Over 100 Iranians face oss1y unfair ntis I Amrcsty Intemafional i ltp://wwwanmestyorg /en/mws-and-updates/news/over-100-iranlans-fa
Opposition political activists and
protesters in court, Tehran, Iran, I
August 2009
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OVER 100 IRANIANS FACE GROSSLY UNFAIR TRIALS
4 August 2009
More than 100 people have gone on trial in Tehran accused of
organizing recent widespread civil protests. The protests broke
out in response to the official announcement that the 12 June
presidential election was won by the incumbent, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
Those charged include a former Vice President and other
senior former officials, an advisor to one of the presidential
candidates, academics and journalists. The trial, being held
before the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, is the latest in a long
catalogue of unfair trials before Iran's Revolutionary Courts, which Amnesty International has
repeatedly criticized for their failure to apply intemational standards for fair trial.
The defendants are accused of fomenting the largely peaceful, mass demonstrations which occurred
in Tehran and other centres in protest against the official election result. Many people in Iran dispute
the result that said the incumbent president won by a large majority.
The accused include Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was Vice President in the administration headed by
President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and an advisor to presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi
during the recent election campaign; Mohammad Atrianfar, a joumalist, former deputy minister and
leading member of the Construction Party; other senior officials under President Khatami;
Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a well-known human rights lawyer; and Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian
dual national and journalist who has written for Newsweek.
According to the official IRNA news agency, the defendants face charges of rioting, attacking military
and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and “conspiring against the ruling
system”. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison unless they are deemed by the trial judges to
be a “mohareb” (an enemy of God), in which case they could be sentenced to death.
The trial, which began in Tehran last Saturday, has been closed to all but state media. Amnesty
International has said that it bears the hallmarks of a “show trial” in which the authorities seek to pin the
blame for recent unrest on those who have challenged the official election result and to deter others
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from continuing their protests.
The Public Prosecutors Office has labelled the protests as “organized and planned crimes, despite
their largely peaceful nature. It says it has categorized those responsible into three groups: the
“plotters and inciters” of unrest, “groups affiliated to foreign services”, and “opportunists and thugs”
who damaged public and private property and disturbed “the peace and security of society”.
Most or all of the defendants were detained incommunicado for several weeks before they were
brought before the Revolutionary Court last Saturday. Many are reported to have been tortured or
ill-treated in order to force them to “confess” to involvement in a conspiracy against the state.
Some appeared to have lost weight and to be diminished in spirit in film of the trial broadcast on
Iranian state TV. At least four prominent reformists were shown telling the court that they no longer
believed that the election was fraudulent. Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohammad Atrianfar were shown
on television telling the court that every Iranian should believe in the guardianship of Iran's Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi's demeanour led his wife and daughter to express concern that his “confession”
had been coerced. On 2 August, state TV showed both Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohammad
Atrianfar denying that their “confessions” had been coerced or that they had been drugged by the
authorities before the trial.
However, presidential election candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has denounced the confessions,
saying they were extracted under “medieval-era torture, and Mohsen Rezaei, another of the
presidential candidates, has questioned the fairness of the proceedings and asked publicly why no
members of the security forces responsible for killings of protestors and other serious human rights
violations have been brought to trial. The authorities have acknowledged some 30 killings though the
true number is believed to be higher.
Saleh Nikbakht, a lawyer representing Mohammad Ali Abtahi and other defendants, complained on
Saturday, after the trial opened: “I have not had access to the prosecution case files at any point since
the arrest of my clients. I was not aware of the trial until 11am today. And I did not get permission to
enter the court room.”
He also questioned the legal validity of the trial: “According to article 135 of the Iranian constitution,
trials held without lawyers being present are illegal.”
Amnesty International has documented the routine use of torture and ill-treatment in pre-trial detention
over many years. Detainees in so-called national security cases are systematically denied access to
family members, lawyers and, in many cases, face restricted access to adequate medical care.
Iranian intelligence services have repeatedly had high-profile detainees filmed “confessing” to vaguely-
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worded charges, which are often not recognizably criminal offences. Some of these “confessions”
have been aired on TV, often before their trials have taken place, compromising their right not to
incriminate themselves.
Those released either before or after trial have told of the coercive techniques by which officials
isolate and break detainees, who eventually agree to make “confessions” in order to end their
ill-treatment. Many have later retracted such “confessions”.
In addition to the more than 100 defendants whose trial opened on Saturday and is due to continue on
6 August, 10 people whom the authorities describe as “street protestors” also went on trial before the
Revolutionary Court in Tehran on Sunday. Their trial is also believed to be still continuing.
READ MORE
Iran: Joint statement by Shirin Ebadi and Irene Khan (News, 28 July 2009)
Thousands take action around the world in solidarity with people of Iran (News, 27 July 2009
Global day of support for Iran's victims of human rights abuse (News, 24 July 2009)
Arrests and deaths continue in Iran as authorities tighten grip (News, 22 July 2009)
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