country were seen as a crime, having more than one Bible or distributing Bibles were seen as a crime, having Christian literature was part of the crime …”

In a forthcoming report to be released summer 2012 about persecuted Christian converts in Iran, the Campaign documents the arrest and persecution of dozens of Christian converts. According to the Campaign’s findings, Christian pastors often face harsher forms of prosecution, such as longer prison sentences, than other persecuted Christians.

Authorities originally arrested Fathi on 26 December 2010 as part of a crackdown on Christians on Christmas Eve. Christian news agencies claim that approximately sixty Christians were arrested during this time.

Fathi’s trial was held in January 2012 and in April 2012, Judge Abdolghassem Salavati, known as the “Judge of Death” for doling out lengthy prison terms and even executions to dozens of political prisoners, sentenced Fathi to six years on the charges of “actions against national security,” “being in contact with enemy foreign countries,” and “religious propaganda.”

The source told the Campaign that Fathi’s charges were based on his contact with Elam ministries, a U.K.-based Persian ministry.

“During the interrogations they had Farshid’s laptop which contained all sorts of church financial information, so for example, money paid for [a church member] to go on a mission was seen as a crime, money used for a proselytizing project was seen as a crime … our travel abroad to conferences was seen as a crime … these are seen as evidence of acting against national security.”

The source also told the Campaign that Fathi’s lawyer was deprived of full access to his client’s case: “When the lawyer went to court they wouldn’t give him the file … Until … a few days [before the trial] they gave him the file, but not even the full file,” said the source, adding that Fathi is currently in Ward 350 in Evin Prison.

Behnam Irani, a Christian pastor and member of the evangelical group Church of Iran, was arrested in April 2010. The Church of Iran is a Christian congregation based in Rasht, whose members have previously also been targeted by the government.

In October 2011, just three days prior to his scheduled release, he was informed that his original 2008 suspended sentence was going to be re-activated and his prison sentence would be extended by five years. Several Christian news agencies have recently alerted to his deteriorating health condition and alleged abuse by prison guards in prison.

The Campaign’s upcoming report on Protestant Christian converts, based on interviews with about 30 Iranian Christians, highlights the broader trend of Christians in Iran who face threats, arrests, and employment discrimination for their beliefs. Nearly everyone interviewed for the Campaign’s forthcoming report was a Christian convert, particularly evangelical Christians.

Amongst Christian converts currently detained in Iran is Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is awaiting a final verdict on whether or not his death sentence on the charge of “apostasy” will be upheld. According to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), authorities have reportedly also imprisoned Noorollah Qabitzade, who was detained in the December 2010 crackdown and remains in prison in Ahvaz.

A member of FCNN explained to the Campaign the political motives behind the persecution and intimidation of Christians:

“We Iranian Christians have never seen ourselves as a political opposition but the government wants to characterize us as political because they want to tie us to groups outside the country and paint us as supporters of foreigners.”

(2 May 2012) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran released a video, Iran’s Future Held Captive, and accompanying letter-writing initiative today calling attention to the government’s intensified crackdown on Iranian campuses. This video stands in solidarity with a call by the Iranian student association Daftar Tahkim Vahdat and alumni association Advar Tahkim Vahdat, and Speak Out for Imprisoned Iranian Students, a campaign launched by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and human rights organizations.

The video describes the intense repression confronting Iranian students for their activities at school. Students not only face being banned and expelled from university, but they also face prosecution and long prison sentences, as well as the possibility of mistreatment while in prison.

The video highlights the situation of 30 students who are currently in prison. These students, including Zia Nabavi, Bahareh Hedayat, and Majid Tavakoli, have been given lengthy prison sentences simply for expressing their beliefs and participating in student organizations.

The Campaign strongly urges Iranian authorities to release student prisoners of conscience and condemns the violation of Iranian students’ rights to education, expression, and association and assembly.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told the Campaign: "I will not object anymore, as I consider this ruling against justice and fairness. What right does the Revolutionary Court have to ban me from practicing law and teaching?"

Judge Salavati has upheld the nine-year prison sentence for prominent lawyer and distinguished human rights activist Mohammad Ali Dadkhah. Dadkhah told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he was only informed of the decision when he went to court to follow up on a client’s case.

