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Activists arrested in Iran over environmental demands

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Activists arrested in Iran over environmental demands

 

Iranian authorities arrested scores of activists in northwestern Iran over the past week. The Association for the Defence of Azerbijani Political Prisoners in Iran announced that nearly 30 activists were arrested and some also received beatings.

The report says the arrests follow rallies in various northwestern cities that protested “government policies leading to the destruction of the Azerbaijan environment and, specifically, indifference to the state of Lake Oroumiyeh.”

Iranian Parliament recently voted down an emergency plan to pump from the Aras and Siloueh Rivers and redirect it to Lake Oroumiyeh in order to reverse the alarming decline in its water level.

In March, 70 protesters who demonstrated in the cities of Oroumieyh and Tabriz for immediate government action on Lake Oroumiyeh were also arrested.

Experts report that in addition to natural causes, Lake Oroumiyeh’s receding water level can be attributed to rampant damming.

Reports indicate that 35 dams have already been built on rivers that feed Lake Oroumiyeh, and another 10 are under construction. Activists arrested in Iran over environmental demands

Iranian authorities arrested scores of activists in northwestern Iran over the past week. The Association for the Defence of Azerbijani Political Prisoners in Iran announced that nearly 30 activists were arrested and some also received beatings.

The report says the arrests follow rallies in various northwestern cities that protested “government policies leading to the destruction of the Azerbaijan environment and, specifically, indifference to the state of Lake Oroumiyeh.”

Iranian Parliament recently voted down an emergency plan to pump from the Aras and Siloueh Rivers and redirect it to Lake Oroumiyeh in order to reverse the alarming decline in its water level.

In March, 70 protesters who demonstrated in the cities of Oroumieyh and Tabriz for immediate government action on Lake Oroumiyeh were also arrested.

Experts report that in addition to natural causes, Lake Oroumiyeh’s receding water level can be attributed to rampant damming.

Reports indicate that 35 dams have already been built on rivers that feed Lake Oroumiyeh, and another 10 are under construction.

 

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Imprisoned Journalist in Need of Emergency Medical Treatment

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Imprisoned Journalist in Need of Emergency Medical Treatment

 

A source close to the family of imprisoned journalist Keyvan Samimi, who is in his 60s, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that a tumor found in Samimi’s liver has caused grave concern to his family and he must be immediately hospitalized to prevent the tumor’s further growth. Judicial authorities continue to refuse furlough for Samimi and decline to comment on the reasons for the refusal.

“Other than the tumor, he suffers from severe arthritis in his neck and legs. He likes to read, so he has asked his family for a desk and a chair, as he is no longer able to sit on the floor to read. His family prepared the desk and table, but prison authorities have not yet delivered the furniture to Mr. Samimi,” said the source.

Kayvan Samimi, Editor-in-Chief of the banned newspaper Nameh, member of the Society in Defense of Press Freedom, and member of the Committee to Pursue Arbitrary Arrests and The Right To Education Committee, was arrested at his home on 13 June 2009, just one day after the disputed presidential election. He was sentenced to six years in prison at Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court. He was transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison in December 2009 along with several other political prisoners. Samimi has gone on multiple hunger strikes in prison.

 

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Vahid Lalipour arrested and serving his one-year sentence behind bars

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Vahid Lalipour arrested and serving his one-year sentence behind bars

 

Rahana – Intelligence officers arrested Vahid Lalipour, husband of Mahdieh Golroo, after serving him a summons to begin serving his one-year prison sentence.

According to Human Rights House of Iran, Mahdieh Golroo and her husband Vahid Lalipour were both arrested at their home on December 2, 2009 and were transferred to Evin prison. Vahid who had never been politically active, was Intelligence officers arrested Vahid Lalipour, husband of Mahdieh Golroo, after serving him a summons to begin serving his one-year prison sentence.

detained in order to put added pressures on his wife. He was kept behind bars until March 2010 and released with bail.

Judge Moghiseh presiding over Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Vahid Lalipour to two years behind bars stemming from the charges of “illegal gatherings and propaganda against the regime.” The Tehran appellate court later reduced the term to one year in prison plus a one-year prison sentence suspended for four years.

After his recent arrest, Vahid Lalipour was transferred to Evin prison.

