Amnesty: Torture/possible prisoners of conscience/medical concern

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/015/2008 25 January 2008

UA 21/08

Torture/possible prisoners of conscience/medical concern

IRAN

Behrouz Seferi (Safari in Azerbaijani Turkic) (m), Iranian Azerbaijani
Layla Heydari (f), his wife

Iranian Azerbaijani Behrouz Seferi, who has campaigned for Iran's Azerbaijani minority to be given greater rights to use their mother tongue, is now known to have been detained without charge or trial since late May or early June 2007. His wife, Layla Heydari, has been detained since 28 August. Both are held in Tehran's Evin Prison, where they have allegedly been tortured. Neither has been allowed to consult a lawyer.

Behrouz Seferi was arrested shortly after demonstrations around the first anniversary of the publication of a cartoon in an Iranian newspaper which many Iranian Azerbaijanis found offensive. He was held in his home town of Zanjan until 4 December, when he was moved to Evin Prison.

Layla Heydari ran a shop selling Azerbaijani books, music and other cultural material until the authorities closed it down in 2006. She obeyed official warnings not to publicise her husband's arrest, but on 28 August she was summoned to visit him at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre where he was held at the time, and was arrested. She too was moved to Evin Prison on 4 December.

Their families were allowed to visit them on 31 December, and say they think both have been tortured to make them give "confessions". Layla Heydari is apparently in poor health, suffering from severe headaches, but has been given very little medical help. She has also reportedly suffered from heart problems, and has had to be treated on the medical wing, whose staff apparently recommended that she be allowed medical treatement outside prison

BACKGROUND INFORMATION Iranian Azerbaijanis, who live mainly in the north and north-west of the country and are mainly Shi'a Muslims, are the largest minority in Iran (at least 25-30% of the population). They are increasingly demanding greater cultural and linguistic rights, including the right to education in Azerbaijani Turkic. A small minority want Iranian Azerbaijani provinces to break away from Iran and join with the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Iranian authorities view those who seek to promote Iranian Azerbaijani cultural identity with suspicion, and often charge them with vaguely worded offences such as "acting against state security by promoting pan-Turkism

In May 2006, there were massive demonstrations in towns and cities in north-western Iran in protest at a cartoon published on 12 May by the state-owned daily newspaper Iran, which many Iranian Azerbaijanis found offensive. Hundreds were arrested during and after the demonstrations. Other waves of arrests have occurred around dates significant to the Azerbaijani community, such as a boycott of the start of the academic year in September 2006; after demonstrations in February 2007 on the occasion of International Mother Tongue day; and on the anniversary of the May 2006 demonstrations."

In recent years the authorities have grown increasingly suspicious of Iran's minority communities, many of which are situated in border areas, and have accused foreign powers such as the US and UK of fomenting unrest among them.


APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic, His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei,
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Minister of Intelligence, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

PLEASE SEND COPIES OF YOUR APPEALS TO:
His Excellency Mr Rasoul Movahedian,
Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran, 16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT.
Fax: 020 7589 4440
Email: info@iran-embassy.org.uk

AND, IF POSSIBLE, TO THE FOLLOWING: (Time difference = GMT + 3.5 hrs / BST + 2.5 hrs)
President, His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email

Speaker of Parliament, His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: 0098 21 3355 6408
Email: hadadadel@majlis.ir (Please ask that your message be brought to the attention of the Article 90 Commission)

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY

Amnesty: Torture/possible prisoners of conscience/medical concern

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/015/2008 25 January 2008

UA 21/08

Torture/possible prisoners of conscience/medical concern

IRAN

Behrouz Seferi (Safari in Azerbaijani Turkic) (m), Iranian Azerbaijani
Layla Heydari (f), his wife

Iranian Azerbaijani Behrouz Seferi, who has campaigned for Iran's Azerbaijani minority to be given greater rights to use their mother tongue, is now known to have been detained without charge or trial since late May or early June 2007. His wife, Layla Heydari, has been detained since 28 August. Both are held in Tehran's Evin Prison, where they have allegedly been tortured. Neither has been allowed to consult a lawyer.

Behrouz Seferi was arrested shortly after demonstrations around the first anniversary of the publication of a cartoon in an Iranian newspaper which many Iranian Azerbaijanis found offensive. He was held in his home town of Zanjan until 4 December, when he was moved to Evin Prison.