“I went to the Revolutionary Court on Saturday morning [April 28] to defend one of my clients, Arjang Davoodi. The branch Judge told me that I was not allowed to defend my client. He said, ‘You yourself will have to go to prison.’ He said, ‘Your sentence has been finalized by the appeals court,’ and he told me to expect service of the ruling. According to this ruling, I have been sentenced to nine years in prison, ten years’ ban on legal practice, ten years’ ban on teaching, cash fines, and flogging. It appears that the flogging sentence will be converted to a cash fine,” Dadkhah told the Campaign.

The ruling, which was upheld by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, was not actually presented to Dadkhah. “Unfortunately, during recent years it has become standard procedure for the Revolutionary Court not to present the suspect with a ruling. They only announce the sentence and now I expect to be served and go to prison,” he said, adding that Judge Salavati informed him of the ruling verbally.

Related Article: Lawyer’s ‘Nationalism’ on Par with Apostasy Says Deputy Prosecutor

On 20 May 2011 Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court tried Mohammad Ali Dadkhah on the charges of “interviews with foreign media,” “membership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center,” and “representing clients in the Isfahan Metro case.” In July 2011, a lower court sentenced him to nine years in prison and a ten-year ban on his legal practice and teaching.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah emphasized that he does not consider his lower court ruling fair:

I have not done anything wrong. I am a lawyer who loves my country and defends the rights of the people of our land. If they prefer a humiliated, intimidated, desperate young lawyer who has never tasted freedom, I do not regard this individual a lawyer. What good is a knife that cannot cut? A lawyer must be brave, logical, and law-abiding, and I have tried to be that way. This is why I have never been summoned by the Bar Association Court.

Presently, according to Judge Salavati, his lower court ruling has been upheld in its entirety by an appeals court and he will soon be served with the ruling.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah is a prominent lawyer who has defended many political activists, students, and prisoners of conscience such as Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Ebrahim Yazdi, and Youcef Naderkhani, a Christian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy.

On 7 July 2009, security forces raided Mohammad Ali Dadkhah’s offices in Tehran and claimed to have found guns and drugs on the premises. His offices were sealed, he and several of his colleagues were arrested, and a judicial case against him commenced. Mohamamd Ali Dadkhah repeatedly stated that the discovered guns and drugs did not belong to him.

Asked whether he will appeal his case to the Supreme Court, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said, “I will not object anymore, as I consider this ruling against justice and fairness. What right does the Revolutionary Court have to ban me from practicing law and teaching? These decisions are only within the jurisdiction of the Bar Association Court, and not the Revolutionary Court. But, unfortunately, they do as they please. This ruling is imposed. Even so, I will not escape and I will not leave my country. I will go to prison. Either I will come out, or I will die there.”

Dadkhah explained to the Campaign that his actions and his work did not merit the charges leveled against him. “No credible evidence about the charges was presented at all. First, they planted drugs and guns in Rad Legal Institute, where my offices are located. Then they raided my offices and said that the items belonged to me. I said no, they did not belong to me. Then they said that I had acted against national security through my interviews and speeches. But most of my interviews and lectures were about Iranian culture, Nowruz, Cyrus, and about Iranian history. All my speeches were in the realm of my expertise which is international law and Iranian culture. Therefore they did not include any of the charges they had raised.”

Last year, after his lower court trial, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told the Campaign, “They told me that my actions smell of nationalism. It was the Prosecutor’s deduction that nationalistic activities amount to apostasy. I told him that I am no expert in this area, but of course I have always defended our cultural heritage, such as Nowruz, to the best of my ability. The prophet of Islam said: ‘Love for the land comes from the belief in God.’ Which one should I accept now and what should I do?”

“Many people told me during this time that they could securely take me out of the country. But I will not run away; I will stay … I stand by what I have said and its consequences. They can come and take me; I am ready. My life is not worth much vis a vis this country’s advancement,” said Dadkhah.

He also expressed regret about his inability to defend his client last Saturday. “My client, Arjang Davoodi, has been sentenced to death on moharebeh charges.  I had gone to defend him, but it was not possible, so I returned,” said Dadkhah.

Ali Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner, sewed his lips and embarked on hunger strike in protest to his illegal transfer and exile to Bander Abbas prison.

A local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Kurdish political prisoner Ali Moradi has sewn his lips and embarked on a hunger strike since 4 April to protest his “illegal exile from Minab Prison to Bandar Abbas Prison.”

The source added that Ali Moradi suffers from a heart condition and that authorities at the Central Prison of Bandar Abbas have neglected his needs and transferred to a solitary cell on 27 April.

