Iran: Joint statement by Shirin Ebadi and Irene Khan

http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/iran-joint-statement-shirin-ebadi-and-irene-khan-20090728

28 July 2009

The human rights crisis in Iran is deepening daily and next week’s expected inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term as president may spark further protests and a massive new clampdown, warned Irene Khan, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, and Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi today.

“Three days ago, thousands of people in over 100 cities across the world joined in a Global Day of Action in protest at the numerous arrests, beatings and killings that have accompanied the Iranian authorities’ attempt to force through the declared election result, which is so widely disputed,” said Irene Khan. “The purpose was to express our solidarity with those whose rights are being violated in Iran, and to send a message to Iran’s Supreme Leader and those about him that the violations must cease. The world is watching.”

Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s most distinguished lawyer and human rights defender, is in London at Amnesty International’s invitation.

An organization that she founded in 2001, the Centre for Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), was summarily shut down by the Iranian authorities last December because of its efforts to promote human rights and defend people who were detained and tortured. At least three of its leading members – journalist Abdolreza Tajik as well as Abdolfattah Soltani and Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, both leading human rights lawyers – have been detained since the start of the election-related protests. Two of them are held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, but the whereabouts of Mohammad Ali Dadkhah is unknown, raising particular fears for his safety.

“My colleagues have been rounded up because of their work to promote justice and the rule of law, and to defend the human rights of people in Iran,” said Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. “They are now languishing in jail like so many others in my country because they stand up for universal values – the rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to register one’s protest peacefully without fear of arrest or attack by strong-arm forces like the Basij.”

Irene Khan and Shirin Ebadi cautioned that international attention and efforts must not fade, however intransigent the authorities in Tehran appear.

“People in Iran need international support now more than ever as the political divisions in Tehran play themselves out,” said Shirin Ebadi. “International attention and pressure must be sustained and intensified if it is to have impact on those calling the shots in Tehran.”

“In particular, the UN needs to play a more determined and decisive role,” said Irene Khan. “Through its human rights and other mechanisms, the UN must investigate the violations taking place in Iran and compile evidence that can be used, one day, to bring those responsible to account.”

Shirin Ebadi is visiting London as part of international efforts to highlight human rights abuses in Iran and to support a worldwide action that Amnesty International is launching in defence of the CHRD and its members, and to demand that it be allowed to reopen and continue its work.

Over 100 Iranians face grossly unfair trials

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Opposition political activists and protesters in court, Tehran, Iran, 1 August 2009

© APGraphicsBank

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 international 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 journalist, 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 from continuing their protests.

The Public Prosecutor's 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-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.