IMHRO: an exclusive interview with Habib Nabgan about the arrest and deportation of his family from Syria to Iran

Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)

Ref.IMHRO.27

29/10/08

In an exclusive interview with IMHRO, Habib Nabgan talks about his family’s deportation from Syria back to Iran, where they are being unlawfully detained by the Iranian government.

“My family entered Syria in May 2008. A week later they were registered by UNHCR. A week after that, they were also given permission by the Danish government to settle in Denmark. However, before they could move to Denmark, they were deported back to Iran by the Syrian government”, Habib Nabgan told IMHRO.

“Once deported, the Iranian government arrested my wife, Ma’soumeh (DOB 1977) and our five children Shima (DOB 1994), Asia (DOB 1995), Asma (DOB 1997), Iyad (DOB 2000) and Emad (DOB 2003). They arrested them to pressure me into handing myself over to them.”

This is a common practice of Iranian government toward Ahwazi Arabs; especially in cases where the father of the family cannot be found or arrested revenge is taken by punishing their family.

“My wife was previously arrested in 2006 along with our little son Emad; they were both detained for four months. At that time my son was just 2 1/2 years old. One day an Iranian intelligence officer, who called himself Ahmadi, called me when I was in the UAE and warned me that if I did not hand myself over, they would make my whole family disappear. I replied; ‘execute them’. My wife has since told me that they played my recorded voice to them every day during those four months; they used it to pressure them into disclosing information about me”.

It is against all international laws to return registered asylum seekers to countries like Iran. This is especially true in cases where there are records that a person has been previously unlawfully arrested, kept in solitary confinement and subjected to torture.

“As a result of the last arrest and because of the way he was treated by the Iranian intelligence, my little boy has changed. He has become very aggressive. My wife has also developed depression and other psychological problems. During the detention my wife was continually questioned about me and my whereabouts. Then after four months, without any explanation about her arrest or release, she was allowed to leave”.

The Syrian government repeatedly break international laws and ignore the objections of the international community by deporting registered refugees. Many others have suffered in a similar way to Habib Nabgan’s family, such as; Jamal Obaidawi, Taher Ali Mazra’a, Rasool Ali Mazrae Saeed Hamadi, Faleh Abdullah Al-Mansouri and Saeed Saki. These are all indigenous Arabs in Iran and are registered by UNHCR as refugees.

“My family were due to fly to Denmark on 18th September, but first they had to get permission from the Syrian Immigration office to leave the country. Everyone who wishes to leave Syria must be first granted permission. But at the Immigration and Visa office, they were arrested. I spoke to her over the phone once and she told me that they were going to arrest us all. Since that conversation I have heard nothing else from them. I do not know what has happened to them since.”

After his wife’s arrest the Syrian government separated his wife from her children and took her to their intelligence centre for interrogation. On 27th September they deported her and their five children back to Iran. On 29th of September my family called me from the city of Ahwaz and told me that Iranian intelligence service have put my family in prison.

IMHRO questioned Nabgan about the allegation of his involvement in the bombing which took place in 06/2005 in Ahwaz.

He replied: “I was never involved in the bombing; this allegation was made up by the Iranian government. I was a political activist and leader of the April 2005 uprising of Ahwazi Arabs. My wife was never involved in any political or cultural activism; they are punishing my family to punish me. I don’t know who was behind those bombing.

Recently Nabgan’s sister, Jamila Nabgan age 43 and mother of seven children, was also arrested by the Iranian government in Ahwaz.

“My sister was also arrested to put further pressure on me to ‘confess’. On the 19th October, about 6pm, the Iranian Intelligence came to my sister’s house and started searching. They did not find anything incriminating, but they still took my sister with them. This has terrified the whole family.”

IMHRO asked Nabgan what he would like the international community to do to help his family.