“Last February, after an inspector from the Prisons Organization by the name of Shams went to Minab Prison, Ali Moradi spoke with him about the need for action regarding the hygienic and medical conditions of prisoners. Afterwards, on orders from the Head Warden at Minab Prison, the Intelligence Ministry beat and insulted Moradi, and he was transferred to a solitary cell.  Fifteen days after his transfer to a solitary cell, in an illegal move, prison authorities exiled him to Bandar Abbas. In protest to his illegal exile, Ali Moradi sewed his lips together on Friday, 4 April, and embarked on a hunger strike. Prison authorities have so far neglected his demands and during this time, he has been deprived of the right to visit with his family or to call them,” the source told the Campaign.

On 18 January 2003, Ali Moradi was arrested in the village of Kani Dinar, near Marivan. He was later tried by the Marivan Revolutionary Court on charges of “moharebeh (enmity with God) through membership in Komala Party,” sentenced to 30 years in prison and exile to Minab Prison. Ealier, in 1998, he also served 5 years in prison on charges of ‘cooperating with Kurdish groups,’ and had to spend five years in Minab Prison,” said the source.

Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi at their court session.

After months of receiving no response to their letters, Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, two Kurdish prisoners on death row, were finally visited by a Judiciary representative on Tuesday, 24 April.

A Mr. Khodabakhshi, who identified himself as a representative of the Head of the Iranian Judiciary, met with Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi (no relation) about their case.

A source close to the two prisoners’ families told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that on Tuesday, 24 April, “A man named Khodabakhshi, who introduced himself as a representative of the Head of the Iranian Judiciary, met with Zanyar and Loghman Moradi at the Head Warden’s Office at Rajaee Shahr Prison. He told them that following a letter they had sent to the Head of the Judiciary last month, he had been appointed by the Judiciary to review their cases. He proceeded to listen to what the two prisoners told him.”

Security forces arrested Zanyar Moradi, 23, and Loghman Moradi, 25, on 2 August 2009, for the July 2009 murder of the son of Marivan’s Friday Imam. They spent nine months inside the Sanandaj Intelligence Office Detention Center, under severe pressure and physical and psychological pressure to make confessions against themselves. About six months after that, the two prisoners were transferred to the Sanandaj Central Prison and then to Evin Prison’s Intelligence Ministry Ward 209.

According to the source, the visit lasted about 4 hours. “The two prisoners took this time to describe their situation. After he wrote down the statements made by the two political prisoners, the statements were signed by the two men and sent to the Head of the Judiciary.”

On 22 December 2009, Judge Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Zanyar and Loghman Moradi to death by public hanging on the charges of “moharebeh” (enmity with God) and “murder of the Marivan Friday Imam’s son.” Under Iran’s penal code, moharebeh is meant to criminalize acts of armed action against the government. The two men were then transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, where they later wrote letters alleging they had been tortured in prison and forced to make false confessions.

The two convicts objected to their sentence in February 2010 and the case was forwarded to the Supreme Court for review.

Shirkoo Moarefi has been in prison since 2008. He has embarked on hunger strike various times since then to protest his death sentence and his conditions in prison.

Shirkoo Moarefi, a Kurdish political prisoner on death row, has embarked on hunger strike to protest the ambiguous legal status of his. Saeed Sheikhi, Moarefi’s lawyer, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the Supreme Court unlawfully intervened in his client’s case.

On 30 September 2008, authorities arrested Shirkoo Moarefi on the Iran-Iraq border, while he was attempting to return to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. He was sentenced to death on the charge of “moharebeh,” or enmity with God and “acting against national security.” Under Iran’s penal code, moharebeh is meant to criminalize acts of armed action against the government.

“The confirmation of his sentence was against clear legal principles and it is final and since it was issued last year, none of my objections have been addressed … The Supreme Court should have never been involved in this case,” said Saeed Sheikhi, adding that his client’s execution may be carried out at any moment.

Sheikhi explained that a lower court in Saghez initially issued Moarefi’s death sentence. Sheikhi took on the case at the appeals level, a request that Branch 4 Four of Saghez Appeals Court rejected. When Sheikhi requested a retrial, the Supreme Court confirmed the execution sentence once again.

Related article: Shirkoo Moarefi’s Lawyer Says His Execution Orders Have Been Issued

“Using Article 18, we then asked the Head of the Judiciary and the General Prosecutor to review the sentence. Fortunately, the Head of the Judiciary recognized the death sentence as against Sharia law and ordered a retrial,” added Sheikhi.

On 4 April 2012, Shirkoo Moarefi embarked on a hunger strike in Saghez Prison, where he is currently being held. Moarefi has repeatedly embarked on hunger strikes to protest his conditions and his sentence.

