The Observer | International | Hunger striker remains in Iran jail
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:29 PM
1 comments
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Iran dissident 'cannot see wife' - Persian Journal Latest Iran news & Iranian Newspaper
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:29 PM
1 comments
Center for Advocates of Human Rights protests to Iran's Judiciary for arrest warrant against lawyer
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:29 PM
0 comments
The Epoch Times | Iran Judiciary Arrests Leading Human Rights Lawyer
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:27 PM
0 comments
The Epoch Times | Iran Judiciary Arrests Leading Human Rights Lawyer
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:25 PM
1 comments
The Epoch Times | Iran Judiciary Arrests Leading Human Rights Lawyer
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:22 PM
3 comments
The Epoch Times | Iran Judiciary Arrests Leading Human Rights Lawyer
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:21 PM
2 comments
L'état de santé du journaliste et écrivain réformateur iranien Akb
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:18 PM
2 comments
Friday, July 29, 2005
The Daily Star - Politics - Hunger-striking Iranian journalist near his death
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:36 PM
1 comments
Ganji Is Not Alone By Shirin Ebadi
Ganji Is Not Alone
By Shirin Ebadi
Jul 29, 2005, 04:17
Akbar Ganji’s perilous condition is just one distressing example of the dire state of Iran’s political and ideological prisoners recently highlighted in the media. Defending Ganji and publicizing his protests is the responsibility of every human rights activist and thse who care to raise the dignity of human life in Iran.
As Akbar Ganji’s lawyer and someone who, because of my work on this imprisoned journalist’s behalf, has been subject to myriad accusations and threats, I would like to address all human rights activists with a cautionary note. Let us not forget all other political and ideological prisoners who aren’t as well-known as Mr. Ganji. Those who have been forgotten in various prisons including Evin, Rejaee Shahr and other near and far flung provincial prisons and are doing hard time. Prisons filled with such human strife and suffering have hardly been reported in Tehran Judiciary’s recent report.
In some of these prisons, political inmates endure the torture of solitary confinement while in other facilities they actually request such confinement to escape their murderous and criminally hardened cellmates. There are many detainees who have suffered long term mistreatment and are denied access to a lawyer and for whom only hunger strikes offer a slight chance of garnering a minimum of their human rights.
The harshness of treatment they receive too bears no proportion to their political or ideological acts. Recall Mojtaba Saminejad whose only crime was to publish a personal weblog with very limited readership. He was regarded as a hardened outlaw and his hands and feet shamelessly shackled when taken to and from courtrooms.
We must work together for the freedom of all political and ideological prisoners. To ensure that their human rights receive a minimum level of protection, it is essential that we do not allow them to fade away from memory, a fate that a majority of them have already suffered.
_____________________________________________________________
Shirin Ebadi is an attorney, human rights activist and winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for championing human rights, especially the rights of women and children. She was the first female judge in Iran. She is an outspoken reformer and a regular contributor to Rooz.
http://roozonline.com/11english/008937.shtml
AxisofLogic/ Civil Rights/Human Rights
By Shirin Ebadi
Jul 29, 2005, 04:17
Akbar Ganji’s perilous condition is just one distressing example of the dire state of Iran’s political and ideological prisoners recently highlighted in the media. Defending Ganji and publicizing his protests is the responsibility of every human rights activist and thse who care to raise the dignity of human life in Iran.
As Akbar Ganji’s lawyer and someone who, because of my work on this imprisoned journalist’s behalf, has been subject to myriad accusations and threats, I would like to address all human rights activists with a cautionary note. Let us not forget all other political and ideological prisoners who aren’t as well-known as Mr. Ganji. Those who have been forgotten in various prisons including Evin, Rejaee Shahr and other near and far flung provincial prisons and are doing hard time. Prisons filled with such human strife and suffering have hardly been reported in Tehran Judiciary’s recent report.
In some of these prisons, political inmates endure the torture of solitary confinement while in other facilities they actually request such confinement to escape their murderous and criminally hardened cellmates. There are many detainees who have suffered long term mistreatment and are denied access to a lawyer and for whom only hunger strikes offer a slight chance of garnering a minimum of their human rights.
The harshness of treatment they receive too bears no proportion to their political or ideological acts. Recall Mojtaba Saminejad whose only crime was to publish a personal weblog with very limited readership. He was regarded as a hardened outlaw and his hands and feet shamelessly shackled when taken to and from courtrooms.
We must work together for the freedom of all political and ideological prisoners. To ensure that their human rights receive a minimum level of protection, it is essential that we do not allow them to fade away from memory, a fate that a majority of them have already suffered.
_____________________________________________________________
Shirin Ebadi is an attorney, human rights activist and winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for championing human rights, especially the rights of women and children. She was the first female judge in Iran. She is an outspoken reformer and a regular contributor to Rooz.
http://roozonline.com/11english/008937.shtml
AxisofLogic/ Civil Rights/Human Rights
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:33 PM
1 comments
Reporters sans frontires - Iran:Journalist Akbar Ganji may die after 50-day hunger-strike
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 11:14 AM
1 comments
Iran Focus-News - Special Wire - Iran�s judiciary refuses to pardon jailed journalist
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 11:13 AM
2 comments
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY:Hunger-Striking Iranian Dissident Reportedly Near Death
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 11:11 AM
1 comments
Thursday, July 28, 2005
news - Sub-Commission debates question of violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms
news - Sub-Commission debates question of violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms: "DIANE ALA'I, of Baha'i International Community, said that the situation of the Baha'is in the Iran had deteriorated. Early this year, persecution against members of this community had intensified. The worst violence occurred in the city of Yazd, where men equipped with batons and communication devices attacked three Baha'i homes in January. A wave of arrests and imprisonments had followed, and most of the prisoners were arbitrarily detained without any charge being filed against them. The Baha'is were not the only people suffering from recurrent human rights violations in Iran, but they were systematically targeted and relentlessly pressured, for only one reason: they would not give up their faith. The situation of human rights in Iran had been absent from the agenda of the Commission for the past three years, and during that time human rights violations against the Bahai's had gradually increased. The Community therefore called upon the Experts of the Sub-Commission to join with civil society in expressing grave concern about the situation in Iran."
...
ALEXANDRA POMEON O'NEIL, of International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said the League was concerned about the recrudescence of human rights violations, the situation of the Bahai minority and flawed presidential elections in Iran. On 19 July, two boys were publicly hanged in Mashhad, after receiving 228 whips each. Ayaz Marhoni was 18 and Mohamoud Asgari was a minor. They were probably sentenced to death for their sexual orientation.
....
...
ALEXANDRA POMEON O'NEIL, of International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said the League was concerned about the recrudescence of human rights violations, the situation of the Bahai minority and flawed presidential elections in Iran. On 19 July, two boys were publicly hanged in Mashhad, after receiving 228 whips each. Ayaz Marhoni was 18 and Mohamoud Asgari was a minor. They were probably sentenced to death for their sexual orientation.
....
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:03 PM
0 comments
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran 'must stop youth executions'
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:59 PM
2 comments
Iran's Students Find Inspiration in Ganji's Protest - July 28, 2005 - The New York Sun - NY Newspaper
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:57 PM
3 comments
Iran Focus-News - Special Wire - Iran police raid home of slain Canadian journalist�s lawyer
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:56 PM
2 comments
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Iran "hunting more gay teens" | Headlines | News | Gay.com UK
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:32 PM
0 comments
UK Gay News - Executed Gay Iranian Teens: London Embassy Protest Set
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:31 PM
0 comments
Human Rights Watch Letter to Iran's Head of Judiciary (Human Rights Watch, 27-7-2005)
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:29 PM
0 comments
Montreal Gazette - Critics push for investigation into Kazemi death
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:27 PM
0 comments
IFEX ::Denial of justice continues for hunger-striking journalist Akbar Ganji
IFEX ::: "Denial of justice continues for hunger-striking journalist Akbar Ganji"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:26 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Iran Reports Torture, Rights Abuses in its Prisons
July 24, 2005
The Associated Press
USA Today
TEHRAN, Iran -- In an unprecedented report, Iran's hard-line judiciary acknowledged widespread human rights violations in prisons, including the use of torture, state-run media reported Sunday.
The report said prison guards and officials in detention centers have ignored a legal order banning torture. It also said police have made several arrests without sufficient evidence and held suspects in undeclared detention centers.
The report, which was broadcast on state-run radio and appeared on the front page of several newspapers, said a judicial investigation had discovered human right violations including the "blindfolding and beating" of defendants, a 13-year-old boy jailed for stealing a hen, a woman who was imprisoned because her husband was a fugitive and a man who has been in prison since 1988 without a verdict in his case.
The report has been handed over to the head of judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.
Abbas Ali Alizadeh, head of the Tehran Justice Administration, who drafted the report, said some detention centers run by the hard-line elite Revolutionary Guards had refused to admit inspectors or investigate whether prisoners' human rights were being respected.
Last year, Shahroudi ordered a ban on the use of torture for obtaining confessions — a move seen as Iran's first public acknowledgment of the practice.
Iran's constitution specifically outlaws torture, but human rights groups say the Islamic Republic's security forces routinely use it to extract confessions.