“Habib Nabgan: Why should I by punished, especially through the maltreatment of my wife and children? I was just a political activist. Everyone should have the civil right to free speech. The United Nations is responsible for protecting my family in Iran and should have also held Syria to account. The Danish government should also help in my family’s release as they permitted us to settle in Denmark. I have not known for over a month where my family is being kept or how they are being treated.”

IMHRO are renewing Nabgan’s appeal to the international community in relation to Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children. Pressure needs to be put on the Iranian government for their immediate release.

Amnesty: Jamila Nabgan, a member of the Arab minority in Iran was arrested at her home on 19 October by officers from the Ministry of Intelligence

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/152/2008


20 October 2008

UA 286/08 Incommunicado detention/fear of torture or other ill-treatment

IRAN Jamila Nabgan (f), aged 43
Jamila Nabgan, a member of the Arab minority in Iran was arrested at her home on 19 October by officers from the Ministry of Intelligence. Her whereabouts are unknown and she is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

At 6am on 19 October 2008 plainclothes officers from the Ministry of Intelligence searched Jamila Nabgan's family home in the town of Shush, Khuzestan province, for about an hour and a half before arresting her. Her arrest seems linked to the help the Iranian authorities believe she gave to her sister-in-law, Ma’soumeh Ka’bi to flee Iran in May 2008. Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children were forcibly returned to Iran from Syria on 27 September 2008 (See UA 279/08, MDE 13/147/2008, 10 October 2008).

Jamila Nabgan, wife of Ali Chaab and the mother of seven children, was previously arrested in May 2008 and held for two days at the Intelligence Ministry detention facility in Ahwaz and questioned about her sister-in-law’s flight to Syria. She is also the sister of Habib Nabgan, a prominent member of the Lejnat al-Wefaq (Reconciliation Committee), a political party which promotes the rights of the Arab minority in Iran. Habib Nabgan was resettled as a refugee in Denmark two years ago.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Much of the Arab community in Iran lives in the province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq. The Arab minority in Iran have complained of discrimination, including in access to resources, as well as forced evictions. There were mass demonstrations in April 2005, after it was alleged that the government planned to disperse the country's Arab population or to force them to relinquish their Arab identity. Following bomb explosions in Ahvaz City in June and October 2005, which killed at least 14 people and explosions at oil installations in September and October 2005, hundreds of people were arrested. Further bombings on 24 January 2006, in which at least six people were killed, were followed by further mass arrests. At least 17 men have now been executed as a result of their alleged involvement in the bombings. It is not clear if another man was executed or died in custody.

Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution states: “The official language and script of Iran… is Persian… However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.” Lejnat Al-Wefaq was established in 1999 to promote the rights of the Arab minority in Iran, including linguistic and cultural rights, but the party was declared illegal on 4 November 2006, and a statement from the Ahvaz Prosecutor's office said that “membership and connection with that party will be severely confronted."


RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, Arabic or your own language:
- calling on the authorities to ensure that Jamila Nabgan is not subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and to allow her immediate access to a lawyer of her own choosing, and any medical treatment she may require;
- asking why exactly she was arrested; what charges, if any, have been brought against her; and when any trial will begin;
- calling on the authorities to release her unless she is to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and given a prompt and fair trial.

APPEALS TO:

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 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

COPIES 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

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 1 December 2008.

IMHRO welcomes the decision of UK Government not to hand over the last hostage-taker at Iranian London embassy siege to Iran

Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)

Ref.IMHRO.26

25/10/08

IMHRO welcomes the UK Government’s decision to allow Fowzi Badavi Nejad to stay in the UK. This man from the Arab minority in Iran took part in the terrorist attack on the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. If he were to be returned to Iran he would be likely to face torture and the death penalty.

At the same time we condemn such terrorist acts and any kind of campaign of violence which would just nullify the peaceful rights movement of minorities in Iran.

