URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY


IRN 004/0012/OBS 125.03
Iran
Detention
28th November 2003


The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed that Mr. Nasser Zarafchan's appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed on November 25, 2003. With this decision, the Court confirmed M. Zarafchan's five years' imprisonment sentence, which aimed at sanctioning his activity as a lawyer of the families of the Iranian intellectuals murdered by intelligence
services agents in 1998.
He is still being held at Evin prison, and could not meet neither his counsel Mrs. Chirin Ebadi, nor Mr. Ligabo, Special Reporter of the United Nations on freedom of expression who visited Iran in November 2003.
On March 18th 2002, Mr. Zarafchan was sentenced to three years in jail by the Military Tribunal of Tehran for “weapons and alcohol possession ". He was also sentenced to two years of imprisonment for his statements to the press regarding the lawsuit of the alleged murderers of Iranian intellectuals, which ended in January 2002. This decision was confirmed in appeal by the Military Court of Tehran on July 15, 2002.

The Observatory considers Mr. Zarafchan's condemnation and detention as arbitrary, and recalls that the procedure is in contradiction with the principles of a fair and impartial trial.
Action requested:
Please write to the authorities of Iran, urging them to:

i. Proceed to Mr. Zarafchan's immediate release in the absence of any charges against him, and to guarantee his physical and psychological integrity in all circumstances.

ii. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Nasser Zarafchan, as well as any human rights defenders in Iran.

iii. Conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations' General Assembly on 9 December 1998, in particular its article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental
freedoms at the national and international levels ".

iiii. Conform with the disposals of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with the regional and international instruments which bound the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Addresses:

- His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami,
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, The Presidency, Palestine
Avenue, Azerbaijan
Intersection, Tehran (Iran); E-mail: khatami@president.ir

- His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, Head of the
Judiciary, Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran (Iran); Fax: +
98 21 879 6671

- The Iranian Embassy of your country


Paris, Geneva, the 28th of November 2003

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this
appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the
protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete
support in their time of need.

To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax: FIDH: +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / 01 43 55 18 80
OMCT: +41 22 809 49 39 / 41 22 809 49 29

--
=Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme
International Federation for Human Rights - FIDH
17, passage de la Main d'Or
75011 Paris - France
tel : ++ 33 1 43 55 25 18 / fax : ++ 33 1 43 55 18 80
www.fidh.org