Iranian hard-liners have jailed several dozen reformist journalists and political activists and closed about 100 pro-democracy publications in the past five years for criticizing the rule of the country's unelected clerics.
In 2003, a special U.N. envoy visited Iran, during which he said he received "many complaints" regarding human rights violations, including torture, from pro-reform dissidents, writers and activists.
The bleak situation in Iranian prisons was highlighted by the case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in jail July 2003 about three weeks after being detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during anti-government protests. Reformers said she was beaten to death.
Mahabad Crackdown Reaching New Proportions
July 24, 2005
Potkin Azarmehr
Iran va Jahan
Reports from Mahabad state the repression reaching new proportions even beyond what was the norm in the past. The strikes and protests in Mahabad are now in its eighth day. In the last few days the state security forces have attacked the homes of Mahabad citizens, and arrested hundreds of the population. It is rumoured in the town that two youth aged 13 and 18 have died under torture. Thirteen of the tortured are in such a critical state that they have been taken to the hospital which is under the control of the military units.
The city is now under complete general strike. Until 6:00 pm yesterday, large crowds had gathered outside the main prison demanding the return of the bodies of the murdered youth.
In solidarity with the people of Mahabad, the near by towns of Bookan, Saqiz, and Kamyaran have also joined the general strike.
While the new president, Ahmadi-Nejad, continues to flex his muscle, his crimes are going unreported. Not one Western correspondence as yet has gone to Mahabad to view the situation.
UK Issues Damning Report on Human Rights Abuses in Iran
July 24, 2005
Iran Focus
iranfocus
London -- Britain issued a damning report on the human rights situation in Iran, stating that there had been “no significant progress” over the year, while human rights had “deteriorated further in many areas”.
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office wrote in its Human Rights Annual Report 2005, released on July 21, that punishment of children in the Islamic Republic was an “area of concern”, adding, “We have received an increasing number of reports of juvenile offenders being sentenced to death or lashing. In several instances, these barbarous punishments have apparently been carried out. A 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was reportedly hanged in public in August 2004 for ‘acts incompatible with chastity’”.
The FCO said that such punishments violated Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adding that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child had also made clear its concern earlier this year.
“Sadly, we continue to receive reports of juvenile offenders receiving death sentences and we have asked the Iranian authorities to look into them as a matter of urgency”, the report said.
“We remain concerned about the limits imposed on freedom of expression and assembly, the lack of freedom of religion and the extensive use of the death penalty”, it added.
The annual report went on to highlight the Islamic Republic’s abuse of the right to free speech. “Iran has not respected freedom of expression. The government is increasing its censorship of all the main media and particularly the internet. It has blocked many websites and weblogs that provide news or comment critical of the regime and has closed down a number of reformist newspapers. The authorities have arrested and imprisoned journalists, internet technicians and webloggers”.
“In late 2004 several webloggers claimed that they had been beaten, kept in solitary confinement and tortured. The government set up a presidential commission to investigate. A former vice-president of Iran said their testimonies had ‘made committee members weep’. Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, reportedly threatened those who gave evidence with lengthy prison sentences and harm to their family members”.
The report also said that Non-Governmental Organisations had come under pressure. “The authorities have intimidated and arrested activists and human rights defenders, including some when they returned from conferences overseas”.
Regarding the rights of women the United Kingdom’s annual report stated that discrimination was pervasive. “A woman’s testimony in court is worth half that of a man. Married women need their husband’s permission to get a passport and travel overseas”.
The UK will make human rights a priority issue in its relations with Iran during its Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2005, the report added.
Laureate Censures Iran for Hanging two Teens
July 24, 2005
The Associated Press
Ali Akbar Dareini
Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Saturday condemned the hanging of two teenagers accused of raping younger boys in northeastern Iran, a punishment that also prompted protests by the international community and rights groups.
Last week's hangings of an 18-year-old and 16-year-old on charges of involvement in homosexual acts violated Iran's obligations under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans such executions, Ebadi said.
Ebadi said her Center for the Protection of Human Rights will intensify its fight against Iran's executions of minors.
''My calls for a law clearly banning execution of under-18s has fallen on deaf ears so far, but I will not give up the fight,'' Ebadi said.
Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were hanged publicly July 19 in the city of Mashhad on charges of raping younger boys. They said before their executions that they were not aware that homosexual acts were punishable by death.
Death sentences for children
Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. His lawyer, Rohollah Razaz Zadeh, said Iranian courts are supposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years in jail.
''The judiciary has trampled its own laws,'' Razaz Zadeh said.
The lawyer said Iran's Supreme Court upheld the verdict and allowed the executions.
Gay rights groups, such as London-based Outrage!, and Iranian opposition groups suggested the rape allegations were trumped-up charges aimed to undermine public sympathy for the teens.
Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has campaigned to protect the rights of children and improve human rights in Iran but has met stiff resistance from the judiciary, which is controlled by hard-liners.
The Iranian government last year refused to give Ebadi permission to rally to protest children's executions. Under Iranian law, girls older than 9 and boys older than 15 face execution if they commit crimes such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions, capital punishment is imposed for those engaging in illegal sexual relations.
In 2003, a 16-year-old girl said to be suffering from a psychological disorder was executed in Neka, a town in northern Iran, on charges of having an illegal sexual relationship.
Iranian Government Cracks Down on Blogging
July 24, 2005
Channel NewsAsia
Roxana Saberi in Tehran
TEHRAN -- Over the past few years, blogging has been booming in the Islamic Republic of Iran. To blog is the American slang term for writing a web log - a log on the World Wide Web of a person's thoughts, reactions and photos tied to events in their own life or anywhere in the world.
Many Iranians have turned to blogs as a new avenue for self-expression and to gain information. But the regime is cracking down on this hobby.
News, ideas and rumours are reaching Iranians through an untraditional but increasingly popular route - blogging.
Some estimates put the number of Iran's internet users at 5 million and the number of blogs in the Farsi language at up to 100,000. About a third of those are said to originate in Iran and the rest abroad.
In the past few years, Iranians who feel freedom of the press is limited and those looking for independent information have moved into the blogosphere.
19-year-old Shams says he and his friends have used blogs to meet people.
He said: "Girls and boys can't be seen in public together. They can't set up an appointment outside. And many have limits on using the phone. A father says to his daughter you can't use the phone. So she says, Dad, I want to use the Internet to study."
But Iran's regime has been cracking down on this popular form of communication. It has ordered Internet service providers to block a number of weblogs.
The popular weblog "Orkut," where Iranians made webpages introducing themselves, has been blocked for the past few months.
"I was a member of Orkut until it was closed. I didn't use it a lot but I was a member," said one user.
And though some creative Iranians have found ways to get around the filters, internet cafes say they feel sorry for their disappointed customers.
"The morality police ordered our Internet Service Provider to close the ISP sites. We don't have any access anymore," said an Iranian.
Still, some government officials are trying to use blogs to their own advantage.
Last year, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former Reformist vice president, began the first blog by a member of the Iranian cabinet.
And in the recent presidential elections, most candidates used weblogs and websites to get their messages out to the Iranian people.
Despite the threat of government censorship and punishment, blogs are opening up Iran's society, culture and politics.
Hard-line officials have long denied the use of torture in Iranian detention centers, despite complaints by intellectuals and student leaders of intolerable physical and psychological torture while being incarcerated.
Several journalists and political dissidents have said they made false confessions under duress.
Iran Report Says Rights Violations Common in Prison
July 23, 2005
Reuters
reuters.com
TEHRAN -- An unprecedented report from Iran's conservative judiciary acknowledged that human rights violations were widespread in prisons, the ISNA students news agency said on Saturday.
According to ISNA, the report said prisoners faced solitary confinement, torture, unwarranted arrest and possibly sexual harassment when detained by Iran's judiciary, military and police.
Iran's former reformist-dominated parliament last year wrote into law an order from Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi that banned torture and solitary confinement.
"Any kind of torture used to extract confessions ... is banned and confessions made under such circumstances are not legal," the legislation said.
But the judicial report, parts of which were shared with ISNA, said the legislation had been ignored in several cases.
"The report accepts that torture and solitary confinement exist in detention centers and asks for measures to address this," wrote ISNA.
The report said a detention center run by the conservative Revolutionary Guard had refused to admit inspectors.
The judiciary says it has the right to oversee all detention centers, but some security and military groups bar them.
Iran's constitution specifically outlaws the use of torture, but human rights groups say the Islamic Republic's security forces routinely use it to extract confessions.
Several journalists and political dissidents have said they were forced to make false confessions and were mistreated in detention.
ISNA said Abbasali Alizadeh, the head of Tehran's judicial department, who also heads a committee overseeing anti-torture legislation had shared the report with the agency.
Judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad was not immediately able to confirm details of the report to Reuters but said that he would check facts with Alizadeh.
July 24, 2005
The Associated Press
USA Today
TEHRAN, Iran -- In an unprecedented report, Iran's hard-line judiciary acknowledged widespread human rights violations in prisons, including the use of torture, state-run media reported Sunday.
The report said prison guards and officials in detention centers have ignored a legal order banning torture. It also said police have made several arrests without sufficient evidence and held suspects in undeclared detention centers.