Iran Embassy siege in London, 1980

The attack on the Iranian embassy in London was staged by the Iraqi intelligence service and took place in the aftermath of the Mohammareh Massacre by General Madani in early 1979. The Iraqi government used the emotional atmosphere to recruit Ahwazi Arabs for its own political objectives.

The raid by the SOS started after the hostage-takers killed a man and announced they would kill a hostage every half-hour. Five gunmen were killed and only one hostage-taker survived by hiding among the hostages.

Mohammareh Massacre 1979

In early 1979 the Iranian General Ahmad Madani ordered navy commandos to conduct the ethnic cleansing of Arabs and to kill any Arabs they found in the city of Mohammareh near to the Iraqi border. He also used Argentinean style dumping of live Arabs in bags in the river to drown them.

General Ahmad Madani at the time nominated himself for the presidential election; he was counting on his ethnic cleansing of Arabs in Mohammareh as part of his election publicity to bring him votes!! The result of the election showed how much support there was for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs when he came second.

Militia forces started wearing Arab dress and shooting non-Arab people on the roads, leaving one witness behind to incite hatred and further clashes.

As a result of his campaign thousands were killed and thousands went missing. The world simply chose to turn a blind eye to this massacre.

Lies circulated by Iranian Government

The Iranian government used the Iranian embassy siege as effective propaganda. They linked the London siege to the US embassy hostages in Tehran, saying that the US and UK staged the hostage-taking in London as retaliation for the US hostages in Tehran.

The hostages were later guided by the Iranian intelligence service to say that "They then took the two terrorists, pushed them against the wall and shot them. They wanted to finish their story. That was their job.”... [They might have] "Had something in their pockets but certainly had no weapons in their hands at the time.”[i]

This sort of lies about what happened in London siege still continues till today.

Violence is not a solution

Any campaign of violence will just give dictatorial governments such as Iran, a green light to suppress any opposition. Minorities in Iran should avoid using violence by all means.

From the other side many years of suppression by the Iranian government and their obvious policy of “inciting violence” by cracking down on all the minorities’ political parties has been the main source of violence.

A Kurdish group of PJAK (part of PKK in Iran), the Baluchi group of Jund Allah (Soldiers of Allah) and other similar groups are exacerbating the plight of minorities in Iran and are just providing further propaganda for the Iranian government.

However most of the minorities’ activities are peaceful and we urge those who are still using violence to change their policy to peaceful campaigning. We ask the entire minority movement, including political parties, to avoid any violence in their campaigning.


[i] Six days that shook Britain by Peter Taylor, The Guardian, July 24, 2002

VOA: Iran Must Heed It's Own Constitution

11 October 2008

Human rights monitors say that at least eight activists have been detained by the Iranian government since July of this year. According to the director of the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners, Fakhteh Zamani, university students Maqsoud Ahdi, Mansour Aminian, Aydin Khajei, Amir Mardani, Majid Makuyi, Sejjad Radmehr, Feraz Zahtab, and Dariush Hatemi, were arrested in a series of raids in July and August.

Although none of these men has been charged with a crime, human rights monitors say that they are prisoners of conscience, arrested for the expression of their beliefs. All of them have been active in the movement calling for Azerbaijani minority rights, says Fakhteh Zamani:

"They are calling for greater cultural and linguistic rights. These include the right to education using the Azerbaijani-Turkic language, which they believe is provided under the constitution."

According to Article Fifteen of the Iranian Constitution, although Persian is the official language, "the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian."The Azerbaijanis are the largest minority in Iran, believed to constitute 25 to 30 percent of the population.

Despite a long-standing policy of forced assimilation and discrimination by the Iranian government against non-Persian ethnic groups, recent years have seen a rise of Azerbaijani national consciousness, and a degree of promotion of the study and celebration of Azerbaijani culture, language and history. The Iranian government has responded with arrests, detentions, threats and other violations of human rights.

The U.S. calls on Iran to heed its own Constitution, and afford its minorities the rights guaranteed by Article Nineteen, which states, in its entirety: "All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; and color, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege."

