Shadi Sadr’s Open Letter to the Iran Bar

July 28, 2010

4 minutes read

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J i l l 0 9 jjss jl yAa4 l • • • •
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Honourable Chair of Iran Bar Association, Honourable members of the management committee,
You are aware that on Saturday 2 nd Mordad 1389 ( 24 th July 2010) the security forces invaded the offices
of Mr Mohammad Mostafaei, one of the most active human rights lawyers in Iran, but could not find
him. A few hours later they arrested his wife and brother-in-law in front of his office and took them to
the Evin Prison. The investigator at Revolutionary Court in Evin prison has told them that they will stay in
prison until Mr Mostafaei gives himself up.
Meanwhile, the state TV broadcast a report in which it was announced that those who brought the
stoning case (of Mrs Sakineh Mohammadi) to the world public attention are terrorists and monafeq
(which in the literature of IRI means being member of PMO- People's Mojahedin Orgainzation of Iran).
Mrs Sakineh Mohammadi, a 43 year-old mother of two from the city of Orumieh, was under sentence of
death by stoning which was stopped because of widespread international pressure. Mr Mostafaei,
Sakineh's attorney, who had tried without success all possible legal roads was the first person to bring
this case to the world's attention.
Therefore it appears that the legal-security system, while forced to stop carrying out the stoning
sentence, is hell bent on taking revenge on Mr Mostafaei by some trumped up charges. Since they were
unable to find him, they have arrested his wife and brother-in-law. Not only is the evidence against Mr
Mostafaei is questionable but there is no evidence that his wife and her brother had any role in his
hiding. On the contrary, details of the events of Saturday point to the opposite.
This is not the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran that the family of a civil activist have
been taken hostage. The policy of oppression of activists by pressurising their family members by
different forms, from threatening them to extracting ‘confessions' by torture, has been used brutally in
the past few years. In one of the recent cases, husband of Mrs Shirin Ebadi, a member of the Bar
Association of Iran, human rights activist and Nobel Laureate, was forced to speak against her on camera
after several days of incarceration.

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J i l l 0 9 jjss jl yAa4 l •••••
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It is live days now that Mr Mostalaei's wile, Fereshteh Halimi, his brother-in-law, Mr Farhad Halimi, are
incarcerated in prison, their only crime being related to Mr. Mostalaei and his crime was only to carry
out his duties as a lawyer, to delend under-age, those sentenced to death by stoning and political
prisoners. Their seven-year old daughter is now deprived ol her mother as well as her lather.
I knew Mohammad Mostalaei Irom the time when we collaborated on the cases ol women sentenced to
stoning, such as that ol Nazanin Fatehi. He was one ol active members ol a network ol volunteer
lawyers in ‘Campaign br Law without Stoning'. This campaign succeeded in saving the lives ol at least
nine women and two men in less than two years and was in bluential in removing death by stoning Irom
the Islamic Penal Code in Iran. In Esband 1385 (March 2007), when I together with 32 other women
rights activists were arrested, Mohammad Mostabaei took my case. At the time the Management
Committee ol the Bar Association wrote a very ellective letter to Judiciary in protest to my arrest while
delending a client.
Debending the rights ol lawyers to carry out their duties is one ob the most basic charges ob the Bar
Association and the main Reason D'etre br setting up ob it, the oldest civil law entity in Iran. Therebore,
as a lawyer, a member ob the Central Court lawyers, also as a client and debendant, I urge you, who lead
this oldest civil law society in Iran, not to remain silent on state kidnap and retaliation. At this moment a
member ob this Bar, whose only crime is debending his client and the rights ob the vulnerable, is,
together with his lamily, under intense pressure. Your silence on this matter not only means bailure to
discharge your duty ob care ob lawyers but also questions your independence brom the judicial-security
system. It is time that every one ob us act against the policy ob state hostage taking and retaliation. lb we
do not act against this policy, whose victims today are Shirin Ebadi and Mohammad Mostabaie, it will
attack every single one ob us tomorrow.
Hoping br human rights,
Shadi Sadr,
Legal Attorney

          
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          Copy to:
          International bar Association (IBA),
          The Council of Bar and Law Societies in Europe (CCBE),
          Advocaten voor Advocaten,
          School of Law, Goethe University,
          School of Law, Santa Clara University,
          Lawyers Without Borders,
          Max Planck Institute,
          And international human rights organisations.