 

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Isa Saharkhiz beaten up; political prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison banned from prison infirmary

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Isa Saharkhiz beaten up; political prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison banned from prison infirmary

 

Rahana – The infirmary at Rajai Shahr prison is no longer accepting any political prisoners.

According to Saham News, a few days ago as Isa Saharkhiz who is in very poor physical condition was on his way to the infirmary, he got into a confrontation with a prison official and a guard. They violently beat him up with punches to his chest area.

Mehdi Mahmoudian, another political prisoner also faced the same brutal confrontation by prison officials. However after the coroner gave the order, the prison officials were obligated to allow Mehdi Mahmoudian to visit the infirmary.

 

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Militarization of the Iranian Judiciary Signalled by New Appointment

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Militarization of the Iranian Judiciary Signalled by New Appointment

 

Widespread reports suggest that Sadeq Larijani, a young and inexperienced cleric with close ties to Iran’s military and intelligence agencies, will officially replace Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as head of the Iranian judiciary on August 16. This appointment is particularly significant, since the judiciary in Iran wields considerable power — albeit through the approval of Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — and has a great deal of latitude to make decisions without reference to law or Islamic concepts, especially when “safeguarding the interests of the regime” is deemed necessary.

Who is Sadeq Larijani?
Born in 1960 in Najaf, Iraq, Sadeq Larijani is the son of Grand Ayatollah Hashem Amoli and the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani, currently one of the most widely followed marjas, “sources of emulation” whose rulings are regarded as binding by devout Shiite believers.

Larijani’s two older and well-known brothers — Ali Larijani, speaker of the Majlis (Iranian parliament) and former nuclear negotiator, and Mohammad Javad Larijani, the deputy head of the judiciary, former deputy foreign affairs minister, and mathematics graduate from the University of California, Berkeley — are also married into respected clerical families: Ali is the son-in-law of the late Morteza Motahhari, an ideologue of the Islamic government, and Mohammad Javad is the son-in-law of Hassan Hassanzadeh, an ayatollah in Qom. Khamenei, at one point the supervisor of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), became intimate with the Larijani family during Ali’s several-year post as deputy commander of the IRGC.

Sadeq justifies his lack of political experience in a short autobiography on his website. Because he “felt that the West’s cultural invasion was no less important than a military invasion,” he decided to prepare himself for “confronting the cultural invasion,” in part by learning English. He used his new language skills to translate several philosophical works, such as an article by Karl Popper on the philosophy of science and G. J. Warnock’s Contemporary Moral Philosophy, the latter of which he annotated and critiqued from the Islamic point of view. Sadeq first made a name for himself by criticizing religious intellectuals such as Abdulkarim Soroush and eventually became one of the main voices of the Islamic Republic. Larijani taught courses on Islamic ideology, both at the seminary in Qom and at various IRGC bases around the country.

In 2001, Sadeq Larijani was the youngest jurist ever to be appointed to the Guardian Council, the twelve-person body responsible for approving all laws passed by the Majlis and for supervising elections. In the course of his Guardian Council activities, he has tried to remain under the radar by avoiding public appearances and media interviews. He has also made every effort to keep his relationships with Khamenei, the intelligence apparatus, and the IRGC under wraps.

Militarizing Iran’s Institutions
In his twenty years in office, particularly in recent years, Khamenei has replaced military, political, economic, cultural, and clerical officials with a new generation of politicians and clerics who owe their political or religious credentials to him. The IRGC and intelligence apparatuses became the main avenues through which young ambitious men loyal to Khamenei could enter the political scene.
Although most of these new politicians and clerics are close to Khamenei, they are not traditional clerics with independent political and religious credentials, such as those who participated in the 1979 Revolution. Instead, most of the new generation began their careers in the military, the IRGC, and the intelligence services. Notable examples include Ahmad Khatami (no relation to former president Muhammad Khatami), an influential intelligence agent who is now a member of the Assembly of Experts and the Friday prayer Imam of Tehran; Ahmad Salek, Khamenei’s representative in both the Qods Force and IRGC intelligence and a member of the Militant Clerics Society of Tehran; Hossein Taeb, the commander of Basij militia and former head of IRGC intelligence; and Sadeq Larijani.