According to the Iranian judicial process, Sheikhi said, the case should have been sent to a court that was lateral to the initial court, but instead the Supreme Court intervened in the process. “The Supreme Court can only review cases in two instances, when a ruling is issued in an appeals court and the Supreme Court is asked for assistance, or when when a case is referred to them under extraordinary circumstances, none of which were valid in Shirkoo’s case.”

Saeed Sheikhi told the Campaign that despite his many objections, his client’s death sentence has not been adequately reviewed. “After the sentence was confirmed again, I objected again to the Prosecutor General, Head of the Judiciary, and the Prosecutor at the Saghez Revolutionary Court, but my objections remain unaddressed.”

Government Should End Pattern of Illegal Use of Lethal Force in Northwest Border Provinces

Iranian Kurds and Unemployed Resort to Dangerous Black-Market Work

Bardehnaz Piranshahr border. Photo by Shirkoo Jahani for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

(27 April 2012) The Iranian government should immediately investigate the numerous cases of border security forces killing couriers in the northwestern provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah, and hold accountable those responsible for such callous use of unlawful force, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. The government should also review its border security measures and the growing pattern of excessive use of lethal force, and should adopt clear polices to stop unlawful and unnecessary killing, the Campaign added.

“The ongoing cold-blooded killing of cross-border couriers (often called kulbar) by security officials is unacceptable, and the Iranian government must put an end to it,” Campaign spokesperson Hadi Ghaemi said. “The use of lethal force against these people, who are unarmed and are simply avoiding authorities, is unjustifiable, violates international law, and must be investigated.”

The Campaign has documented 74 deaths and 76 injuries to individuals working as kulbar, couriers that carry illegally-imported goods, such as tobacco, electronics, and tires, on their backs, and kasebkar, tradesmen who transport similar goods into larger towns. These individuals live and work in the predominantly Kurdish northwestern border provinces of Iran’s West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah. These killings and injuries, featured in a full list below, all occurred between March 2011 and April 2012 within the context of a new government border control program.

Of the 74 deceased kulbar and kasebkar, 70 were allegedly shot and killed by government border forces, and four reportedly died as a result of landmine explosions, avalanches, and exposure to severe cold. Among the 76 injured, eight were hurt during landmine explosions, and the rest by border security. These numbers only represent individuals whose identities and case particulars the Campaign was able to verify independently or through reliable local sources. There may be many more cases; however, due to the economic and geographic isolation of the kulbar these cases are likely underreported.

“Iranian law regards the activities of the kulbari as a crime that is punishable by several months of detention or a fine equal to the value of the seized commodities,” explains a March 2012 report by UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed. “[H]owever … Iranian border guards [reportedly] indiscriminately shoot at these individuals, thereby killing and wounding dozens of kulbari annually, as well as their horses.”

A local expert on the kulbar told the Campaign that, in practice, fines can be several times the value of the seized goods. “These kulbar are unarmed—if they were armed it would aggravate any charges they might face. If they encounter the authorities, they simply try to run away to avoid what would be a hefty fine. Because they usually cannot afford such an amount, they would be thrown in prison,” the expert added.

Bardenaz Piranshahr border. Photo by Shirkoo Jahani for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

The border region near the town of Sardasht, in West Azerbaijan, has seen the most alleged killings of border couriers and tradesmen by the Iranian police, followed by the Marivan and Baneh border regions in Kurdistan.

A kulbar who has worked almost 10 years in the border town of Baneh told the Campaign,

Because of the border closing project, during the past several years, without regard for our lives, the police have been waiting in mountainous and hard-to-pass areas for us. After warning us to stop, without firing a warning shot, they shoot at us directly…. Several times during these past few years, bullets have flown by the side of my head and hands….

Kulbar carry goods such as cigarettes, textiles, and video equipment. Even if we were to escape, we would not cause heavy damage to the government, warranting their wanton direct targeting of us….

Several of my friends, who were their families’ breadwinners, were killed by the police and military forces…. The people of this region have no other option of employment. They are taking risks with their lives in order to feed their families.

Another local source told the Campaign,

As an example, on 22 March 2011, during confiscation of goods from several border tradesmen in the town of Nosood, the Deputy Border Commander of Nosood shot at several kulbar inside the town’s Moallem Square. A young Kurdish man by the name of Pourmand Madhatnia was murdered during the shooting and three other citizens were injured.

