One Year of imprisonment in accusation of acting against national security

Three of Master Eliya’s students, are sentenced to one year of imprisonment recently. The court has accused them of “acting against national security by distributing Eliya’s pictures and also lack of cooperation with security interrogators of the Religions Department in Ministry of Intelligence”.

After being arrested by security police in May 2009, Abbas Bayat, Saeed Shahbazi and Hamed Navazani, have spend more than one month in solitary confinement. They have been subjected to severe mental tortures to confess to the interrogators dictated offense. They have also been requested to bring in their potential friends who were involved in publishing Master Eliya’s pictures.

This verdict has been ordered in a while that the terror machines of Anit-Religions Department has been active in universities, Internet (and other media institutions affiliated to these mysterious agents) for brain washing of public opinion. It meant to complete its puzzle of cultural terror of El-Yasin Community and preparing the ground for heavier verdicts for other members in the near future.

It is worth to mention, the Department of Religions in Ministry of Intelligence, have had declared that “the advice and the key to the judge’s brain are under our authorities and we can easily convince the public through mass media and news delicate as we want to justify.”

Despite of this claim, El-Yasin Community persistently asking the judiciary institutions for a just investigation in the case of these 3 members by and looking forward to see revise rulings.

Iran must release activist Emadeddin Baghi

Amnesty International

8 January 2010

Call on Iran to release activist Emadeddin Baghi

Prominent Iranian Journalist and human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi was arrested on December 28, 2009, the day after massive protests were held in Tehran and other cities to mark the Shi'a religious observance of Ashoura.
He is not known to have been charged with a crime. He is in poor health stemming from his previous imprisonment, and Amnesty International is concerned that he could be subjected to ill-treatment and medical neglect while in detention.
Emadeddin Baghi was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for human rights activists, although Iranian authorities prevented him from going to Geneva to attend the award ceremony on November 9, 2009. It was the first time in the award's 18-year history that the recipient was denied the opportunity to receive the award in person.
Emadeddin Baghi is the founder of the Association for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, which had been compiling information on torture and other abuses of detainees. He has focused attention on Iran's appalling record of executing juvenile offenders, as well as the execution, following grossly flawed legal proceedings, of a number of Iranian Arabs accused of politically motivated crimes.
In the late 1990s he exposed the mysterious serial murders of Iranian intellectuals. His books Right to Life and Right to Life II argue for the abolition of the death penalty using Islamic texts and jurisprudence. They have been banned by Iranian authorities - who had previously shut down his newspaper Joumhouriat in 2003 - and Mr Baghi has served years in prison on charges of "endangering national security" and "printing lies."
In December 2007, during his last imprisonment, he suffered three seizures and a heart attack and remained in poor health without adequate medical care until his release in October 2008. Officials closed down the office of the Association for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights in September 2009.
The Martin Ennals award, named after the first secretary-general of Amnesty International, is a collaboration of ten of the world's leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. It is "granted annually to someone who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means." The Chairman of the Jury of the MEA, Hans Thoolen, described Emadeddin Baghi as "an exceptionally brave man defending human rights despite imprisonment and poor health."

http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/call-iran-release-activist-emadeddin-baghi

Picture: Poster for the Martin Ennals award featuring Emadeddin Baghi. Copyright: Amnesty International

Ms. magazine: Iran Cracks Down on Women's Rights Activists

Monday, 14 December 2009

Somayeh Rashidi, an Iranian women's rights activist with the One Million Signatures Campaign, was targeted this morning with a search of her home and a summons to court. She told Change for Equality, that she "asked the security officials to provide me with identification, but they refused, claiming instead that [she] will find out in the future what intelligence agency they are working with. [She] also objected to the search and seizure of property belonging to [her]

roommates, but the security officials did not pay any attention to [her] protests." Rashidi was also arrested in November in connection to public protests and spent two days in prison. Today's search is just the latest in a series of arrests of or attacks/threats towards Iranian women's rights activists.

