Aadel Collection
Hengameh Shahidi: Free the Prisoner of Conscience
HENGAMEH SHAH IDI IRAN ONE YEAR ON FREE THE PRISONERS _____________ OF CONSCIENCE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PLEASE HELP HENGAMEH SHAH IDI Hengameh Shahidi, aged about 35, is a journalist and political activist who is currently serving a six-year sentence in [ yin Prison, Tehran. She is a prisoner of conscience. A PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the UK, she had returned to Iran for the 2009 presidential election. There, she acted as an adviser on women's issues to presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, leader of the National Trust party, of which she is a member. After mass protests erupted following the announcement that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected, she was arrested on 30 June and held for over four months without charge. She says she was tortured and otherwise ill-treated in detention, including with threats that she would be executed. On one occasion, she says, she was subjected to a mock execution. She also says that her interrogators threatened to arrest other members of her family.
‘Were the individuals who beat me in the basements of Evin Prison brought before the [ prison] disciplinary committee?' Hengameh Shahidi to prison otticials who threatened her with punishment if she continued her hunger strike in Octoher 2009 Her trial began shortly after her release on bail in November 2009 and she was sentenced the following month. The six- year prison term includes five years for “gathering and colluding with intent to harm state security” and one year for “propaganda against the system”. She appealed against the conviction and sentence, and remained at liberty. However, on 25 February 2010 she was rearrested after being summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence investigations' office “to answer a few questions”. Two days later her lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, unaware of the reasons for her rearrest, went to Branch 54 of the Revolutionary Court. There, he was shown an appeal court ruling upholding her six-year prison sentence, issued the day before her rearrest. The appeal court did, however, overturn her conviction for “insulting the President”, for which she had been sentenced to 91 days' imprisonment. Hengameh Shahidi suffers from a heart condition, for which she requires regular medication.
ACT NOW WRITE POLITELY WORDED LETTERS TO THE HEAD OF THE JUDICIARY: • calling for Hengameh Shahidi to be released immediately and unconditionally as she is a prisoner of conscience, held solely for peacefully exercising her rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly; • urging the Iranian authorities to ensure that while imprisoned, Hengameh Shahidi is granted access to her family, her lawyer and to adequate medical care; • calling for an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into Hengameh Shahidi's allegations of torture in detention and for anyone found responsible for abuses to be brought to justice promptly and fairly. Send your letters to: Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani Office of the Head of the Judiciary Pasteur Street, Vali Asr Avenue, south of Serah-e Jomhouri Tehran, 1316814731 Islamic Republic of Iran Salutation: Your Excellency Email: info@dadiran.ir, bia.judi@yahoo.com (in the subject line: FAO Ayatollah Larijani) Amnesty International International Secretariat Peter Benenson House AlViN ESTY 1 Easton Street www.amnesty.org London WC1X ODW May 2010 INTERNATIONAL United Kingdom Index: MDE 13/040/2010