The killing of Madhatnia triggered protests by locals of the town. The police initially detained the officer involved in the shooting, then transferred him to a post in another town. Later, however, the police attacked and arrested several of those who had participated in the protest, the source said.

In an earlier example of excessive force, in February 2010 (thus not mentioned in the list below), police severely beat Mohammad Reza Khalidi, a 60-year-old Kurdish-Iranian bulldozer operator in the border region of Chalehcheremi in Nosood, leading to his death. Authorities had mistakenly thought Khalidi was a kulbar.

A close friend of Khalidi told the Campaign, “After his family filed a lawsuit with the military court, the police denied the incident, even though several locals testified to it, and after several months, under pressure from the police, the case was shelved.”

Caravan of kulbar and their horses through the snowy mountaintops. Photo by Shirkoo Jahani for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Some kulbar and their families and friends have reported that border security have intentionally shot and killed their horses and other beasts of burden used to transport goods. Sources in the towns of Marivan and Sardasht also claim that police have set fire to several animals carrying smuggled fuel into Iraqi Kurdistan, burning them alive.

According to sources, police kill the animals to increase the cost of the trade for couriers, tradesmen, and their families, aiming to deter this type of work in the border areas.

“The government is basically punishing poverty. Attacking the kulbar, who are from some of the poorest areas of Iran, is using lethal force against people relegated to this activity by their economic circumstances,” Ghaemi said. “Furthermore, killing the animals they use for their trade amounts to imposing a punishment without due process.”

Ghaemi added, “The high number of unwarranted kulbar deaths requires an immediate change in government policy and the international community’s sustained attention.”

Lack of Redress and Accountability

The Campaign learned that dozens of injured kulbar and the families of killed kulbar filed complaints with the Iranian Judiciary. In some cases the Judiciary effectively quashed hearings by postponing them indefinitely. In other cases, according to the families, authorities never even responded to their complaints. In one case authorities paid the complaining family diyeh or blood money, which is the financial compensation provided in cases of murder.

Two Kurdish kulbar, who were paralyzed in their arms and legs during separate incidents of direct shootings by the police, filed lawsuits against the police in military courts. Their family members told the Campaign that their lawsuits have not been addressed, despite testimonies by several eyewitnesses and reports from the medical examiner. One of the kulbar was from the Nosood border region in Kermanshah Province, and the other from the Rash Mountain border in the town of Salmas in West Azerbaijan Province.

Another obstacle the kulbar face is lack of access to legal representation and the courts. The family of the paralyzed kulbar from Nosood told the Campaign he could not afford a lawyer. After several years of pursuing a lawsuit in military court and repeated postponements by the court, his case has in effect been abandoned since the court has not reacted to his lawsuit. The other paralyzed kulbar, from Salmas, does have a lawyer, his family told the Campaign. Nevertheless, the military court judge, who is presiding over the case in Tehran, has postponed his court sessions every month for several years, despite his vigorous pursuit of the case, the family said.

International Concerns and Law

In his March 2012 report, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed raises concerns over the reported “systematic killings of kulbars (back carriers) and kasebkaran (tradesmen), Kurds residing in border areas. The kulbaran, who ferry cargo across the border on their backs or smuggle commodities such as tea, tobacco and fuel to earn a living, are particularly affected.”

International law grants states the authority to control their borders, including imports and exports to and from their country. Nonetheless, international law does put limitations on law enforcement.

These killings violate the right to life enshrined in article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party.

The UN Human Rights Committee, in general comment 6 on the right to life, considered “that States parties should take measures … to prevent arbitrary killing by their own security forces. The deprivation of life by the authorities of the State is a matter of the utmost gravity. Therefore, the law must strictly control and limit the circumstances in which a person may be deprived of his life by such authorities.”

Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, explained in October 2011, “[L]ethal force should not be used unless there is a reasonable suspicion that the suspect has committed a crime involving serious violence, or has threatened to do so, [but] that is not enough. For deadly force to be used by the police, there must be an immediate or ongoing threat to the public if the person were to escape.”

The Economic Landscape of the Kulbar and Kasebkar

Dead horses belonging to kulbar. Photo provided by local sources.

The kulbar and kasebkar are mostly active in the mountainous border region between the towns of Qasr-e Shirin and Khoy in Iran, along its northwestern borders with Iraq and Turkey. This geography spans the provinces of Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and West Azerbaijan.

This region is predominantly populated by Kurds, an ethnic minority in Iran, and is marked by a general dearth of economic infrastructure and development proportionate to the population, resulting in high rates of poverty and unemployment. The Iranian government puts the unemployment rate for the region at 14 percent, but local experts and activists say this number is a misrepresentation and the real rate is well over 20 percent.