Khamenei’s Judiciary
Khamenei keeps close control of the Iranian judiciary: he not only appoints its head, but also gives unofficial recommendations to other high-ranking judiciary officials. Often a micromanager, Khamenei has been known to go over the judiciary’s head, exemplified by his recent order to close the Kahrizak detention center in Tehran (a move that usually requires a court order). Critics say the closure was meant to prevent a Majlis investigation into abuse of the facility’s prisoners — most of whom were arrested following the postelection demonstrations.

Although the Iranian constitution mandates that the judiciary supervise all juridical and legal processes, some bodies, such as the Special Court of Clerics, work under Khamenei’s direct supervision outside the judiciary’s framework. Moreover, even though the IRGC, Basij, police, Intelligence Ministry, and Special Court of Clerics run many of Iran’s detention centers, the judiciary has no jurisdiction over any of them. Further complicating matters, Khamenei is constitutionally the final arbiter in any dispute between government officials, with the right to overrule Islamic law when necessary to safeguard the interests of the regime. As such, the judiciary uses Islamic law as the basis for its decisions only when Khamenei sees such use as not in conflict with the regime’s interests — as he defines it.

Not only is the judiciary empowered to ignore Islamic law, it also bypasses the country’s criminal law, particularly in politically related cases. This has led to harsh criticism by secular lawyers as well as clerics in the last two decades. In an open letter to Hashemi Shahroudi, for instance, published in Ettelaat newspaper on August 2, Ayatollah Mustafa Mohaqeq Damad, a prominent scholar of Islamic law, criticized the concept of the “interests of the regime,” complaining, “The bitter taste of what happened in the judiciary under you, especially in recent days, would not be forgettable for Iranian people … Under you, the judiciary, which is the pivot of society’s security, is not only shaken but destroyed.”

Iran’s judiciary — under the watchful eye of Iran’s top leader — has a great deal of power to shape the country’s legal system and environment. Sadeq Larijani’s ties to the IRGC and intelligence agencies provide ample reason to believe that he will use his new powers to crack down even further on human rights and civil liberties than did his predecessors. Moreover, Larijani’s appointment signals that the judiciary, the IRGC, and the intelligence agencies will be more closely aligned then ever. Presumably, this state of affairs indicates that traditional ayatollahs deeply trained in Islamic law — but who are not members of the intelligence-military-political circles — will have a lesser role in government in years to come. Given the unstable situation in postelection Iran, such a scenario could be a recipe for continued and ongoing chaos.

 

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Jailed Lawyer: ‘No Fair Political Trials’ In Iran

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Jailed Lawyer: ‘No Fair Political Trials’ In Iran

 

Jailed Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Mohammad Seifzadeh has written an open letter to former President Mohammad Khatami detailing extensive violations of judicial rights, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

Seifzadeh argued that Iran’s revolutionary courts are illegal. He noted that not a single one of the defendants in 6,000 political and media-related cases examined by 21 lawyers since Khatami was elected president in 1997 received a fair trial in accordance with Iran’s Constitution.

He added that none of his 180-200 fellow prisoners in Ward 350 of Tehran’s Evin prison received a fair trial either. He said their sentences were not commensurate with the actions for which they were tried.

With one exception, the same holds true for prisoners in Evin’s Ward 209, which is run by the Intelligence Ministry, Seifzadeh continued.

Seifzadeh signed his letter as a “member of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, former judge, lawyer, and current prisoner.” He said the only way out of the current situation is the “dissolution of such illegal authorities” and “structural reform of the judiciary.”

“A regime with a fair judiciary and free press and [political] parties will not undergo revolution and collapse,” Seifzadeh wrote.

Seifzadeh, who has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since May, was sentenced ilast year to nine years in prison and barred from practicing law for 10 years. He was charged with “acting against national security” by cofounding the Center for Human Rights Defenders with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi and three other lawyers.

Speaking with Radio Farda on August 24, Tehran-based lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi said the provisions of the criminal and civil codes have not been taken into account in political or security cases investigated by Iran’s revolutionary courts.

Aghasi said that under Iranian law, journalists and political defendants are entitled to an open trial by a jury, but that provision has been ignored for the past 32 years.