IMHRO: UN should hold Syria to account

• Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)
  
  An Open Letter to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the Hon. António Guterres, and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Hon. Ban Ki-moon
  
  Ref.IMHRO.24
  
  2008-10-19
  
  In recent days the Syrian Government has handed over further Ahwazi Arab refugees to the Iranian authorities. This time the victims consist of a family, a mother along with five children. Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children: Shima’ Nabgan, Asia Nabgan, Asma' Nabgan, Asma' Nabgan, Iyad Nabgan and Imad Nabgan all deported to Iran and reportedly subjected to torture and human right abuse. Under any law, what is happening to Ahwazi refugees in Syria is not acceptable.
  
  In recent years, over a period of time, Jamal Obaidawi, Taher Ali Mazra’a, Rasool Ali Mazrae Saeed Hamadi, Faleh Abdullah Al-Mansouri and Saeed Saki, have all been arrested in Syria, despite registering as political refugees with the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and have been handed over to the Iranian authorities. They are reportedly under torture and the death penalty has been issued for them.
  
  Ahwazi Arabs are seeking to escape from a range of human rights abuses by the Iranian government including: persecution, torture, arbitrary arrests, death penalty and land confiscation. They seek to escape in the hope that the UNHCR and the UN would support them and help them to move to a safe country.
  
  It is very disappointing that the Syrian government returns refugees, registered with the UNHCR, to Iran to be tortured and is not brought to account for this betrayal. The safety of all these refugees is surely the responsibility of the UN.
  
  Those who are deported to Iran face torture and possibly the death penalty. Please treat this as an urgent matter. We ask you to take the following action:
  

• To condemn the Syrian Government for this inhumane and unlawful act of the deportation of political refugees to Iran, and to ask the Syrian government to stop deporting any more Ahwazi asylum seekers to Iran.
• To request the Iranian government to release those who have been arrested.
• To send a UN team to meet those who are in prison and to investigate their treatment and their condition in prison.
• To ensure the protection of Ahwazi refugees by UNHCR and to speed up the process of application; to organise a new UNHCR office in a safer country for refugees from Iranian minorities.
  
  Yours Sincerely
  
  Reza Washahi
  IMHRO Director
  
  
  

AFP: Four Kurdish rebels killed in Iran: report

TEHRAN (AFP) — Four Kurdish rebels have been killed in clashes with members of the Islamist volunteer Basij militia in a village in Kordestan province in western Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

The clashes took place Tuesday evening between Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) rebels and Basij volunteers in Tijtij village near the town of Marivan, IRNA said.
Iranian forces have in recent years engaged in a series of deadly clashes with PJAK which operate from rear-bases in northeastern Iraq.

The rebel group has close links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Iran has in recent years seen an upsurge in unrest in several regions with ethnic minority populations, including Baluchestan in the southeast, Arab-populated Khuzestan in the southwest, as well as Kurdish-inhabited areas.

Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of being behind the increase in violence.

Amnesty: Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children, all members of the Arab minority in Iran, were forcibly returned from Syria to Iran

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/147/2008
10 October 2008

UA 279/08 Forcible return/ Prisoners of conscience/ Fear of torture and ill-treatment

IRAN Ma’soumeh Ka’bi (f), aged 31
Shima’ Nabgan (f), aged 14 ]
Asia Nabgan (f), aged 13 ]
Asma' Nabgan (f), aged 11 ] Ma’soumeh Ka’bi’s children
Iyad Nabgan (m), aged 8 ]
Imad Nabgan (m), aged 4 ]

Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children, all members of the Arab minority in Iran, were forcibly returned in breach of international law on 27 September from Syria to Iran, where they are all now said to be in custody. They were forcibly returned by the Syrian government despite having registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in order to seek asylum. They were scheduled to leave for Denmark where they were to join Habib Nabgan, the children's father and Ma’soumeh’s husband. Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children are prisoners of conscience held solely in order to force Habib Nabgan to return to Iran. They may be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Habib Nabgan is a prominent member of the Lejnat al-Wefaq (Reconciliation Committee), a political party which promotes the rights of Iran's Arab minority. He was resettled as a refugee in Denmark two years ago. Ma’soumeh Ka’bi fled Iran with her five children on 7 May 2008 and applied for refugee status with the UNHCR in Damascus, who were processing her case. She had been granted permission to join her husband by the Danish authorities.