Layla Heydari ran a shop selling Azerbaijani books, music and other cultural material until the authorities closed it down in 2006. She obeyed official warnings not to publicise her husband's arrest, but on 28 August she was summoned to visit him at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre where he was held at the time, and was arrested. She too was moved to Evin Prison on 4 December.

Their families were allowed to visit them on 31 December, and say they think both have been tortured to make them give "confessions". Layla Heydari is apparently in poor health, suffering from severe headaches, but has been given very little medical help. She has also reportedly suffered from heart problems, and has had to be treated on the medical wing, whose staff apparently recommended that she be allowed medical treatement outside prison

BACKGROUND INFORMATION Iranian Azerbaijanis, who live mainly in the north and north-west of the country and are mainly Shi'a Muslims, are the largest minority in Iran (at least 25-30% of the population). They are increasingly demanding greater cultural and linguistic rights, including the right to education in Azerbaijani Turkic. A small minority want Iranian Azerbaijani provinces to break away from Iran and join with the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Iranian authorities view those who seek to promote Iranian Azerbaijani cultural identity with suspicion, and often charge them with vaguely worded offences such as "acting against state security by promoting pan-Turkism

In May 2006, there were massive demonstrations in towns and cities in north-western Iran in protest at a cartoon published on 12 May by the state-owned daily newspaper Iran, which many Iranian Azerbaijanis found offensive. Hundreds were arrested during and after the demonstrations. Other waves of arrests have occurred around dates significant to the Azerbaijani community, such as a boycott of the start of the academic year in September 2006; after demonstrations in February 2007 on the occasion of International Mother Tongue day; and on the anniversary of the May 2006 demonstrations."

In recent years the authorities have grown increasingly suspicious of Iran's minority communities, many of which are situated in border areas, and have accused foreign powers such as the US and UK of fomenting unrest among them.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, Arabic, French or your own language:
- expressing concern that Behrouz Seferi and his wife, Layla Heydari, have been detained without charge for some months, and asking why they were arrested;
- calling on the authorities to release them immediately and unconditionally if they are held solely for their peaceful activism on behalf of Iran's Azerbaijani minority, or else charge them with recognisably criminal offences and try them promptly and fairly;
- urging them to investigate reports that Behrouz Seferi and Layla Heydari have been tortured, and bring anyone found responsible for abuses to justice;
- reminding the authorities that the use of confessions extracted under duress is prohibited by Article 38 of the constitution of Iran.

APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic, His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei,
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Minister of Intelligence, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

PLEASE SEND COPIES OF YOUR APPEALS TO:
His Excellency Mr Rasoul Movahedian,
Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran, 16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT.
Fax: 020 7589 4440
Email: info@iran-embassy.org.uk

AND, IF POSSIBLE, TO THE FOLLOWING: (Time difference = GMT + 3.5 hrs / BST + 2.5 hrs)
President, His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email

Speaker of Parliament, His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: 0098 21 3355 6408
Email: hadadadel@majlis.ir (Please ask that your message be brought to the attention of the Article 90 Commission)

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY

Stop Capital Punishment

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Amnesty: Fear of Torture

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/016/2008
25 January 2008
UA 24/08

Fear of torture

IRAN

Jamshid Arazpour (m), ethnic Turkmen from Gomesh Deppeh
Haji Aman Khadivar (m), ethnic Turkmen from Chapaqli, Golestan
200-300 others

The two men named above were detained in the first week of January, during or after unrest that followed the killing of a Turkmen fisherman by the security forces. They are believed to be held incommunicado in Bouyeh Prison by officials from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence in the city of Gorgan, the capital of the north-eastern province of Golestan. They are at risk of torture. On 28 December, an 18-year-old Turkmen fisherman, Husamettin Khadivar, was killed by maritime security officers. He had been fishing without a license in the Caspian Sea off the city of Bandar-e Torkman. Three other fishermen taking part in the unauthorised fishing were arrested.

It is not known where Jamshid Arazpour was arrested. Haji Aman Khadivar, older brother of the dead man, was detained while taking part in mourning and commemorative events for his brother, outside the family home in Chapaqli. Both men, and others detained in the course of protests which followed Husamettin Khadivar's death, are said to have been tortured by three security officials while being transported in a minibus from Bandar-e Torkman to prison in Gorgan. Following the arrests, Bouyeh prison in Gorgan was said to have been so crowded that shackled detainees were forced to stand, possibly for hours, in freezing temperatures in the prison's courtyard, before they were put in cells. An Iranian body, the Turkmen Human Rights Group is said to have taken up the arrested men's case with the authorities.