 

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EU imposes new sanctions on Iran, Syria

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EU imposes new sanctions on Iran, Syria

 

LA Times – It accuses the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of providing support to Syrian forces seeking to quell the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The European accused an elite branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of giving supplies and other support to Syria to help crush a popular uprising against President Bashar Assad‘s autocratic government.

The EU banned European travel by the Quds Force, as well as by 15 Syrian officials and four branches of Syria’s intelligence services, and froze their assets in sanctions adopted Tuesday and made public Wednesday.

The Quds Force “has provided technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements,” the EU alleged.

Syrian forces have escalated their five-month military offensive against government critics despite condemnation from Western and Arab nations. On Wednesday, Syrian tanks and forces stormed two towns near the border with Iraq and killed at least seven people nationwide, according to opposition groups.

Western and Arab diplomats have spoken privately of accusations that Iran, which used force to quell its own protests after the disputed 2009 presidential election, was lending its expertise and men to Assad as he struggles to keep his government from being the latest to fall in the recent Arab uprisings.

International authorities have not yet made public their evidence, however, and the EU sanctions announced Wednesday gave none. British and other newspapers have cited anonymous diplomatic accounts of bearded men speaking Iran’s Persian language among Syrian forces.

The Quds Force is one of the main branches of Iran’s covert operations abroad, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and others. International intelligence officials suspect it of delivering weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and to other allies of Iran.

In Iran, one political scientist charged that the EU was trying to exacerbate already-acute fears in the Arab world that Iran was aggressively trying to preserve and expand its regional influence.

“It is a message to Qatar to send more money to the opposition in Syria to buy arms and fight the Syrian regime. It will be an encouraging message to Salafi Sunni [fundamentalists] in Syria to push for toppling the Syrian regime,” said Ahmad Bakhshayesh-Ardestani, a professor in Tehran.

At a minimum, the EU sanctions were a message to Syrians that regardless of whether Assad’s regime survives, “your country’s ties with Iran should be severed,” said Mashallah Shamsulvaezin, another political analyst in Tehran.

In June, an earlier slate of EU sanctions over Syria’s crackdown named three commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran, which called those sanctions “baseless,” made no immediate public comment Wednesday.

Among the targets of the latest sanctions is Ali Douba, a former head of Syria’s military intelligence. The list cites Douba as a principal in the Syrian government’s deadly 1980 crackdown in the central city of Hama, and says Assad recalled Douba to duty to help with the current crackdown.

With no international military intervention in Syria under consideration, Europeans and Americans are working to strengthen economic sanctions against the regime. The measures are meant to force an end to Syrian attacks that the United Nations says have claimed at least 2,200 lives since March.

European and U.S. diplomats at the U.N. on Wednesday circulated a draft resolution for an arms embargo on Syria. European diplomats also are expected to push for adoption of a European embargo on Syrian oil by next week.

In Syria, activists still see hitting the privileged business community as their best hope for forcing change, one said. “We know that harming the economy will bring the regime to its knees,” Wissam Nabhan, a laborer and an opposition activist, said by telephone from the western city of Idlib.

 

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Legal Defense Under Siege by the Iranian Judiciary

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Legal Defense Under Siege by the Iranian Judiciary

 

(24 August 2011) The Iranian Central Bar Association should come to the aid of embattled lawyers subjected to harassment, unfounded criminal charges, or prison sentences for defending prisoners of conscience and advocating for human rights, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

The International Bar Association and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers should also intervene to defend Iranian lawyers facing persecution, added the Campaign.

Shirin Ebadi, leading human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, provided the Campaign with a list of 42 lawyers who have faced government persecution since June 2009. In the wake of the government’s attack on lawyers, the Iranian Central Bar Association, which represents Tehran, where the majority of these persecuted lawyers practice, has yet to come to the defense of its members.

“Every profession has a guild to protect its members,” Ebadi told the Campaign. “When a film actor is detained, the Cinema Union will at least issue one or two statements objecting to the arrest; or when a reporter or a writer is arrested, their professional organization will object.”

“But how is it that over the past two years, when so many lawyers faced problems because of their professional activities, no organization has come to their defense?” said Ebadi. “Now the question is what is the use of this [Central] Bar Association? One of the main responsibilities of the association is to oversee the performance of lawyers and to protect them legally. But lawyers are the least protected professional group in Iran.”