After the Danish authorities issued Ma’soumeh Ka’abi with a temporary travel document, on 9 September she took her five children to the office of Syria's Immigration Department in order to obtain an exit visa, which would allow them to leave the country. The six were all detained that day, and despite interventions made by the UNHCR in Syria requesting the family’s release, they were forcibly returned to Iran on 27 September. On arrival in Tehran, Iran’s capital, the family was held at a detention facility at the airport for one night then transferred to a detention facility run by the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran. On or around 29 September, the children were separated from their mother. All the family members were again transferred and taken to another Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, where Ma’soumeh Ka’bi is still being held separately from her children. Security personnel then telephoned other family members in Iran, informing them of the place of detention of the children and warning them not to ask questions about Ma’soumeh Ka’bi.

Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her younger son Imad, then aged two, were previously arrested on 27 February 2006 (see UA 65/06, MDE 13/028/2006). They were held until they were released on bail on 28 April 2006.The other four children, and Habib Nabgan's mother, were also arrested but were released the following day. Habib Nabgan, who had fled the country, received threats that his family would be tortured or killed if he did not return to Iran.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Much of Arab community in Iran lives in the province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq. The Arab minority in Iran have complained of discrimination, including in access to resources, as well as forced evictions. There were mass demonstrations in April 2005, after it was alleged that the government planned to disperse the country's Arab population or to force them to relinquish their Arab identity. Following bomb explosions in Ahvaz City in June and October 2005, which killed at least 14 people, and explosions at oil installations in September and October 2005, hundreds of people were arrested. Further bombings on 24 January 2006, in which at least six people were killed, were followed by further mass arrests. At least 17 men have now been executed as a result of their alleged involvement in the bombings. It is not clear if another man was executed or died in custody.

Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution states: “The official language and script of Iran… is Persian… However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.” Lejnat Al-Wefaq was established in 1999 to promote Iranian Arab minority rights, including linguistic and cultural rights, but the party was declared illegal on 4 November 2006, and a statement from the Ahvaz Prosecutor's office said that “membership and connection with that party will be severely confronted."

Four Iranian men, members of Iran’s Arab community, are believed to have been forcibly returned from Syria to Iran in 2006 (see UA 132/06, MDE 24/037/2006, 15 May 2006 and follow-ups and UA 67/07, MDE 24/018/2007, 16 March 2007). At least one of these men is facing a death sentence.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Arabic, Persian or your own language:
- expressing concern that Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her five children (please name them) are prisoners of conscience, held solely in order to force Habib Nabgan to give himself up to the Iranian authorities;
- calling on the authorities to release all of them immediately and unconditionally;
- expressing concern for their safety and urging the authorities to ensure that they are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated;
- calling on the authorities to ensure that they are given immediate access to lawyers of their own choosing, their families and any medical treatment they may require;
- reminding the Iranian authorities that Article 12(2) of the ICCPR expressly recognizes the right to leave any country, including one’s own, and urging them to allow Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and her children to leave Iran;
- reminding the Iranian authorities that as a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, detention of children should be only if they come in conflict with the law and should be as a last resort for the shortest period of time after judicial proceedings. The best interest of the child and the children’s development should be paramount considerations in any measures taken against children.

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 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

COPIES TO: to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 21 November 2008.

VOA: Minorities Suffering In Iran

26 September 2008

The Iranian regime’s assault on peaceful minority rights activists continues, and the pace seems to be increasing.