The report, which was broadcast on state-run radio and appeared on the front page of several newspapers, said a judicial investigation had discovered human right violations including the "blindfolding and beating" of defendants, a 13-year-old boy jailed for stealing a hen, a woman who was imprisoned because her husband was a fugitive and a man who has been in prison since 1988 without a verdict in his case.
The report has been handed over to the head of judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.
Abbas Ali Alizadeh, head of the Tehran Justice Administration, who drafted the report, said some detention centers run by the hard-line elite Revolutionary Guards had refused to admit inspectors or investigate whether prisoners' human rights were being respected.
Last year, Shahroudi ordered a ban on the use of torture for obtaining confessions — a move seen as Iran's first public acknowledgment of the practice.
Iran's constitution specifically outlaws torture, but human rights groups say the Islamic Republic's security forces routinely use it to extract confessions.
Iranian hard-liners have jailed several dozen reformist journalists and political activists and closed about 100 pro-democracy publications in the past five years for criticizing the rule of the country's unelected clerics.
In 2003, a special U.N. envoy visited Iran, during which he said he received "many complaints" regarding human rights violations, including torture, from pro-reform dissidents, writers and activists.
The bleak situation in Iranian prisons was highlighted by the case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in jail July 2003 about three weeks after being detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during anti-government protests. Reformers said she was beaten to death.
Mahabad Crackdown Reaching New Proportions
July 24, 2005
Potkin Azarmehr
Iran va Jahan
Reports from Mahabad state the repression reaching new proportions even beyond what was the norm in the past. The strikes and protests in Mahabad are now in its eighth day. In the last few days the state security forces have attacked the homes of Mahabad citizens, and arrested hundreds of the population. It is rumoured in the town that two youth aged 13 and 18 have died under torture. Thirteen of the tortured are in such a critical state that they have been taken to the hospital which is under the control of the military units.
The city is now under complete general strike. Until 6:00 pm yesterday, large crowds had gathered outside the main prison demanding the return of the bodies of the murdered youth.
In solidarity with the people of Mahabad, the near by towns of Bookan, Saqiz, and Kamyaran have also joined the general strike.
While the new president, Ahmadi-Nejad, continues to flex his muscle, his crimes are going unreported. Not one Western correspondence as yet has gone to Mahabad to view the situation.
UK Issues Damning Report on Human Rights Abuses in Iran
July 24, 2005
Iran Focus
iranfocus
London -- Britain issued a damning report on the human rights situation in Iran, stating that there had been “no significant progress” over the year, while human rights had “deteriorated further in many areas”.
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office wrote in its Human Rights Annual Report 2005, released on July 21, that punishment of children in the Islamic Republic was an “area of concern”, adding, “We have received an increasing number of reports of juvenile offenders being sentenced to death or lashing. In several instances, these barbarous punishments have apparently been carried out. A 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was reportedly hanged in public in August 2004 for ‘acts incompatible with chastity’”.
The FCO said that such punishments violated Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adding that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child had also made clear its concern earlier this year.
“Sadly, we continue to receive reports of juvenile offenders receiving death sentences and we have asked the Iranian authorities to look into them as a matter of urgency”, the report said.
“We remain concerned about the limits imposed on freedom of expression and assembly, the lack of freedom of religion and the extensive use of the death penalty”, it added.
The annual report went on to highlight the Islamic Republic’s abuse of the right to free speech. “Iran has not respected freedom of expression. The government is increasing its censorship of all the main media and particularly the internet. It has blocked many websites and weblogs that provide news or comment critical of the regime and has closed down a number of reformist newspapers. The authorities have arrested and imprisoned journalists, internet technicians and webloggers”.
“In late 2004 several webloggers claimed that they had been beaten, kept in solitary confinement and tortured. The government set up a presidential commission to investigate. A former vice-president of Iran said their testimonies had ‘made committee members weep’. Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, reportedly threatened those who gave evidence with lengthy prison sentences and harm to their family members”.
The report also said that Non-Governmental Organisations had come under pressure. “The authorities have intimidated and arrested activists and human rights defenders, including some when they returned from conferences overseas”.
Regarding the rights of women the United Kingdom’s annual report stated that discrimination was pervasive. “A woman’s testimony in court is worth half that of a man. Married women need their husband’s permission to get a passport and travel overseas”.
The UK will make human rights a priority issue in its relations with Iran during its Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2005, the report added.
Laureate Censures Iran for Hanging two Teens
July 24, 2005
The Associated Press
Ali Akbar Dareini
Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Saturday condemned the hanging of two teenagers accused of raping younger boys in northeastern Iran, a punishment that also prompted protests by the international community and rights groups.
Last week's hangings of an 18-year-old and 16-year-old on charges of involvement in homosexual acts violated Iran's obligations under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans such executions, Ebadi said.
Ebadi said her Center for the Protection of Human Rights will intensify its fight against Iran's executions of minors.
''My calls for a law clearly banning execution of under-18s has fallen on deaf ears so far, but I will not give up the fight,'' Ebadi said.
Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were hanged publicly July 19 in the city of Mashhad on charges of raping younger boys. They said before their executions that they were not aware that homosexual acts were punishable by death.
Death sentences for children
Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. His lawyer, Rohollah Razaz Zadeh, said Iranian courts are supposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years in jail.
''The judiciary has trampled its own laws,'' Razaz Zadeh said.
The lawyer said Iran's Supreme Court upheld the verdict and allowed the executions.
Gay rights groups, such as London-based Outrage!, and Iranian opposition groups suggested the rape allegations were trumped-up charges aimed to undermine public sympathy for the teens.
Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has campaigned to protect the rights of children and improve human rights in Iran but has met stiff resistance from the judiciary, which is controlled by hard-liners.
The Iranian government last year refused to give Ebadi permission to rally to protest children's executions. Under Iranian law, girls older than 9 and boys older than 15 face execution if they commit crimes such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions, capital punishment is imposed for those engaging in illegal sexual relations.
In 2003, a 16-year-old girl said to be suffering from a psychological disorder was executed in Neka, a town in northern Iran, on charges of having an illegal sexual relationship.
Iranian Government Cracks Down on Blogging
July 24, 2005
Channel NewsAsia
Roxana Saberi in Tehran
TEHRAN -- Over the past few years, blogging has been booming in the Islamic Republic of Iran. To blog is the American slang term for writing a web log - a log on the World Wide Web of a person's thoughts, reactions and photos tied to events in their own life or anywhere in the world.
Many Iranians have turned to blogs as a new avenue for self-expression and to gain information. But the regime is cracking down on this hobby.
News, ideas and rumours are reaching Iranians through an untraditional but increasingly popular route - blogging.
Some estimates put the number of Iran's internet users at 5 million and the number of blogs in the Farsi language at up to 100,000. About a third of those are said to originate in Iran and the rest abroad.
In the past few years, Iranians who feel freedom of the press is limited and those looking for independent information have moved into the blogosphere.
19-year-old Shams says he and his friends have used blogs to meet people.
He said: "Girls and boys can't be seen in public together. They can't set up an appointment outside. And many have limits on using the phone. A father says to his daughter you can't use the phone. So she says, Dad, I want to use the Internet to study."
But Iran's regime has been cracking down on this popular form of communication. It has ordered Internet service providers to block a number of weblogs.
The popular weblog "Orkut," where Iranians made webpages introducing themselves, has been blocked for the past few months.
"I was a member of Orkut until it was closed. I didn't use it a lot but I was a member," said one user.
And though some creative Iranians have found ways to get around the filters, internet cafes say they feel sorry for their disappointed customers.
"The morality police ordered our Internet Service Provider to close the ISP sites. We don't have any access anymore," said an Iranian.
Still, some government officials are trying to use blogs to their own advantage.
Last year, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former Reformist vice president, began the first blog by a member of the Iranian cabinet.
And in the recent presidential elections, most candidates used weblogs and websites to get their messages out to the Iranian people.
Despite the threat of government censorship and punishment, blogs are opening up Iran's society, culture and politics.
Hard-line officials have long denied the use of torture in Iranian detention centers, despite complaints by intellectuals and student leaders of intolerable physical and psychological torture while being incarcerated.
Several journalists and political dissidents have said they made false confessions under duress.
Iran Report Says Rights Violations Common in Prison
July 23, 2005
Reuters
reuters.com
TEHRAN -- An unprecedented report from Iran's conservative judiciary acknowledged that human rights violations were widespread in prisons, the ISNA students news agency said on Saturday.
According to ISNA, the report said prisoners faced solitary confinement, torture, unwarranted arrest and possibly sexual harassment when detained by Iran's judiciary, military and police.
Iran's former reformist-dominated parliament last year wrote into law an order from Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi that banned torture and solitary confinement.
"Any kind of torture used to extract confessions ... is banned and confessions made under such circumstances are not legal," the legislation said.
But the judicial report, parts of which were shared with ISNA, said the legislation had been ignored in several cases.
"The report accepts that torture and solitary confinement exist in detention centers and asks for measures to address this," wrote ISNA.
The report said a detention center run by the conservative Revolutionary Guard had refused to admit inspectors.
The judiciary says it has the right to oversee all detention centers, but some security and military groups bar them.