The Iranian Central Bar Association’s failure to protest the treatment of its members and other persecuted lawyers can be attributed in part to the organization’s lack of full independence.

After the 1979 Revolution, authorities suspended the existing bar association for nearly 18 years and appointed a judicial representative to oversee the bar.

“During that time, many lawyers were disbarred in the name of ‘cleansing’ [the Bar Association]” Ebadi told the Campaign. “And when they were sure that the remaining lawyers were going to ‘fall in line,’ orders to re-open the bar association were issued. But for further assurance, they passed a law that in practice eliminated the association’s independence.”

The Law on Attorney Qualifications, enacted in 1997, gives the Judiciary authority to vet and exclude candidates from membership in the Bar Association’s Board of Directors.  While the Bar’s members technically elect the board every two years, the Judiciary’s Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges can disqualify any candidate it sees as unfit. Article 4(1) of the law says:

“The Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges is the authority responsible for determining the qualifications of candidates for the [Bar Association’s] Board of Directors and is obligated to obtain information on the background of candidates from relevant authorities, within a maximum period of two months, to evaluate their qualifications and announce their decision.  Relevant authorities who have background information about the candidate are required to provide it.”

The Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges has repeatedly barred human rights lawyers including Shirin Ebadi, Abdolfatah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Farideh Gheyrat and Nemat Ahmadi from running for and sitting on the board of the Iranian Central Bar Association.

In practice, the Iranian Judiciary effectively defers to the Ministry of Intelligence, which is a “relevant authority” under the Law on Attorney Qualifications that determines who is able to govern the Bar Association. The Ministry, which has increasingly tightened its grip on the Judiciary since June 2009, has a long track record of targeting government critics and activists.

According to the website of the Iranian Bar Association Union, an umbrella organization that includes the Central Bar Association, the majority of bar members object to the Judiciary’s control over their board of directors. Nonetheless, the Judiciary’s control, and Ministry of Intelligence’s de facto proxy control, over the Bar has resulted in a passive Board of Directors and a Central Bar Association that has failed to defend lawyers who have come under government attack.

Nearly all of the 42 lawyers named in Ebadi’s list have represented prisoners of conscience and have come under government attack due to their advocacy on behalf of their clients and their outspoken promotion of human rights and rule of law in Iran. Of the 42 lawyers, 32 have been subjected to judicial prosecution, and 10 have been subjected to official persecution. Of the 32 prosecuted lawyers, 8 are currently in prison, 2 have completed their prison terms, another 21 are awaiting their final sentences, and 1 who was detained and subsequently charges were dropped against him.

“The Judiciary has essentially criminalized human rights-based representation,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the Campaign. “The legal defense community is being attacked and purged of anyone willing to represent prisoners of conscience. The point is to intimidate and dissuade Iranian lawyers from taking these cases.”

On 9 January 2011, Nasrin Sotoudeh, defense attorney for several activists and political detainees, received 11 years in prison and a 20-year ban on practicing law and traveling outside Iran on charges of “acting against national security” and “propaganda against the regime.” She also received a $50 fine for not adhering to Islamic dress code in a videotaped speech. Sotoudeh, mother of two young children, has gone on hunger strike multiple times to protest her illegal detainment and treatment in prison.

On 9 May 2011, Branch 54 of the Appeals Court in Tehran sentenced Mohammad Seifzadeh, co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran who represented numerous post-election detainees, to two years in prison and a ten-year ban on practicing law for “acting against national security” by “establishing the Defenders of Human Rights Center.” Seifzadeh has been in government custody since 11 April 2011.

Mohammad Oliaifar, of the Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners in Iran, served a one-year prison sentence on the charge of “propagating against the regime,” primarily for conducting interviews with international media outlets regarding the case of one of his clients, a juvenile facing execution. He was released in April 2011.

Javid Houtan Kiyan, the court-appointed lawyer for high profile defendant Sakineh Ashtiani, a women sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, was arrested on 10 October 2011. He later received an eleven-year prison sentence on charges of “acting against national security” after he appeared in a seemingly coerced televised confession.

