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One year on crackdown on dissent widens with hundreds unjustly imprisoned
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AMNESTY
I NIERNATI ONAL ________________________
In your country:
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IRAN: ONE YEAR ON CRACKDOWN ON
DISSENT WIDENS WITH HUNDREDS
UNJUSTLY IMPRISONED
9 June 2010
Al Index: PRE01/182/2010
“It's essential that we stand up for the unjustly imprisoned and
be their voice. The prisoner's worst nightmare is the thought
of being forgotten. But knowing that your plight is in the
hearts and minds of people across the world, brings you a
great sense of hope.”, Maziar Bahari, the Iranian-Canadian
journalist for Newsweek, released after four months detention
in Iran following the election.
One year on from Iran's disputed June 2009 presidential
election, Amnesty International has documented a widening
crackdown on dissent that has left journalists, students,
political and rights activists as well as clerics languishing in
prisons.
Lawyers, academics, former political prisoners and members
of Iran's ethnic and religious minorities have also been caught
up in an expanding wave of repression that has led to
widespread incidents of torture and other ill-treatment along
with politically motivated execution of prisoners.
This repression is documented in the new Amnesty
International report From Protest to Prison — Iran One Year
After the Election which reviews a year of arrest and
detention of those who have spoken out against the
government and its abuses. The publication of the report
marks the launch of a one-year campaign calling for the
release of prisoners of conscience in Iran held since the
disputed 2009 presidential election and ensuing repression
and fair trials without recourse to the death penalty for other
political prisoners.
“The Iranian government is determined to silence all
dissenting voices, while at the same time trying to avoid all
scrutiny by the international community into the violations
connected to the post-election unrest,” said Claudio Cordone,
Amnesty International's interim Secretary General.
‘The government has taken the absurd stand that virtually no
violations have occurred in Iran when it presented its national
report to the Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights
Council, who will adopt its final report this week. We ask them
to accept recommendations relating to the treatment of
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prisoners and to let UN human rights experts visit the
country.”
Hundreds of people remain detained for their part in the
protests of June 2009 or for otherwise expressing dissenting
views and the imprisonment of ordinary citizens has become
an every day phenomenon in an expanding ‘revolving door
system' of arbitrary arrest and detention. Those with only
tentative links to banned groups as well as family members of
former prisoners have been subjected to arbitrary arrest in the
past year.
Examples include:
• Banned student Sayed Ziaoddin Nabavi serving a
10-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. A member of
the Council to Defend the Right to Education, his
sentence appears to be linked to the fact that he has
relatives in the People's Mojahedin Organization of
Iran, a banned group, which the authorities claim was
responsible for organizing demonstrations.
• Around 50 members of the Baha'i faith have been
arrested across Iran since the elections - continuing to
be unjustly cast as scapegoats for the unrest.
• Iran's ethnic minority communities have faced arrest
and detention, during and following the election. Four
Kurds were among five political prisoners executed in
May without the notifications required by law, in what
was a clear message to anyone considering marking
the anniversary with protest.
“What we are calling for is very simple: the immediate and
unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience and for
others to be tried promptly on recognizably criminal offences,
without recourse to the death penalty, in proceedings which
fully meet international standards for a fair trial,” said Claudio
Cordon e.
Detainees have been held incommunicado for days, week or
even months while relatives remain unable to find out where
they are being held or on what charges.
The secrecy surrounding these arrests makes it easier for
interrogators to resort to torture and other ill-treatment,
including rape, and mock executions, in order to extract
forced “confessions” which are used later as evidence in
trial.
One woman said of a women's rights activist held with her
that: “She told us that her interrogators had attached cables
to her nipples and given her electric shocks. She was so ill
she would sometimes faint in the cell.”
The mother of another human rights defender, Shiva Nazar
Ahari, detained without charge or trial whose case is
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highlighted in the report, said “I hope your daughters grow up
to get married — mine grew up to be thrown into jail,”
illustrating the journey taken by an increasing number of
Iranians, from political and civil activism to the cells of Evin
Prison and other prisons in the provinces.
Politically motivated executions, recently taking place prior to
key anniversaries when mass protests are expected,
continue, with the justice system used as a lethal instrument
of repression by the Iranian authorities. At least six people
remain on death row charged with ‘enmity against God' for
their alleged involvement in demonstrations and membership
of banned groups.
Iran has one of the highest rates of executions in the world.
To date in 2010, Amnesty International has already recorded
over 115 executions.
“The Iranian authorities must end this campaign of fear that
aims to crush even the slightest opposition to the
government,” said Claudio Cordone. “They are continuing to
use the death penalty as a tool of repression, right up to the
eve of the anniversary of the election. The Iranian authorities
blame everyone but themselves for the unrest but they are
failing to show any respect for their own laws which prohibit
the torture and other ill-treatment of all detainees.”
Note to Editors
12th of June 2010, first anniversary of last year's disputed
elections in Iran, will be marked by a Global Day of Action
across the world, sponsored by Amnesty Intemational and
others. For more details visit: http:/Il2june.org/
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