Iran's constitution specifically outlaws the use of torture, but human rights groups say the Islamic Republic's security forces routinely use it to extract confessions.
Several journalists and political dissidents have said they were forced to make false confessions and were mistreated in detention.
ISNA said Abbasali Alizadeh, the head of Tehran's judicial department, who also heads a committee overseeing anti-torture legislation had shared the report with the agency.
Judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad was not immediately able to confirm details of the report to Reuters but said that he would check facts with Alizadeh.
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:35 PM
1 comments
The Globe and Mail: Ottawa assailed after Iran rejects Kazemi probe
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:21 PM
2 comments
Monday, July 25, 2005
Havel Joins Bush, Sharansky in Plea for Ganji's Life - July 25, 2005 - The New York Sun - NY Newspaper
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 3:00 PM
0 comments
Reporters sans frontires - Denial of justice continues for journalist on hunger strike
Reporters sans frontires - Iran: "Denial of justice continues for journalist on hunger strike"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:59 PM
2 comments
Montreal Gazette - Iranian court rejects call for investigation
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:57 PM
1 comments
Sunday, July 24, 2005
gooya news :: english : Ganji's Letter to Ayatholah Montazeri, webgardian
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:19 PM
0 comments
Iran: Human Rights activists protest to government heads after allegations made against defense lawyer Shirin Ebadi
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:16 PM
3 comments
KHAMENEH�I MUST GO, SAYS AKBAR GANI (URGENT) (Iran Press Service)
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:15 PM
0 comments
Iran's Ebadi says jailed journalist in poor health (New Kerala, India's Top News Channel)
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:12 PM
1 comments
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran admits to abuse of prisoners
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:11 PM
1 comments
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY:Arbitrary detention/ Hospitalisation Ganji
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
Iran 001/0004/OBS 030.7
New information
Arbitrary detention/ Hospitalisation
Iran
July 21, 2005
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.
New information:
The Observatory has received new information by the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (Ligue pour la défense des droits de l’Homme en Iran - LDDHI) about the hospitalisation of Mr. Akbar Ganji, a prominent journalist and human rights defender who has been imprisoned for more than five years in Tehran’s Evin prison.
According to the information received, Mr. Akbar Ganji, whose health had become alarming after more than one month of hunger strike and who has reportedly lost 50 pounds as a consequence (See background information below), was hospitalised in Tehran’s Milad Hospital on July 17, 2005. He has been since then under perfusion, being fed and medicated intravenously. His lawyers were denied to visit him, and his wife was authorised to visit him only once. According to his doctor, he has been hospitalised in order to have surgery on the meniscus of his two knees, and maybe his spinal column, when his health allows it.
The Observatory, which had expressed its concern regarding Mr. Ganji’s health and life, welcomes the hospitalisation of Mr. Ganji. However, it urges the Iranian authorities to grant Mr. Ganji an unconditional and definitive release, his detention aiming only at sanctioning his freedom of _expression and being as such arbitrary.
Background information:
Mr. Akbar Ganji, a journalist of the daily newspaper Sobh-e-Emrooz, was arrested on April 22, 2000 for having written several articles suggesting the involvement of the Iranian regime, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, in the assassination of dissident opponents and intellectuals in late 1998. Mr. Ganji was also arrested because he took part in a conference in Berlin on the Iranian legislative elections and democratic reforms in April 1998. In January 2001, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison but the appeal court reduced the sentence to six months in May 2001. However, in July 2001, the Supreme Court quashed the May sentence on technical grounds and imposed a six-year jail sentence on the charge of “threatening national security and propaganda against the institutions of the Islamic State” (See Observatory Annual Report 2004).
On May 19, 2005, Mr. Akbar Ganji began an “unlimited hunger strike” to protest against his imprisonment, which he called off on May 24, 2005, after negotiations with three prison officials who promised to give way to his demands the following week. But the following day, an assistant of the Tehran prosecutor accused him of lying and warned “the Ganji family not to continue with these lies”. The journalist remained in detention and told his family that he had decided to renew his fast “and this time to the end”.
Mr. Akbar Ganji suffers from asthma and serious back problems, for which doctors recommended that he be immediately hospitalised. However, in detention, Mr. Ganji did not have access to adequate treatment. On May 28, 2005, Evin prison officials proposed to Mr. Akbar Ganji that he should be examined by two doctors chosen by his family to confirm his poor state of health and, on that basis, they would grant him permission to leave the prison. Mr. Ganji would be hospitalised for a week. On May 30, 2005, the Iranian authorities decided to release on a temporary basis Mr. Ganji, so that he may receive medical treatment.
On June 14, 2005, his house was searched on order of Mr. Mortazavi, Prosecutor of Tehran, in order to arrest him. On the following day, on June 15, 2005, Mr. Akbar Ganji presented himself to jail. On June 16, 2005, he started a hunger strike and he is currently held in solitary confinement in spite of the specific recommendation made on June 27, 2003, by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an end to this widespread practice which it considered as arbitrary in nature (See the UN document E/CN4/2004/3/Add.2, paragraphs 4 and 5).
Moreover, on July 15, 2005, in a joint statement issued by the Geneva-based Office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, five UN human rights experts (including Mrs. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, Mrs. Leila Zerrougui, Chairperson and Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mr. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Torture, Mr. Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on the right to physical and mental health, and Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo, Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and _expression) expressed their “profound concern” at the alleged continued refusal by the authorities at Iran’s Evin Prison to provide Mr. Ganji with appropriate medical attention.
Action requested:
Please write to the Iranian authorities, urging them to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Akbar Ganji;
ii. Ensure immediately the unconditional and definitive release of Mr. Akbar Ganji;
iii. Put an immediate end to all acts of harassment against Iranian human rights defenders;
iv. Conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its article 1 which provides that “every person has the right, individually or collectively, to promote the protection and fulfilment of human rights and fundamental liberties at the national and international levels”, as well as its article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
v. More generally, conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the other international instruments ratified by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Addresses:
- Leader of the Islamic Republic, His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, the Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Faxes: + 98 21 649 5880 / 21 774 2228 (ask fax to be forwarded to Ayatollah Khamenei), Email: webmaster@wilayah.org (on the subject line write: For the attention of the office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei, Qom)
- President, His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami, the Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98 21 649 588, E-mail: khatami@president.ir
- Head of the Judiciary, His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: +98 21 879 6671, Email: Irjpr@iranjudiciary.com
- Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Kamal Kharrazi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdolmajid Keshk-e Mesri Av, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Faxes: + 98 21 390 1999 (number may be unreliable; please mark “care of the Human Rights Department, Foreign Ministry”), Email: matbuat@mfa.gov
- Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 7330203, E-mail: mission.iran@ties.itu.int
***
Geneva - Paris, July 21, 2005
Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a 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.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
Iran 001/0004/OBS 030.7
New information
Arbitrary detention/ Hospitalisation
Iran
July 21, 2005
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.
New information:
The Observatory has received new information by the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (Ligue pour la défense des droits de l’Homme en Iran - LDDHI) about the hospitalisation of Mr. Akbar Ganji, a prominent journalist and human rights defender who has been imprisoned for more than five years in Tehran’s Evin prison.
According to the information received, Mr. Akbar Ganji, whose health had become alarming after more than one month of hunger strike and who has reportedly lost 50 pounds as a consequence (See background information below), was hospitalised in Tehran’s Milad Hospital on July 17, 2005. He has been since then under perfusion, being fed and medicated intravenously. His lawyers were denied to visit him, and his wife was authorised to visit him only once. According to his doctor, he has been hospitalised in order to have surgery on the meniscus of his two knees, and maybe his spinal column, when his health allows it.
The Observatory, which had expressed its concern regarding Mr. Ganji’s health and life, welcomes the hospitalisation of Mr. Ganji. However, it urges the Iranian authorities to grant Mr. Ganji an unconditional and definitive release, his detention aiming only at sanctioning his freedom of _expression and being as such arbitrary.
Background information:
Mr. Akbar Ganji, a journalist of the daily newspaper Sobh-e-Emrooz, was arrested on April 22, 2000 for having written several articles suggesting the involvement of the Iranian regime, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, in the assassination of dissident opponents and intellectuals in late 1998. Mr. Ganji was also arrested because he took part in a conference in Berlin on the Iranian legislative elections and democratic reforms in April 1998. In January 2001, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison but the appeal court reduced the sentence to six months in May 2001. However, in July 2001, the Supreme Court quashed the May sentence on technical grounds and imposed a six-year jail sentence on the charge of “threatening national security and propaganda against the institutions of the Islamic State” (See Observatory Annual Report 2004).
On May 19, 2005, Mr. Akbar Ganji began an “unlimited hunger strike” to protest against his imprisonment, which he called off on May 24, 2005, after negotiations with three prison officials who promised to give way to his demands the following week. But the following day, an assistant of the Tehran prosecutor accused him of lying and warned “the Ganji family not to continue with these lies”. The journalist remained in detention and told his family that he had decided to renew his fast “and this time to the end”.