In June 2011 the International Bar Association (IBA), of which the Iranian Central Bar Association is a member, urged for the release of Javid Houtan Kiyan. Two years earlier, in July 2009, the IBA also expressed concern in a statement that, effectively, “bar associations in Iran are under the control of the Judiciary.” Martin Solc, Co-Chair of the IBA’s Human Rights Institute, said Iran is violating “the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers by fundamentally disregarding the imperative to have an independent legal profession and by subjecting Iranian lawyers to ultimate control of the Judiciary.”

The Judiciary’s control over the Bar Association is also a violation of Iran’s legal obligation to respect freedom of association guaranteed by article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The Central Bar Association has been shamefully silent as the Judiciary throws their colleagues in prison for the simple act of advocating for human rights and defending their clients,” said Ghaemi.

“It is time for the Bar to break through the Judiciary’s control and come to the aid of its members. The International Bar Association and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers should also support the Iranian Central Bar Association and intervene in Iran’s attack on lawyers.”

 

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Imprisoned Political Activist’s Health Deteriorates in Prison

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Imprisoned Political Activist’s Health Deteriorates in Prison

 

Ali Tabarzadi, son of prisoner of conscience Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights In Iran that his father’s health has deteriorated in prison, and that in the last few months he has experienced serious cardiac complications. Judicial authorities have refused his family’s request for his medical leave.

“Last Thursday, when I went to visit my father in Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, I found him pale. He developed a heart condition in the past month and a half and his blood pressure is high. He is out of his heart and blood pressure medication, which we would bring him from outside prison. My father is also suffering from a bone-softening disease, and has other health problems, which seem to be caused by prolonged stays in the prison’s confined space, lack of ventilation, and poor nutrition. Rajaee Shahr prisoners are only allowed fresh air breaks between 2 and 4 p.m., which is a very unsuitable time due to the heat. Many prisoners don’t use their fresh air break at all in protest,” said Ali Tabarzadi.

“A month ago, because of the deterioration of my father’s condition, he was transferred to the prison’s infirmary, and was examined a few times, but because the prison infirmary only does general examination, we fear that the symptoms have not been diagnosed correctly, and that my father may need to be examined by a specialist. For this reason we applied for a medical leave for him, but, unfortunately, we have not received a response yet. After all, when his lawyer is not allowed to meet with him, how can a medical leave be expected?! Other prisoners who have requested leave have only been granted a few days under special circumstances and after many insults.  Anyhow, we are extremely worried about our father’s well being and there is nothing we can do for him,” he added.

Political activist and Secretary General of the Iran Democratic Front, Heshmatollah Tabarzadi was arrested on 27 December 2009 and transferred to Evin Prison. After protesting the execution of five political prisoners, including Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar, Tabarzadi was transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison. He was sentenced to seven years in prison by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.  During his imprisonment, Tabarzadi has participated in several long hunger strikes to protest various issues.

 

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Mothers of Park Laleh Remember Political Prisoners Slain in the 1980s

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Mothers of Park Laleh Remember Political Prisoners Slain in the 1980s

 

Mothers of Park Laleh condemn the 1980s massacres especially the mass executions of political prisoners in 1987 and join all mourning mothers to demand justice!

Another anniversary of mass executions of political prisoners in 1987 arrives while the horrifying account of this brutal massacre has spread all over the world. With each passing year, curtains purposefully drawn to conceal these crimes are opened to reveal dark accounts as living eye-witnesses begin to talk about those murderous years.

The story of 1987 is the tale of tortures, lashes and atrocities; it is the tale of sudden cessation of all communications with and visits from the outside world. It is the story of trials lasting only a few minutes with a single question asked and a lone answer received without the presence of an attorney or the right to defend oneself; it is the story of prosecuting even prisoners whose prison terms had ended. It is the tale of death sentences not subject to appeals.

It is the story of raping young, virgin girls before execution in order to deny them entry into the heaven according to the prevailing ideology of the rules. It is the tale of mass graves dug as large channels to bury the unknown unceremoniously in unmarked graves in a place today called Khavaran, the Valley of Flowers.

It is the story of the disappeared for whose return the surviving mothers still await. It is a tale lingering to this day, the continuation of the same atrocities materialized as executions, the chain killings and other forms of oppression. It is the story of the oppressed standing side by side, moving forward to reach justice and to witness the people’s uprising.

The story of 1987 is a tale meant to remain hidden but partially revealed by Ayatollah Montazeri and freed prisoners recounting the events. A story with darkened angles that in due time, must someday be fully explored and exposed.

