Pressure on Rights Defenders Continues

          
          Further information on (JA: 347/09 Index: MDE 13/023/2010 Iran
          Date: 19 February 2010
          URGENT
          ACTION
          PRESSURE ON RIGHTS DEFENDERS CONTINUES
          A female member of Iranian human rights organization the Committee of Human Rights
          Reporters (CHRR) has been released without charge. Three detained CHRR members have told
          relatives that they are facing pressure during interrogation to accept allegations against them. All
          those detained remain at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.
          Parisa Kakaei was released on 17 February. She had been arrested by Ministry of Intelligence officials on 1
          January. According to the CHRR, she was recently transferred to the women's part of Evin Prison prior to her release.
          Detained male CHRR members Mehrdad Rahimi and Kouhyar Goudarzi have both told relatives that they are under
          pressure to accept accusations made by intelligence personnel during interrogation. They have both been accused of
          moharebeb (being at enmity with God), and have earlier faced pressure to “confess” to links with a banned
          opposition group. If charged on the basis of such links, they could face the death penalty.
          On 11 February, female CHRR member Shiva Nazar Ahari told her family by phone that she had been transferred to
          a “cage-like” solitary confinement cell where she cannot move her arms or legs. Since her arrest on 20 December
          2009 she has been held without charge or access to her lawyer. She added that she remains under pressure to
          accept “accusations” made against her, although the nature of these accusations is not clear.
          There is no further information about three male CHRR activists in Evin Prison, Saeed Kalanaki, Saeed Jalalifer, and
          Saeed Haeri. None of them has had contact with a lawyer.
          PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Persian, English, Arabic, French, or your own language:
          Calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Kouhyar Goudarzi, Mehrdad Rahimi,
          Saeed Kalanaki, Saeed Jalalifar, Saeed Haeri, Shiva Nazar Ahari and all other detained CHRR members, if, as it
          appears, they are prisoners of conscience held solely for their peaceful human rights activities;
          v Urging the authorities to ensure that they are protected from torture and other ill-treatment and are granted
          immediate and regular access to a lawyer, their families and any medical treatment they might require;
          Reminding the authorities that confessions extracted under duress are prohibited under Article 38 of the
          Constitution of Iran and by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party.
          PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE
          Leader of the Islamic Republic
          Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
          The Office of the Supreme Leader
          Islamic Republic Street— End of
          Shahid Keshvar Doust Street,
          Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
          Email: info_leader@leader.ir
          via website:
          http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?
          p=letter (English)
          Salutation: Your Excellency_
          2 APRIL 2010 TO:
          Head of the Judiciary in Tehran
          Mr Ali Reza Avaei
          Karimkhan Land Avenue
          Sana'i Avenue, Corner of Ally 17, No
          152
          Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
          Email: avaei@Dadgostary-tehran.ir
          Salutation: Dear Mr Avaei
          And copies to:
          Director, Human Rights
          Headquarters of Iran
          His Excellency Mohammad Javad
          Larijan i
          Bureau of International Affairs,
          Office of the Head of the Judiciary,
          Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave. south of
          Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran
          1316814737, Islamic Republic of
          Iran
          Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com
          Fax: + 98 21 5 537 8827 (please
          keep trying
          AMNESTY
          INTERNATIONAL
        

          
          Date: 19 February 2010
          Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending
          appeals after the above date. This is the second update of IJA 347/09 (MDE 13/132/2009). For more information see:
          http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/M DE13/132/2009/en
          URGENT ACTION
          PRESSURE ON RIGHTS DEFENDERS CONTINUES
          ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
          The CHRR was founded in 2006 and campaigns against all kinds of human rights violations, including against women, children,
          prisoners, workers and others. On or around 21 January, Abbas Ja'fari Dowlatabadi, the Tehran Prosecutor, told Shiva Nazar
          Ahari's family in a meeting: “Experts of the case have reported that the website for the Committee is linked to ‘hypocrites' (the
          Iranian authorities' name for the banned opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI, which has a base
          in Iraq), and any collaboration with the Committee is considered a crime.”
          Saeed Kalanaki and Saeed Jalalifar were both arrested on 30 November 2009 and are being held in a public section of Evin
          Prison. Saeed Kalanaki was arrested in his office by plain-clothes security officials. He was taken to his home, which was
          searched, and some of his personal belongings were seized, including his computer and a collection of photographs. Both men
          were forced to telephone two other CHRR members urging them to close the CHRR website. During the exchange, interrogators
          took the telephone away from them and threatened the other CHRR activists, telling them that if they did not stop posting
          information, they would be dealt with “either within prison or outside”. Saeed Jalalifar was allowed a family visit on 31
          December.
          Saeed Haeri, Kouhyar Goudarzi and Shiva Nazar Ahari were arrested on 20 December by police officers and officials from the
          Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran. They were taken from a bus which was about to drive to the northern city of Qom, where the
          funeral of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri took place on 21 December. They are held in Section 209 of Evin Prison, which is under
          the control of the Ministry of Intelligence. Shiva Nazar Ahari, who also spent three months in detention after the presidential
          election of June 2009, is in solitary confinement (see also http://www.amnestv.org/en/librarv/info/MDE13/132/2OO9/en) . Another
          two people were arrested on the same bus on their way to the funeral in December: Ahmad Qabel and Mohammad Nourizad.
          Ahmad Qabel was reported to be on hunger strike in January and has bad no contact with his family since his arrest. Amnesty
          International has no information about where or how Mohammad Nourizad is.
          Following the telephone threats the Ministry of Intelligence summoned four members of the CHRR to their offices in central
          Tehran on 1 January. Parisa Kakaei and Mehrdad Rahimi presented themselves and were immediately arrested. On 2 January,
          Parisa Kakaei was permitted to call her family from Section 209 and confirmed her detention. Mehrdad Rahimi is a student
          activist and deputy head of the Committee for Defence of the Rights of Citizens in the central office of Mehdi Karoubi.
          Moharebeb (being at enmity with God) is often applied to those who wage armed struggle against the state or who are members of
          banned opposition groups. It can be punishable by one of four methods: execution, cross-amputation, crucifixion or banishment
          (usually imprisonment in internal exile).
          Since the presidential election, the outcome of which was disputed, dozens of people have been killed by security forces using
          excessive force. Thousands have been arrested, mostly arbitrarily, and many have been tortured or otherwise ill-treated. Scores
          have faced unfair trials, including some in mass “show trials”, with over 80 sentenced to prison terms, and at least 12 sentenced
          to death, although at least one has had his sentence commuted to a prison term. Two of these were executed on 28 January.
          According to Iranian media reports, Deputy Judiciary Head Ebrahim Raisi said on 1 February that, after the execution of two men
          in late January, the nine others will be executed “soon”, although on 3 February the Tebran Prosecutor Abbas Ja'fari Dowlatabadi
          clarified that their sentences were still subject to appeal. Those sentenced have not been given a fair trial; they were denied
          access to a lawyer in the initial stages of their detention, and some or all appear to have been coerced into giving confessions
          (see http://www.amnesty.ore/en/news-and-updates/news/shocki ng-execution-iran-protesters-condemned-20 100128 and
          http://www.am nesty.org/en/news-and-u pdates/news/n i ne-risk-execution-over-i ran-protests-20 100202) .
          AMNESTY
          INTERNATIONAL
        

          
          Date: 19 February 2010
          Further information on UA 347/09 Index: MDE 13/023/2010 issue Date: 19 February 2010
          AMNESTY
          INTERNATIONAL