Mr. Akbar Ganji suffers from asthma and serious back problems, for which doctors recommended that he be immediately hospitalised. However, in detention, Mr. Ganji did not have access to adequate treatment. On May 28, 2005, Evin prison officials proposed to Mr. Akbar Ganji that he should be examined by two doctors chosen by his family to confirm his poor state of health and, on that basis, they would grant him permission to leave the prison. Mr. Ganji would be hospitalised for a week. On May 30, 2005, the Iranian authorities decided to release on a temporary basis Mr. Ganji, so that he may receive medical treatment.
On June 14, 2005, his house was searched on order of Mr. Mortazavi, Prosecutor of Tehran, in order to arrest him. On the following day, on June 15, 2005, Mr. Akbar Ganji presented himself to jail. On June 16, 2005, he started a hunger strike and he is currently held in solitary confinement in spite of the specific recommendation made on June 27, 2003, by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an end to this widespread practice which it considered as arbitrary in nature (See the UN document E/CN4/2004/3/Add.2, paragraphs 4 and 5).
Moreover, on July 15, 2005, in a joint statement issued by the Geneva-based Office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, five UN human rights experts (including Mrs. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, Mrs. Leila Zerrougui, Chairperson and Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mr. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Torture, Mr. Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on the right to physical and mental health, and Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo, Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and _expression) expressed their “profound concern” at the alleged continued refusal by the authorities at Iran’s Evin Prison to provide Mr. Ganji with appropriate medical attention.
Action requested:
Please write to the Iranian authorities, urging them to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Akbar Ganji;
ii. Ensure immediately the unconditional and definitive release of Mr. Akbar Ganji;
iii. Put an immediate end to all acts of harassment against Iranian human rights defenders;
iv. Conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its article 1 which provides that “every person has the right, individually or collectively, to promote the protection and fulfilment of human rights and fundamental liberties at the national and international levels”, as well as its article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
v. More generally, conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the other international instruments ratified by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Addresses:
- Leader of the Islamic Republic, His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, the Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Faxes: + 98 21 649 5880 / 21 774 2228 (ask fax to be forwarded to Ayatollah Khamenei), Email: webmaster@wilayah.org (on the subject line write: For the attention of the office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei, Qom)
- President, His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami, the Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98 21 649 588, E-mail: khatami@president.ir
- Head of the Judiciary, His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: +98 21 879 6671, Email: Irjpr@iranjudiciary.com
- Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Kamal Kharrazi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdolmajid Keshk-e Mesri Av, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Faxes: + 98 21 390 1999 (number may be unreliable; please mark “care of the Human Rights Department, Foreign Ministry”), Email: matbuat@mfa.gov
- Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 7330203, E-mail: mission.iran@ties.itu.int
***
Geneva - Paris, July 21, 2005
Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a 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.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:37 PM
2 comments
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Iran News - Family of Iran Ganji protests hospital conditions
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:20 AM
1 comments
Gulf Times Newspaper - Iran dissident’s family protests
Gulf Times Newspaper - Qatar, Gulf and World News - Gulf/Arab World: "Published: Saturday, 23 July, 2005, 01:01 PM Doha Time
TEHRAN: The family of Iran�s highest profile political prisoner said yesterday his fragile health has worsened and protested at poor hospital conditions after he was moved to a facility outside prison on the 37th day of his hunger strike.
�(Akhbar) Ganji was hospitalised (in jail) while he was on hunger strike and the conditions in which he finds himself in the hospital are worse than in prison,� said a letter to Milad Hospital signed by family members."
TEHRAN: The family of Iran�s highest profile political prisoner said yesterday his fragile health has worsened and protested at poor hospital conditions after he was moved to a facility outside prison on the 37th day of his hunger strike.
�(Akhbar) Ganji was hospitalised (in jail) while he was on hunger strike and the conditions in which he finds himself in the hospital are worse than in prison,� said a letter to Milad Hospital signed by family members."
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:14 AM
1 comments
Amnesty International: Iran continues to execute minors and juvenile offenders
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:12 AM
2 comments
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY:Iran: Country Faces Agitated Kurdish Population
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:11 AM
1 comments
Martial Law Declared in Mahabad, Tension is Striking High
July 22, 2005
DozaMe.org
dozame.org
13 days after the killing of Shivane Qadri, demonstrations are raging on in the city of Mahabad in [northwestern Iran]. Two more Iranian soldiers have been reported killed by demonstrators.
The Iranian government has now declared martial law and curfew in the Kurdish city. Demonstrators who defy the curfew are still protesting on the streets. A clash on July 18 between Kurdish demonstrators and Iranian soldiers has left two soldiers killed.
For the first time after 10 years, the Iranian military is now setting up bases inside the city. Bases have been set up at the Independence Square, who has historically witnessed many popular revolutions, and at Shivane Qadris home district of Pisttep.
Clashes between people and military are increasing and there is no more tranquility in the city, Kurdish news agency MHA's war correspondent Sherko Mehabadi reports. Iranian soldiers have unsuccessfully tried to clamp down on the protesters, leading to tens of protesters and tens of soldiers injured.
Iranian security forces have also cut off the water in the Fergengiyan district and the gas in the Teppey-Qazi district, local sources report. Security forces have until now arrested more than 200 demonstrators and few who have been released report intensive torture of arrested protesters, including themselves.
Iranian soldiers and police are now patrolling the streets in hunt for demonstrators. Groups of more than three are being scattered brutally and during curfew, which starts at 22:00 (10 pm) every evening, groups more than three are being arrested.
Eastern Kurdistan has not felt this tension since the 80ies. This has led to the governor of Mahabad threatening the Kurdish people in radio and TV statements saying, "Stop the demonstrations! You don't want the 80ies back, I assure you".
DozaMe.org
dozame.org
13 days after the killing of Shivane Qadri, demonstrations are raging on in the city of Mahabad in [northwestern Iran]. Two more Iranian soldiers have been reported killed by demonstrators.
The Iranian government has now declared martial law and curfew in the Kurdish city. Demonstrators who defy the curfew are still protesting on the streets. A clash on July 18 between Kurdish demonstrators and Iranian soldiers has left two soldiers killed.
For the first time after 10 years, the Iranian military is now setting up bases inside the city. Bases have been set up at the Independence Square, who has historically witnessed many popular revolutions, and at Shivane Qadris home district of Pisttep.
Clashes between people and military are increasing and there is no more tranquility in the city, Kurdish news agency MHA's war correspondent Sherko Mehabadi reports. Iranian soldiers have unsuccessfully tried to clamp down on the protesters, leading to tens of protesters and tens of soldiers injured.
Iranian security forces have also cut off the water in the Fergengiyan district and the gas in the Teppey-Qazi district, local sources report. Security forces have until now arrested more than 200 demonstrators and few who have been released report intensive torture of arrested protesters, including themselves.
Iranian soldiers and police are now patrolling the streets in hunt for demonstrators. Groups of more than three are being scattered brutally and during curfew, which starts at 22:00 (10 pm) every evening, groups more than three are being arrested.
Eastern Kurdistan has not felt this tension since the 80ies. This has led to the governor of Mahabad threatening the Kurdish people in radio and TV statements saying, "Stop the demonstrations! You don't want the 80ies back, I assure you".
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:07 AM
2 comments
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY:Iranian Dissident's Health Reportedly Worsening
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:04 AM
2 comments
Friday, July 22, 2005
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Iranian reformists fear era of repression
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 5:29 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Bis zum bitteren Ende?�(Feuilleton, NZZ Online)
Bahman Nirumand is concerned about the most recent developments in the case of the dissident Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji. Ganji, like many of his generation, was an initial supporter of the Ayatollah Khomeni's Islamic state, founded 26 years ago, but became critical of its development. Following studies in sociology, he published a paper that addressed the relationship between Islam and the modern state and, after it was prohibited, worked as a freelance investigative journalist, uncovering stories of state murders of intellectuals and regime critics. In 2000 he was sentenced to six years imprisonment. Following a recent 36 day long hunger strike, Ganji was taken to Tehran hospital under – as Nirumand emphasises - very strange circumstances. "The fact that Ganji has been taken to hospital is no grounds for relief: neither his family nor his lawyers are being allowed to visit him and the whole division has been turned into a military zone. That the judge and the director of the Milad Hospital are claiming that Ganji's condition is completely stable and that there was no hunger strike is nothing short of absurd."
Read the article (German)
Read the article (German)
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:12 PM
2 comments
Canadian Journalists for Free _Expression Protest Letter July 19, 2005
Canadian Journalists for Free _Expression Protest Letter July 19, 2005
Country: Iran
Thank you for being a member of CJFE's Protest Letter List Srv. Please feel free to use the list srv. as a means of keeping up to date on CJFE's international advocacy work, or to take action yourself.
TAKE ACTION:
Email, Fax or Mail this letter.
Please feel free to adapt this letter, or add your own personal touch.
Remember to sign or write your name after "Yours truly," otherwise it will simply read "Your Name CJFE Member"
It always helps us to know if you have taken action, so that we can keep a record of activity on any particular case.
If you receive an answer please inform CJFE
If you have any questions, please contact CJFE program manager, Julie Payne at jpayne@cjfe.org.
Thank you!
________________________________________________________________
July 19, 2005
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing as a member of Canadian Journalists for Free _Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect press freedom and freedom of _expression around the world.
