Massive street demonstrations were met with waves of arrests, reported killings and, it is now becoming clear that human rights activists are now also being targeted.
On 16 June, lawyer human rights defender Abdolfattah Soltani was arrested at his office. His case has been taken up by Amnesty International and its global membership is campaigning for his release.
Abdolfattah Soltani is a member of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders, a Tehran-based NGO of which Shirin Ebadi, Noble Peace Prize laureate is also a member. The organization’s office was forcibly closed by security officials on 21 December 2008, shortly before the centre was to hold a commemoration marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Despite efforts to have the centre re-opened, including appeals by Amnesty International it remains closed.
This is not the first time that Abdolfattah Soltani faces harassment or a politically-motivated arrest intended to silence him. He was arrested in 2005 and spent 219 days in detention, of which 43 were in solitary confinement. In 2006 he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for ‘disclosing confidential documents’, for which he received a sentence of four years; and one year’s imprisonment for ‘propaganda against the system’.
On 28 May 2007, he was acquitted of all charges brought against him since his arrest in July 2005. Since then he has been banned from travelling outside Iran, including in order to collect awards in recognition of his human rights work. In 2008 he sought to stand for election to the Central Bar Association’s Board, but his candidacy was rejected on grounds of “unsuitability”.
On 23 June we spoke to another human rights activist, who was summoned to court and told in no uncertain terms to remain silent and not to contact human rights organizations.
Without saying so, he made it clear we were not alone on the line. He spoke deliberately in a more guarded, start-and-stop manner than his usual free flowing and easy way. Normally a religiously observant man, he made quite a few obvious and pointed references to religion. I asked how he was. He quietly tried to avoid the question. But he then said that he had been summoned to court, ostensibly in connection with previous cases brought against him.
Yet it was, squarely, for Ministry of Intelligence officials to tell him to stop engaging in human rights work; not to write any open letters; not take part in any demonstrations and not to have any communication with international human rights groups. With his phones tapped; having been duly warned, this was exactly what he was doing.
Then, on 25 June, it was reported that Fars News, a state-run news agency in Iran, had published a letter claiming to have been jointly written by lawyers, families of veterans and those killed – martyrs as the Iranian authorities called them- from the Iran-Iraq War. They – the authors’ names are not revealed – claim that Shirin Ebadi’s criticism of the way in which demonstrators protesting the outcome of the 12 June election were handled by the security services is in violation her role as a lawyer and call on the authorities to prosecute her.
It now appears that on the same day, Thursday 25 June another human rights defender was arrested: tireless campaigner for juveniles facing the death penalty, against the use of stoning as a death penalty, Mohammad Mostafaei was arrested, in front, apparently, of his young daughter and wife, while away from his home. Officials had searched their family home and Mohammad Mostafaei’s office, and then took him away; his whereabouts remain unknown since his arrest. Amnesty has taken up his case as well and demands his release as he is a prisoner of conscience solely imprisoned for his human rights work.
The work of human rights defenders is essential, especially in crisis situation such as now in Iran. Their important role in societies across the globe has been recognised by the United Nation’s 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. It calls upon states to support human rights defenders, including by ensuring that they be allowed to draw attention to human rights violations in a given country and to send this information to any other body, person or organisation that does the same.
Threatening and arresting human rights defenders in Iran not only flies in the face of international standards, it makes it easier for human rights violations to be committed in Iran with impunity; it makes those at risk, including all those currently detained, even more vulnerable to abuse.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and its Judiciary repeatedly seek to discredit and intimidate human rights activists, accusing them of ‘acts against national security’; or “propaganda against the system”. Yet, what do the Iranian authorities have to fear for jailing human rights defenders? That they expose to the world the abuses taking place in Iran?
By now, they should also know that whatever they have tried, they have never managed to silence defenders.
Even as the current political crisis unfolds in Iran, the authorities are continuing to execute people At least 136 juveniles are known to be on death row, for crimes they are alleged to have committed when under the age of 18.
Mohammad Mostafaei plays a major role in defending these youngsters who were children when they were sentenced to death. With him in prison, who will defend them now?
As a human rights activist, I appeal to every conscientious citizen to stand united for human rights. Various parts of the planet are badly affected by violence and related human righrs problems. Let’s work together to defend human rights.