The One Million Signatures Campaign, which seeks to collect one million signatures against the legal discrimination women face under Iranian law, has been particularly targeted. A number of activists associated with the campaign have been arrested and imprisoned in recent years, including American graduate student and feminist activist Esha Momeni.Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Laureate and one of Iran's leading human rights defenders, is also being harassed and her family is being targeted.

Iranian authorities not only froze her bank account, but also broke into Ebadi's safe deposit box and stole her Nobel medal, which has since been returned, according to the LA Times. Omid Memarian, an exiled Iranian journalist, told the Daily Beast, "I talked to Shirin Ebadi just a few days ago.

The authorities have summoned her husband, brother, and sister...Her organization in Iran cannot operate freely. She has been the most significant voice for human rights in Iran over the last five months. Harassing her is a very intimidating signal to others."According to the Daily Beast, in addition to the continued harassment of women's rights activists, last month "Iranian state television ran a documentary attacking the nation's women's rights movement."

Airing of the documentary preceded an announcement earlier this month from the head of Iran's state television, Ezatollah Zarghami, who declared that state-sponsored television programs will henceforth prohibit women who appear on air from using make-up. Zarghami told the newspaper Eternad that "make-up by women during television programs is illegal and against Islamic Sharia law.

There should not be a single case of a woman wearing make-up during a program."

Media Resources: Feminist Daily Newswire 11/12/08, 12/4/09, 8/14/09; Change for Equality 12/14/09; Daily Beast 12/13/09; LA Times 12/11/09

amnesty international: Iranian security forces condemned for protest crackdown

amnesty international: Iranian security forces condemned for protest crackdown

Amnesty International condemned the excessive use of force by Iranian security forces that saw scores of protesters beaten and detained during student-led demonstrations on Monday. In a number of instances, security forces - including the volunteer Basij militia - used batons and tear gas to disperse opposition supporters in the wake of threats by officials that all demonstrations would be considered illegal and met by force.

By the end of the day, the number of protestors arrested was not known. “Since the disputed election a pattern has emerged of the authorities preventing peaceful demonstrations, and then hastily resorting to violence against people who nevertheless choose to exercise their right to freedom of expression and assembly.” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “All those arrested for simply attending today’s demonstrations should be immediately and unconditionally released.

The Iranian authorities continue to treat peaceful dissenters as criminals in violation of Iran’s Constitution.” Others arrested should be released unless they are to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and tried promptly and fairly. Thousands of opposition supporters and students had gathered in Tehran and cities across the country to mark the anniversary of the killing of three students by security forces in 1953. In recent years the anniversary has become a focus for demonstrations by students on campuses calling for reform and greater respect for human rights.

One eyewitness told Amnesty International that students from Shahid Beheshti University marched alongside the walls of Evin Prison in northern Tehran chanting “political prisoners should be free” and “students will die, we won’t accept oppression.” Another told Amnesty International that central Esfahan, along with the university in the southern part of that city was full of Basij militia and plain clothed security officers to stamp down on any protests.

In the course of the day, Amnesty International has been receiving reports of confrontations between plain-clothed security officers believed to be Basij and students at sites throughout the country, such as at Mazandaran and Sari universities, in the north of the country. Since the morning, security forces in Sari are said to have told students not to attend university.

According to reports, police used plastic bullets at Amir Kabir University in Tehran to stop students inside the campus from joining up with protestors outside.

In recent weeks, students suspected of organising the protests had received threats and scores were detained in an attempt to stifle the dissent. Protestors also faced other repressive restrictions as the authorities blocked the use of the internet and mobile phones. In a further crackdown the authorities banned foreign media from covering the protests.

On Saturday the security forces arrested up to 29 women taking part in a silent protest in Tehran. The group, Mourning Mothers, which is made up of mothers whose children died in the post election violence and other women who gather every week to call for an end to the human rights violation which have taken place since the election, including justice for their dead children.