Today, as imprisoned Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji enters the 39th day of his hunger strike in Tehran, CJFE urges you to call on Iranian authorities for his release.
In 2000, Akbar Ganji was sentenced to six years in prison after writing a series of articles connecting high-level Iranian officials to the murders of several intellectuals in 1998. Prior to his imprisonment, Mr. Ganji was an investigative journalist for the now defunct Sobh-eEmrooz. In 2000, he was also the recipient of the CJFE International Press Freedom Award. He has reportedly been hospitalized due to his failing health and his family is said to have been denied access to him. Released on medical leave in May following an 11-day hunger strike, he resumed his protest when he was returned to Evin prison on June 11.
We believe that Mr. Ganji is a very brave man whose mistreatment by his government is attributable only to its wish to muzzle a critic who has courageously exposed outrageous government abuse in the past. If this abuse of him continues much longer, the Iranian authorities will turn him into a martyr. Releasing him is a better option for the government of Iran as he will likely become a thorn in its side, which, in true democracies, is what good journalists ought to be, and what accountable governments must endure.
According to the Reuters news agency, Akbar Ganji has lost 40 pounds and is suffering from acute asthma that he developed in prison. He has been repeatedly denied medical treatment and his family fears that his sentence will be extended to prevent his release. His on-going persecution has already cost him more than five years of freedom and now it may cost him is life.
CJFE calls on you and the Government of Canada to join with the European Union and the President of the United States in denouncing the treatment of Akbar Ganji by the Iranian government and to demand his unconditional release.
I look forward to receiving your prompt reply.
Yours truly,
Your Name
CJFE Member
_______________________________________________________________________
Case File Number: PL05-012
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive
Tower A, 10th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2
Fax: (613) 996-3443
Email: pierre.pettigrew@international.gc.ca
Benoit Girouard
Desk Officer (Iran)
Political & Trade relations
Middle East Division (GMR)
Foreign Affairs Canada
125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
Fax: (613) 944-7975
Email: benoit.girouard@international.gc.ca
Country: Iran
Thank you for being a member of CJFE's Protest Letter List Srv. Please feel free to use the list srv. as a means of keeping up to date on CJFE's international advocacy work, or to take action yourself.
TAKE ACTION:
Email, Fax or Mail this letter.
Please feel free to adapt this letter, or add your own personal touch.
Remember to sign or write your name after "Yours truly," otherwise it will simply read "Your Name CJFE Member"
It always helps us to know if you have taken action, so that we can keep a record of activity on any particular case.
If you receive an answer please inform CJFE
If you have any questions, please contact CJFE program manager, Julie Payne at jpayne@cjfe.org.
Thank you!
________________________________________________________________
July 19, 2005
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing as a member of Canadian Journalists for Free _Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect press freedom and freedom of _expression around the world.
Today, as imprisoned Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji enters the 39th day of his hunger strike in Tehran, CJFE urges you to call on Iranian authorities for his release.
In 2000, Akbar Ganji was sentenced to six years in prison after writing a series of articles connecting high-level Iranian officials to the murders of several intellectuals in 1998. Prior to his imprisonment, Mr. Ganji was an investigative journalist for the now defunct Sobh-eEmrooz. In 2000, he was also the recipient of the CJFE International Press Freedom Award. He has reportedly been hospitalized due to his failing health and his family is said to have been denied access to him. Released on medical leave in May following an 11-day hunger strike, he resumed his protest when he was returned to Evin prison on June 11.
We believe that Mr. Ganji is a very brave man whose mistreatment by his government is attributable only to its wish to muzzle a critic who has courageously exposed outrageous government abuse in the past. If this abuse of him continues much longer, the Iranian authorities will turn him into a martyr. Releasing him is a better option for the government of Iran as he will likely become a thorn in its side, which, in true democracies, is what good journalists ought to be, and what accountable governments must endure.
According to the Reuters news agency, Akbar Ganji has lost 40 pounds and is suffering from acute asthma that he developed in prison. He has been repeatedly denied medical treatment and his family fears that his sentence will be extended to prevent his release. His on-going persecution has already cost him more than five years of freedom and now it may cost him is life.
CJFE calls on you and the Government of Canada to join with the European Union and the President of the United States in denouncing the treatment of Akbar Ganji by the Iranian government and to demand his unconditional release.
I look forward to receiving your prompt reply.
Yours truly,
Your Name
CJFE Member
_______________________________________________________________________
Case File Number: PL05-012
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive
Tower A, 10th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2
Fax: (613) 996-3443
Email: pierre.pettigrew@international.gc.ca
Benoit Girouard
Desk Officer (Iran)
Political & Trade relations
Middle East Division (GMR)
Foreign Affairs Canada
125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
Fax: (613) 944-7975
Email: benoit.girouard@international.gc.ca
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:09 PM
1 comments
IFEX :: JAILED JOURNALIST HOSPITALISED
IFEX members have joined international demands for the release of jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, who was hospitalised on 18 July 2005 during a hunger strike that has lasted more than a month. He has reportedly lost 50 pounds.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, PEN Canada, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) have expressed deep concern for the journalist's health. Ganji has been taken to Tehran's Milad Hospital.
MORE
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:17 AM
3 comments
FrontPage magazine.com :: Iranian Dissident Speaks by MEMRI
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:15 AM
2 comments
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
CPJ concerned about health of jailed Iranian writer
CPJ concerned about health of jailed Iranian writer
Immediate release is sought
New York, July 18, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed deep concern today about the health of jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, who was reported hospitalized during his more than month-long hunger strike.
Massoumeh Shafii, Ganji's wife, told Reuters that Ganji had been taken to Tehran's Milad Hospital, the news agency reported today. She said Ganji was hospitalized because of health problems brought on by his hunger strike, which the journalist has waged to protest his imprisonment. His family and human rights activists said Ganji has lost more than 50 pounds during the hunger strike, Reuters reported.
The Iranian government today offered a different explanation for his hospitalization. Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, told the official IRNA news agency, that Ganji was taken to the hospital for knee surgery.
Ganji, 46, a leading investigative reporter for the now-defunct reformist daily Sobh-eEmrooz, was imprisoned in 2000 and sentenced to six years in jail for articles linking senior government officials to the 1998 killings of several dissidents and intellectuals.
"We are very concerned about the health of our colleague, Akbar Ganji, who felt compelled to wage this hunger strike to call attention to his unjust imprisonment," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "He should be released immediately and unconditionally."
CPJ and other press and human rights groups have called for Ganji's release. The United States and the European Union have also sought Ganji's release and have criticized Iran for denying the journalist access to medical treatment, his family, and legal representation, Reuters reported. Outgoing President Mohammad Khatami has urged that Ganji be granted parole, but Iran's hard-line judiciary has refused.
Over the past five years, the judiciary has closed more than 100 publications, most of them reformist, on vague charges of insult and blasphemy, CPJ research shows. Iran's government told the United States today to stay out of Ganji's case, The Associated Press reported
Immediate release is sought
New York, July 18, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed deep concern today about the health of jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, who was reported hospitalized during his more than month-long hunger strike.
Massoumeh Shafii, Ganji's wife, told Reuters that Ganji had been taken to Tehran's Milad Hospital, the news agency reported today. She said Ganji was hospitalized because of health problems brought on by his hunger strike, which the journalist has waged to protest his imprisonment. His family and human rights activists said Ganji has lost more than 50 pounds during the hunger strike, Reuters reported.
The Iranian government today offered a different explanation for his hospitalization. Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, told the official IRNA news agency, that Ganji was taken to the hospital for knee surgery.
Ganji, 46, a leading investigative reporter for the now-defunct reformist daily Sobh-eEmrooz, was imprisoned in 2000 and sentenced to six years in jail for articles linking senior government officials to the 1998 killings of several dissidents and intellectuals.
"We are very concerned about the health of our colleague, Akbar Ganji, who felt compelled to wage this hunger strike to call attention to his unjust imprisonment," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "He should be released immediately and unconditionally."
CPJ and other press and human rights groups have called for Ganji's release. The United States and the European Union have also sought Ganji's release and have criticized Iran for denying the journalist access to medical treatment, his family, and legal representation, Reuters reported. Outgoing President Mohammad Khatami has urged that Ganji be granted parole, but Iran's hard-line judiciary has refused.
Over the past five years, the judiciary has closed more than 100 publications, most of them reformist, on vague charges of insult and blasphemy, CPJ research shows. Iran's government told the United States today to stay out of Ganji's case, The Associated Press reported
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 11:37 AM
0 comments
Monday, July 18, 2005
Reporters sans frontires - Iran´Imprisoned journalist rushed to hospital but family denied visiting rights
Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the refusal of the Iranian authorities to let the family and lawyer of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji visit him in the hospital to which he was rushed yesterday. Ganji has been on hunger strike for 37 days and has lost 22 kilos in weight.
"Ganji's family and lawyer must immediately be granted the right of visit allowed by Iran's laws, so that they can establish his state of health," the organisation said. "The attitude of the judicial authorities is unacceptable. They are directly responsible for his fate. A journalist cannot be allowed to slowly die and be denied the treatment he needs. That is a serious human rights violation."