On 30 December people from Turkmen fishing villages including Chapaqli and Khoja Nafas went to the military base near Chapaqli to seek information and to protest at the killing. Some also tried to lodge complaints at the office of the security chief of Bandar-e Torkman, but were turned away. Protests followed which are said to have led to broken windows and cars set on fire near the offices of the district governor, the security forces and the maritime security office. The protests are said to have continued until around 6 January, when the authorities received reinforcements. Dozens of
Turkmen protesters are said to have been injured, and 200-300 were arrested in villages in the region, including at least two from Gomesh Deppeh (Gomeshiyan in Persian), 20 from Chapaqli and 75 from Bandar-e Torkman. The detainees were reportedly not given any reason for their arrest, nor told what was going to happen to them. Their families have not been told where they are held, nor allowed to contact them. Scores, if not hundreds, of Turkmen have reportedly been taken to Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan province, possibly to make it harder for families to find out what has happened to them. One report suggested that these people were arrested at night and taken, in whatever they were wearing, to a detention centre where they received clothing and, in many cases, were taken from the region.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION The Turkmen of Iran number around 2.2 million (no more than 3% of the population), and speak a Turkic language. They are Sunni Muslim and live in the north-west of the country.
They are allowed no education or social services in their mother tongue, though a small number of newspapers are allowed to publish in Turkmen. Turkmen cannot obtain senior positions in even local government, under discriminatory gozinesh, or selection policies.

According to Turkmen sources, at least two other fishermen have been killed in the past two years, in a region marked by poverty and up to 40% unemployment. Fishing has reportedly recently been transformed into a state enterprise, effectively banning individual fishermen from their traditional livelihood.

The parliamentary representative for Bandar-e Torkman, himself a Turkmen, has reportedly complained to parliament on three occasions about the killing of Husamettin Khadivar and the subsequent mass arrests of his constituents. In one of his statements he is reported to have said that, "One cannot tell poor villagers that they should continue to live in hunger."

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, Turkmen or your own language:
- expressing concern at the reports of the incommunicado detention of up to 300 Turkmen, including Jamshid Arazpour and Haji Aman Khadivar following the killing of Husamettin Khadivar;
- calling on the authorities to ensure that none is tortured or ill-treated;
-calling on the authorities to allow all those detained to be granted immediate and regular access to their families and lawyer of their choice and to be granted any medical treatment they may require;
- reminding the authorities of their obligation under international human rights law to charge the detainees with recognisably criminal offences and to try them promptly and fairly, or else release them.

APPEALS TO: (Time difference = GMT + 3.5 hrs / BST + 2.5 hrs)
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Minister of Intelligence
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

PLEASE SEND COPIES OF YOUR APPEALS TO:
His Excellency Mr Rasoul Movahedian, Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran,
16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT.
Fax: 020 7589 4440
Email: info@iran-embassy.org.uk

AND, IF POSSIBLE, TO THE FOLLOWING:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir

Governor of Golestan province
Governorate of Golestan (Ostandari-ye Ostan-e Golestan)
Gorgan, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: via website: http://www.golestanstate.ir/layers.aspx?quiz'contact
Put your name in the top field and your message in the last field. Click the grey box beneath to send.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY

IMHRO:About Iranian Minority’s Human Right Organisation

Aim of this organisation defending minorities in Iran which in total are not any more minority and sum up of %75 of Iran’s population.

Why we call them Iranian minority?

We call them minority, because each one’s population is less than to total population in geography of Iran. We call them Iranian because they know this part of world by this name and nothing more than that.

Human Right abuse

Minorities in Iran suffering from below discriminations:

They can not enjoy freedom of speech and media

They can not enjoy social and political freedom

Political and human right activist who belong to these minorities facing Massive arrest, tortures, forced confession, arbitrary detention, disappearance, limb amputation and execution.

They can not talk in their mother tongue and educate in it.

They can not enjoy freedom of speech and media

They can not enjoy social and political freedom

They suffer from poverty and unemployment

They are facing huge environmental problem as result of lack of government investment

They can not name their children traditional names from their own culture

Government changed and continue change all names of cities and villages and streets related to non Persian culture