There was a time when government authorities were able to lie about the connection between the massacres and the causes leading to Ayatollah Montazeri’s resignation as the designated successor to the Supreme Leader and denied the true account of what happened altogether. However, today, some of the members of the ruling class have given up rebuffing these mass executions and admit to these internal killings and political cleansings in different forums. Nonetheless, those in power at the time still refuse to accept the responsibility of ordering and perpetrating the massacres and decline to clarify all the facts.

Unaware of the fact that the truth will be eventually revealed, yesterday and today’s ruling class were complicit in a deliberate act to show then and now that the attacks by PMOI were the main causes leading to the mass killings.However, today we know that the plan for these massacres began in 1986. Following the cease fire between Iran and Iraq and PMOI’s attack, the best time and excuse for the mass killings and elimination of Iran’s bravest and the purest of hearts were at hand.

Consequently, given the proper pretext, this crime against humanity was carried out in the shortest amount of time through an act of abomination unparalleled and unseen. Although the exact number of those slain is still not known, some statistics estimate 5,000 to 12,000 prisoners were killed. What is certain is that such killings didn’t stop and continue in different shapes and forms to this day.

As a result, the efforts of political prisoners’ families have become more defined and determined. A sit-in protest in front of the main court house, a gathering in front of the prosecutor’s office, a ceremony to deliver a petition with 370 signatures to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights and contacts with defenders of political prisoners’ rights and human rights organizations abroad are only a few actions taken in order to protest against a national tragedy that has finally provoked a reaction from Europeans and Americans.

From September 1987 when the news of the massacres had reached the families in one way or another, large numbers of written and verbal complaints were sent to the Special Representative of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Dr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl. During his visit to Iran, Dr. Galindo Pohl devoted the majority of his time speaking with Iranian government officials and the least amount of his time to visiting the families, prisons and Khavaran. At the same time, the families gathered every day in front of the United Nations office in order to see him.

Although the Islamic Republic did its best to prevent Dr. Galindo Pohl from finding out the facts, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights clearly had what it needed in the form of documents and evidences which were unfortunately not taken seriously. No one knows why and the questions still linger to this day!

So far during the process to seek justice for the victims, international organizations have been silent about these enormous criminal acts which according to the international laws are rightfully considered to be crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, mourning mothers and families have individually and collectively tried to reach some answers.Visiting Khavaran regularly in order to safe-guard the evidence of the 1980s massacres has been one of such efforts. Despite the fact that Iranian security forces have attacked Khavaran many times and bulldozed the grounds such that there might have remained no evidence of the slain, Mothers of Khavaran love this dry, barren piece of land because they know that in the most hideous way possible, their loved ones were buried in Khavaran. These mothers’ questions must be answered someday.

For precisely such reasons, the mothers continue to visit Khavaran in spite of enormous threats and intimidations to keep the memory of their children alive until the day to answer their questions arrives.

Now, after ten years has passed since Dr. Galindo Pohl’s visit, and human rights have been clearly and widely violated in Iran, a special UN rapporteur has been appointed to look into the situation in Iran. We, the Mothers of Park Laleh, ask the United Nations, the Commission on Human Rights and all other international organizations to take the violations of human rights in Iran seriously and face their responsibilities expeditiously so that the end result will not be the same as the time of Dr. Galindo Pohl.

We, the Mothers of Park Laleh, together with the families of the slain exclaim that talking about forgiveness is meaningless until all the facts about these crimes are revealed and all the perpetrators of these massacres are tried in public and just courts because none of the Islamic Republic’s high officials have so far admitted to their mistakes publicly and formally. Furthermore, the mass murder of political prisoners remains an open case, and the evidence of such criminal acts will be someday revealed to the public and media. And, that day will be the judgment day.

Mothers of Park Laleh demand to know:

Why were human beings with prison sentences executed?
Why were human beings who only demonstrated in street to demand their rights killed?
Why are human beings interrogated, imprisoned and sometimes hanged simply because they express their thoughts and beliefs?

And a thousand other whys we and all other mourning mothers and families during the last thirty two years want to know. Until the time to answer arrives, we won’t give up fighting and remain standing.

Mothers of Park Laleh
August 19, 2011

 

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