MORE
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:54 PM
1 comments
Rachel Zabarkes Friedman on Akbar Ganji on National Review Online
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 8:44 AM
0 comments
IRAN: JAILED JOURNALIST ON HUNGER STRIKE TRANSFERRED TO HOSPITAL
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 8:42 AM
4 comments
news - Human Rights Experts express concern over reported denial of medical care to imprisoned Iranian journalist
news - Human Rights Experts express concern over reported denial of medical care to imprisoned Iranian journalist: "by the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Paul Hunt; the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo; the Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak; the Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, and the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Leila Zerrougui"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:53 AM
2 comments
Ganji Is Near Death in Iranian Prison, a Dissident Reports - July 18, 2005 - The New York Sun - NY Newspaper
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:51 AM
1 comments
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran hunger striker 'in hospital'
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:50 AM
1 comments
Sunday, July 17, 2005
The Peninsula On-line: Jailed Iran dissident to continue hunger strike: Wife
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:19 PM
0 comments
Iran Focus-News - Special Wire - Iran protestor dies in police detention - report
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:29 PM
0 comments
"Ganji: 'From now on I won't cooperate with the prsion clinic officials'
"Ganji: 'From now on I won't cooperate with the prsion clinic officials'
Peyman Pakmehr, Human Rights Service, Tabriz News
In response to the judiciary's statements about his vital signs, Akbar Ganji said today he won't cooperate with prison clinic officals from now on.
The report of the human rights correspondent of Tabriz News states, jailed journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been taken from soliraty confinement to Evin's clinic after a long hunger strike, said this morning: 'Since the statements of the judiciary do not express the truth about my conditions, I am not willing to cooperate with the clinic officials on recording my vital signs effective now, Saturday July 17, 2005.'
Ganji is put under tight control and supervision in Evin's clinic.
Peyman Pakmehr, journalist in Tabriz
pakmehr88@hotmail.com
www.tabriznews.com
Tel: +98 (914) 415-7400
Date: July 17, 2005"
Peyman Pakmehr, Human Rights Service, Tabriz News
In response to the judiciary's statements about his vital signs, Akbar Ganji said today he won't cooperate with prison clinic officals from now on.
The report of the human rights correspondent of Tabriz News states, jailed journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been taken from soliraty confinement to Evin's clinic after a long hunger strike, said this morning: 'Since the statements of the judiciary do not express the truth about my conditions, I am not willing to cooperate with the clinic officials on recording my vital signs effective now, Saturday July 17, 2005.'
Ganji is put under tight control and supervision in Evin's clinic.
Peyman Pakmehr, journalist in Tabriz
pakmehr88@hotmail.com
www.tabriznews.com
Tel: +98 (914) 415-7400
Date: July 17, 2005"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:10 PM
1 comments
Take Action: Release Akbar Ganji: Jailed for Exposing Iranian Government's Complicity in Murder
Take Action: Release Akbar Ganji: Jailed for Exposing Iranian Government's Complicity in Murder: "Imprisoned Iranian journalist and human rights activist Akbar Ganji is gravely ill and in need of immediate medical attention. Ganji suffers from an acute and worsening asthma condition and severe back pain. A vocal critic of the Iranian government, Ganji is being held incommunicado in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison.
Akbar Ganji was tried and imprisoned as a result of his work to expose and bring to justice government officials involved in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s, which came to be known in Iran as the 'serial murders.' "
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:09 PM
2 comments
Saturday, July 16, 2005
RGC Hosted News and Activities Ganji: "From now on I won't cooperate with the prsion clinic officials"
RGC Hosted News and Activities: "Ganji: 'From now on I won't cooperate with the prsion clinic officials' "
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:05 PM
3 comments
Appeals, petitions, letters, statements in Support of Akbar Ganji
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:32 PM
1 comments
Free Akbar Ganji--an appeal from theinternational community
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:45 PM
0 comments
FrontPage magazine.com :: Free Akbar Ganji by FrontPage Magazine
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:32 PM
2 comments
Open Letter to Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General about Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:29 PM
2 comments
UN rights experts express concern for failing health of jailed Iranian journalist
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:28 PM
4 comments
Testing limits of dissent in Iran - Persian Journal Latest Iran news & Iranian Newspaper
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:25 PM
1 comments
Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English) Iranian intellectuals call on the jailed writer Akbar Gangi to end his hunger strike
Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English): "Iranian intellectuals call on the jailed writer Akbar Gangi to end his hunger strike"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:24 PM
0 comments
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Release Akbar Ganji: Jailed for Exposing Iranian Government's Complicity in Murder
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:52 PM
2 comments
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY:Doctors Watching Hunger-Striking Iranian Journalist
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY: "Doctors Watching Hunger-Striking Iranian Journalist"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:51 PM
3 comments
AP Wire | 07/14/2005 | State Dept. cites Iran brutality reports
AP Wire | 07/14/2005 | State Dept. cites Iran brutality reports: "The Iranian government responded Wednesday that Bush should not intervene in the case of the jailed dissident, especially in light of allegations of U.S. human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons.
In the meantime, 33 Iranian political activists asked the United Nations to press for Ganji's release, warning his life was in danger because of his monthlong hunger strike, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Casey said Ganji was only one of many people thrown into jail in Iran simply for expressing their opinions peacefully. 'There is no excuse for it,' he said. 'And it's not something the United States is going to stop speaking out on.'"
In the meantime, 33 Iranian political activists asked the United Nations to press for Ganji's release, warning his life was in danger because of his monthlong hunger strike, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Casey said Ganji was only one of many people thrown into jail in Iran simply for expressing their opinions peacefully. 'There is no excuse for it,' he said. 'And it's not something the United States is going to stop speaking out on.'"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:49 PM
1 comments
AP Wire | 07/14/2005 | State Dept. cites Iran brutality reports
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:48 PM
1 comments
Le Monde.fr : Ganji veut une libération "inconditionnelle", entame sa 31ème journée de grève
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:29 PM
3 comments
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
gooya news :: english : Iran: Hunger strike and alarming health situation of Mr. Akbar Ganji
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:43 PM
1 comments
Khaleej Times Online-Iranian activists ask UN for help in dissident journalist’s case
Khaleej Times Online: "Iranian activists ask UN for help in dissident journalist�s case"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:03 PM
2 comments
Iran MPs to visit hunger-striking jailed journalist
deepikaglobal.com - World News Detail: "''Ganji has lost 17 kilograms (37 pounds) during his hunger strike which is a matter of concern,'' Tehran MP Saeed Abutaleb told the official IRNA news agency."
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:01 PM
0 comments
Leading Dissident's Life in Danger
Iran: Leading Dissident's Life in Danger (Human Rights Watch, 14-7-2005)
New York, July 13, 2005) -- The life of Akbar Ganji, Iran’s imprisoned leading dissident, is under serious threat due to his illness and a month-long hunger strike, Human Rights Watch said today. Ganji, an investigative journalist who was sentenced to prison by the Iranian government in 2000, has lost more than 40 pounds during the past month.
“Human Rights Watch is extremely concerned for Ganji’s health. The Iranian judiciary’s refusal to release Ganji for medical treatment is cruel and inhumane,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “It is a serious contravention of the most basic humanitarian standards, and the international community should strongly condemn it.”
The Iranian judiciary imprisoned Ganji in April 2000 on vaguely worded charges, including “acting against national security” in connection with his participation at a conference in Berlin. He suffers from acute asthma that he developed in prison.
Iranian officials imprisoned Ganji shortly after the publication of articles he wrote documenting the involvement of high-ranking officials in the murder of intellectuals in the 1990s. The Iranian authorities have repeatedly prevented Ganji from receiving specialist medical care or taking medical leave as other prisoners are permitted. In protest of his unfair treatment, Ganji began a hunger strike last month, and has since sustained himself only on liquids.
Ganji has served nearly five-and-a-half years of his six-year sentence. Most prisoners in Iran are eligible for release after serving half of their sentence.
Ganji is one of the Iranian government’s most forceful critics. In his writings, he has criticized Iran’s system of governance. According to his wife, the judicial authorities have pressured him to “repent” for his writings as a condition for his release. In a letter smuggled out of jail last week, Ganji held Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, directly responsible for his persecution.
Human Rights Watch is concerned that, in light of Ganji’s recent forceful criticism of the government, the Iranian judiciary may try to prolong his imprisonment by bringing new charges against him. The Iranian government frequently has relied on laws that restrict criticism of the government and its leadership as a basis for bringing charges against dissidents.
“After wrongfully imprisoning Ganji in the first place, the judiciary must not extend his imprisonment based on the opinions expressed in his recent prison letter,” said Whitson.
Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian authorities to release Ganji immediately for medical treatment and to end its persecution of peaceful critics and dissidents.
Ganji Resistance
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 8:52 AM
1 comments
W.House urges release of jailed Iran journalist - Boston.com - George W. Bush - News
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:50 AM
0 comments
Open letter to Kofi Anan by Political Activists and University Prof in Iran
"Open letter to Kofi Anan
by Political Activists and University Prof in Iran
A
His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan , Secretary General of the united Nations
Hello,
As you are well aware human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the basic purpose of the Charter of U.N. The commission of Human Rights and committees, corresponding to the too important Covenants, have assumed special responsibility for observation and implementation of the said fundamental freedoms on behalf of the member � states of the United Nations.