Due to the high rate of unemployment, many locals engage in transporting and importing foreign goods through unofficial channels in return for a small fee. These kulbar carry packages on their backs or on horses through hard-to-reach mountain passes over borders and into the region’s towns and villages. Individuals who transport goods by car into larger towns and the country’s central region are called kasebkar or tradesmen. Kasebkar typically employ kulbar.

“Goods transported by kulbar and border tradesmen into the country mostly include audio and video equipment, clothing and fabric, makeup, car tires, cigarettes, and, in a very limited way, alcohol,” a local expert familiar with the subject and with those regions where encounters between the kulbar and security forces frequently occur told the Campaign.

Massoud Kordpour, a Sanandaj-based journalist and activist, told Deutsche Welle news agency in an interview in April 2011: “You see all the individuals who are kulbar and who die for this. This phenomenon of working as a kulbar shows that the economic situation of the region is so bad that people are forced to take on a job that has a security component and carries the danger of death and being shot.”

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran calls on the Iranian government to review its border security measures, especially the growing pattern of border security forces killing kulbar and kasebkar without justification. Furthermore, the Campaign adds that the government should investigate those killings that have already occurred, hold the perpetrators accountable, and adopt clear polices to stop unlawful and unnecessary killing.

KULBAR AND KASEBKAR KILLED AND INJURED MARCH 2011 TO APRIL 2012

Shirin Ebadi and human rights organizations are joining a call by the Iranian student association Daftar Tahkim Vahdat and alumni association Advar Tahkim Vahdat, in a new campaign to call for the release of imprisoned students in Iran.

The campaign, “Speak Up for Imprisoned Students,” is aimed at spreading the voices of imprisoned Iranian students and students banned from continuing their education throughout the world. The supporting organizations are calling for international efforts on their behalf for their release and for their academic rights.

Currently in Iran, there are at least 31 students in prison. Many other students are waiting to serve their sentences or are free on bail.

The students who are currently in prison are:

Hassan Asadi Zeidabadi, Javad Alikhani, Mohammad Ahadi, Babak Dashab, Majid Dorri, Moin Ghamin, Mahdieh Golrou, Bahareh Hedayat, Saeed Jalalifar, Ali Jamali, Milad Karimi, Mehrdad Karami, Mehdi Kodaii, Omid Kokabi, Habibollah Latifi, Shabnam Madadzadeh, Ali Malihi, Aliakbar Mohammadzadeh, Atefeh Nabavi, Zia Nabavi, Hamed Omidi, Hossein Ronaghi Malaki, Hamed Rouhi Nejad, Roozbeh Saadati, Arash Sadeghi, Afshin Shahbazi, Fereshteh Shirazi, Iqan Shahidi, Abolfazl Tabarzadi, Majid Tavakoli, and Shahin Zeinali.

Below are the initial supporters of this campaign:

Shirin Ebadi (Head of Center for Human Rights Defenders) and:

Amnesty International

Boroumand Foundation

Green Activists in London

Green Students for A Democratic Iran-Southern California

Human Rights Activists

Human Rights Watch

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Iranian Democratic Student Association in George Washington University

Iranian Green Quest of Graduates and Students

Solidarity with Iran’s Democratic Movement (Canada)

Students for Iranian Green Movement Association (Canada)

Student Green Movement of Vancouver in Solidarity With People of Iran

Supporting Student Movement in Iran (Sigma), University of Victoria (Canada)

The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH)

United 4 Iran

Featuring journalist Roxana Saberi and Iran Specialist for Amnesty International USA Elise Auerbach, “A Voice for the Voiceless: Roxana Saberi” from the Angels of Iran series tells the story of Roxanna Saberi’s time in prison with Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi. These two were members of the Yaran (“the Friends”), who were sentenced to 20 years in prison simply for helping administer the needs of the Baha’i community in Iran. As Roxana says in the video, “I think the lessons that Mahvash and Fariba taught me in prison are universal. And they can apply to anybody, anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be in prison…. We have our own prisons, our own adversities … and we can try to turn those adversities into opportunities.”

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran joins Amnesty International, United4Iran, Education Under Fire, The Boroumand Foundation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, the Baha’i national communities of the United States and Canada, and other organizations in supporting these new Angels of Iran videos and the DRIVE TO 25 initiative calling for action to end the violations of human rights in Iran.