UN: Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

29 October 2009

A/C.3/64/L.37
Sixty-fourth session
Third Committee
Agenda item 69 (c)

(e) Increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against
persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, recognized or otherwise, including, inter alia, Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims and their defenders, and, in particular, attacks on Baha’is and their faith in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State to identify, monitor and arbitrarily detain Baha’is, preventing members of the Baha’i faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically, and the continuing detention of seven Baha’i leaders who were arrested in March and May 2008 and faced with serious charges without adequate or timely access to legal representation.

BBC: UN condemns Iran's response to post-election unrest

BBC: UN condemns Iran's response to post-election unrest

A key UN committee has voted to approve a non-binding resolution condemning Iran for its crackdown on protesters following June's disputed elections.

The resolution also repeated annual criticism of Iran's human rights record, including the use of torture and an increasing execution rate.

It urged Tehran to end persecution of political opponents and release those imprisoned for their political views.

Iran's UN ambassador dismissed the resolution as politically motivated.
Mohammad Khazaee said such measures had "created an atmosphere of confrontation and polarisation" at the UN.

Friday's text was approved by 74 votes to 48 with 59 abstentions, which the US said was "the largest vote margin on such a resolution on Iran in the UN ever".

'Deep concern'

Deputy state department spokesman Robert Wood said it demonstrated the international community was "deeply concerned" about the human rights situation in Iran.

The resolution expresses "deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations" in Iran.

But it said there was "particular concern" at the Iranian government's response to the 12 June elections and the "concurrent rise in human rights violations".
It comes as the major powers said they were disappointed with Iran's response to an offer of a deal over its nuclear programme.

President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad was declared the winner of June's election, resulting in large scale protests by supporters of opposition candidates who said the poll had been rigged.

The UN committee criticised the subsequent "harassment, intimidation and persecution, including by arbitrary arrest, detention or disappearance" of opponents of the government.

It also condemned alleged abuses of those in prison and "numerous deaths and injuries" in the crackdown.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in New York says some of those countries which did not vote for the resolution did have concerns about the state of political rights in Iran, but objected to the practice of singling out specific countries for condemnation.

Saudi Arabia broke ranks with Muslim nations and voted in favour of the resolution, possibly because it accuses Iran of backing Shia rebels in neighbouring Yemen, says our correspondent.

On Friday, following meetings in Brussels, the six world powers negotiating with Iran said they were disappointed by Tehran's failure to respond positively to a recent deal on its nuclear programme.

Iran has rejected the offer, which would allow it to continue to develop a nuclear reactor by exporting uranium to other countries to be enriched.

VOA: Iran - Human Rights Remain A Concern

In testimony before Congress, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said the possibility of Iran's developing a nuclear weapon endangers international security in multiple ways: "The danger that it [a nuclear weapon] would be either deliberately or inadvertently transferred to a terrorist or non-state actor is a very serious concern; that it would be used to threaten its neighbors would be a concern; that it would be used as a cover for it to engage in more aggressive behavior in the region.

We can think of so many reasons why this is such a grave danger that that's why we put such a high priority on preventing them getting it."But Iran's nuclear ambition is not the only concern the U.S. has about the Iranian government, said Mr. Steinberg; another is how the government treats its own people:
Iranian police sit on motorcycles as they face protesters during a demonstration in Tehran."The Iran[ian] government's terrible repression of peaceful protesters, opposition politicians and journalists following the election revealed to the world much about the character of that government and has increased its isolation."
Deputy Secretary Steinberg said that Tehran's crackdown on dissent after June's presidential election is part of Iran's broader record of human rights abuses, which has grown significantly worse throughout the past year. The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights in Iran documents the Iranian government's restrictions of fundamental freedoms, said Mr. Steinberg, and it cites multiple instances of the government's use of torture and other forms of inhumane treatment to quell dissent.
Quoting President Barack Obama, Mr. Steinberg said, "The Iranian people have a universal right to assembly and free speech. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect those rights, and heed the will of its own people. It must govern through consent, and not coercion.