On September 10th, security agents arrested more than nineteen Azeri-Iranians -- journalists, university instructors, and poets -- gathered in a private home in Tehran for an Iftar celebration, the meal breaking the fast during Ramadan. Among them were the wife and children of jailed Azeri-Iranian minority rights activist Abbas Lisani. The same day, Hassan Rahimi, another prominent Azeri Iranian human rights defender, was also arrested in Tehran. Some of those arrested, including Rugeyya Lisani and the Lisani children, have been released. But many remain in Evin prison.The arrests of the Azeri Iranians follow a campaign of repression targeting minority groups in Iran, including Kurds and Balouchis, as well as Azeris.

Amnesty International has reported that the “deep-rooted discrimination” experienced by Iranian Kurds is proceeding unchecked, and noted that Kurdish human rights defenders, including community activists and journalists, face arbitrary arrest, mistreatment and prosecution.Amnesty cites the case of human rights activist and journalist Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand who was sentenced in June to eleven years in prison. Earlier this year, Kurdish ethnic rights defenders Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydariyan and Farhad Vakili were sentenced to death, following what Amnesty called “a grossly flawed” judicial process.

Human rights monitors also complain of repression by the regime of Balouchi Iranians. In August, authorities executed Yaghoub Mehrnehad, journalist and director of Voice of Justice, a civil society organization that specializes in cultural events aimed at Balouchi youth. There are reports that hundreds of Balouchi Iranians are imprisoned under sentence of death in Sistan va Balouchistan province.

Earlier this year, the United States joined the European Union in expressing concern “over the deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran, especially those of human rights defenders, women, and minorities.”

The U.S. calls on Iran to respect the human rights of all Iranian people – including its ethnic and religious minorities -- and to release those imprisoned for insisting on their universal rights.

RWB: More and more minority journalists being jailed

24.09.2008

Reporters Without Borders is worried about a rise in tension between the Iranian authorities and journalists who belong to Iran’s Azeri community. Four Azeri journalists have been held without charge for more than 10 days, possibly in Tehran’s Evin prison, while an Azeri journalist and blogger was sentenced to six months in prison on 20 September for her online articles.

“These Azeris join the list of ethnic minority journalists held in Iran’s prisons for criticising social inequality and demanding equal treatment within Iranian society,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is disturbing that 11 of the 12 journalists currently detained in Iran are from the Kurdish, Azeri or Arab minorities. The Iranian authorities must put a stop to this all-out repression, which is holding back the development of community media.”

An investigating judge decided on 17 September to keep four Azeri journalists - Alireza Sarafi, Said Mohamadi, Hassain Rashedi and Akabar Azad - in detention without giving their families any explanation and without letting them see a lawyer. They were arrested on 10 September while meeting at a political activist’s home in Tehran.

Sarafi is the editor of Dilmaj (a monthly that has been closed since 23 September 2007). Mohamadi is the editor of the literary magazine Yashagh. Rashedi and Azad write for the magazine Varlighe and the weekly Yarpagh.

The day after the judge’s decision to keep them in custody, intelligence agents search the homes of Sarafi and Rashedi, taking work files, CD-ROMs and the hard drives of their computers. The four men may now be in Evin prison’s section 209, which is under the intelligence ministry’s control.
Shahnaz Gholami, the editor of the weblog Azar Zan, was sentenced to six months in prison by a revolutionary court in the northwestern city of Tabriz on 20 September for “publicity against the Islamic Republic.” She remains free pending the outcome of an appeal being prepared by her lawyer, Mohamad Ali Dadkhah.

A member of the Women Journalists Association (ARZ), Gholami is well known for her involvement in the struggle for women’s rights, She was jailed for three weeks in August 2007 for criticising the way the police cracked down on demonstrators in various towns in the Iranian provinces of East and West Azerbaijan. She was also detained for five years in the 1980s because of her political activities.