Dear Mr. secretary General , Nowadays , one of the well- known political writers and Journalist, Mr. Akbar Ganji for the sake of his socio-political opinions has been under arrest for five years and has been subjected to cruel treatments on behalf of the corresponding Judicial authorities , so that he has been forced undergone life-struck forever thirty days , and repeated efforts for his medical treatments have been of no avail. Consequently his life is in an imminent danger. In the name of humanity the under signed individuals are demanding for direct intervention for saving the life of the said eminent political writer , which at the same time , would be regarded , the very observation of Human Rights as well.
Please Sir ,the accept of best wishes
1. Engineer Behaeddin Adab , Former member of parliament from Kordestan
2. Mr. Adib Broumand, Attorney at Law , President of the central council of The National Front of Iran
3. Dr.Mahlagha Ardalan , University Professor
4. Engineer Ali Afshari , The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
5. Engineer Abas Amirentezam , Deputy of Prime minister of Transient Government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
6. Mr. Mehdi Aminizadeh ,The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
7. Dr.Saeed Ale Agha , University Professor
8. Dr. Hermidas Bavand , University Professor & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
9. Ms.Simin Behbehani , Famous Poet & the Member of Iranian writers Institute
10. Dr. Fateme Haghighatjoo , University Professor & Former member of parliament from Tehran
11. Mr. Ali Ashrafe Darvishian , Famous writer & the Member of Iranian writers Institute
12. Engineer Reza Delbari , The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
13. Dr.Fariborze Raies Dana , University Professor & & the Member of Iranian writers Institute
14. Dr.Rashidi , Economist , University Professor & Under Secretary of the Central Bank Under Transient Government
15. Dr.Ahmad zeidabadi , University Professor & Journalist
16 Mr.Abdolfatah Soltani , Attorney at Law
17. Mr.Khosro Seif , President of melate Iran Party & Deputy of labor minister Under Transient government
18. Mr. Hosein Shah- hosiny , Deputy of Prime minister of Transient Government & the Head of Iranian Athletic Organization
RowNameposition
19. Engineer Hosien Shah-ovesi , Former Government of Kordestan
20. Major General Nasser Farbud , Chief of Staff Under Transient government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
21. Engineer Aligholi Bayani , The Chief of Mardom Iran Party
22. Engineer Aliakbar Moienfar , Minister of Oil Under Transient government
23. Dr.Mohamad Maleki , Former Chief of Tehran University
24. Engineer Movahed , Deputy of Minister of Road Under Transient government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
25. Engineer Aliakbar Mousavi Khoieni , Former member of parliament from Tehran & President of Central Council of Advare Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
26. Dr. Hosian Mousavian , Physician & The Head of Executive Board
of The National Front of Iran
27. Dr.Yosef Molaei , University Professor & Attorney at Law
28. Mr.Abdollahe Momeni , The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
29. Dr.Mehdi Moayedzadeh , University Professor
30. Engineer Bahram Namazi , The Member of mellat Iran Party
31. Dr.Parviz Varjavand , University Professor & Minister of Culture Under Transient government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
32. Engineer Korosh Zaim , Writer & & The Member of Executive Board of The National Front of Iran
33. Engineer Reza Khojasteh , Journalist
by Political Activists and University Prof in Iran
A
His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan , Secretary General of the united Nations
Hello,
As you are well aware human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the basic purpose of the Charter of U.N. The commission of Human Rights and committees, corresponding to the too important Covenants, have assumed special responsibility for observation and implementation of the said fundamental freedoms on behalf of the member � states of the United Nations.
Dear Mr. secretary General , Nowadays , one of the well- known political writers and Journalist, Mr. Akbar Ganji for the sake of his socio-political opinions has been under arrest for five years and has been subjected to cruel treatments on behalf of the corresponding Judicial authorities , so that he has been forced undergone life-struck forever thirty days , and repeated efforts for his medical treatments have been of no avail. Consequently his life is in an imminent danger. In the name of humanity the under signed individuals are demanding for direct intervention for saving the life of the said eminent political writer , which at the same time , would be regarded , the very observation of Human Rights as well.
Please Sir ,the accept of best wishes
1. Engineer Behaeddin Adab , Former member of parliament from Kordestan
2. Mr. Adib Broumand, Attorney at Law , President of the central council of The National Front of Iran
3. Dr.Mahlagha Ardalan , University Professor
4. Engineer Ali Afshari , The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
5. Engineer Abas Amirentezam , Deputy of Prime minister of Transient Government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
6. Mr. Mehdi Aminizadeh ,The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
7. Dr.Saeed Ale Agha , University Professor
8. Dr. Hermidas Bavand , University Professor & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
9. Ms.Simin Behbehani , Famous Poet & the Member of Iranian writers Institute
10. Dr. Fateme Haghighatjoo , University Professor & Former member of parliament from Tehran
11. Mr. Ali Ashrafe Darvishian , Famous writer & the Member of Iranian writers Institute
12. Engineer Reza Delbari , The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
13. Dr.Fariborze Raies Dana , University Professor & & the Member of Iranian writers Institute
14. Dr.Rashidi , Economist , University Professor & Under Secretary of the Central Bank Under Transient Government
15. Dr.Ahmad zeidabadi , University Professor & Journalist
16 Mr.Abdolfatah Soltani , Attorney at Law
17. Mr.Khosro Seif , President of melate Iran Party & Deputy of labor minister Under Transient government
18. Mr. Hosein Shah- hosiny , Deputy of Prime minister of Transient Government & the Head of Iranian Athletic Organization
RowNameposition
19. Engineer Hosien Shah-ovesi , Former Government of Kordestan
20. Major General Nasser Farbud , Chief of Staff Under Transient government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
21. Engineer Aligholi Bayani , The Chief of Mardom Iran Party
22. Engineer Aliakbar Moienfar , Minister of Oil Under Transient government
23. Dr.Mohamad Maleki , Former Chief of Tehran University
24. Engineer Movahed , Deputy of Minister of Road Under Transient government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
25. Engineer Aliakbar Mousavi Khoieni , Former member of parliament from Tehran & President of Central Council of Advare Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
26. Dr. Hosian Mousavian , Physician & The Head of Executive Board
of The National Front of Iran
27. Dr.Yosef Molaei , University Professor & Attorney at Law
28. Mr.Abdollahe Momeni , The Member of Central Council of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat
29. Dr.Mehdi Moayedzadeh , University Professor
30. Engineer Bahram Namazi , The Member of mellat Iran Party
31. Dr.Parviz Varjavand , University Professor & Minister of Culture Under Transient government & the Member of central council of The National Front of Iran
32. Engineer Korosh Zaim , Writer & & The Member of Executive Board of The National Front of Iran
33. Engineer Reza Khojasteh , Journalist
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 3:18 AM
1 comments
Rights & Democracy is deeply concerned with the fate of Mr. Ganji.
"To : Iranian Human Rights Activist Group in EU and North America (IHRAG)
11 July 2005
Dear Mr. Mahoutiha,
Thank you for the information you have been sending me regarding the human
rights situation in Iran, and more specifically the case of Mr. Akbar Ganji
and his hunger strike.
Rights & Democracy is deeply concerned with the fate of Mr. Ganji. We call
on the Iranian authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that Mr. Ganji
receives appropriate medical attention outside of prison, and to release
him immediately and unconditionally.
Unfortunately, Akbar Ganji�s arrest and subsequent imprisonment is not an
isolated case. We are aware that there are other political prisoners in
Iran -- people being held for their views and for their peaceful
opposition to a regime that abuses human rights. Such arrests, imprisonment
and harassment is completely unacceptable according to international human
rights law and norms.
Rights & Democracy will continue to monitor the situation in Iran, and to
do its utmost to support initiatives that lead to the democratization of
the country and the amelioration of the human rights situation.
In solidarity,
Razmik Panossian
----------------------------
Razmik Panossian
Director - Policy, Programmes and Planning /
Directeur - Politiques, programmes et planification
Rights & Democracy / Droits et D�mocratie
1001 boul. de Maisonneuve E., Suite/Bureau 1100
Montr�al, Qu�bec, H2L 4P9, Canada.
Web: www.dd-rd.ca"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 3:01 AM
4 comments
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Reuters AlertNet - Police beat protesters at protest rally in Iran
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:30 PM
3 comments
Ganji Resistance
Pictures from rally in Tehranfor support of Akbar Ganji in (july 12)
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:30 PM
1 comments
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY:Iran: Concern Grows Over Fate Of Jailed Journalist
RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY: "Iran's most prominent jailed investigative journalist, Akbar Ganji, has been jailed for the last five years because of his critical articles and his investigation into the murders of political dissidents and intellectuals -- murders in which, he says, top Iranian officials were involved. Now, Ganji�s wife says that he has been on hunger strike for a month as he demands to be released unconditionally from prison. On 12 July, a gathering is due to take place in Tehran in his support."
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 7:00 AM
0 comments
"Rights & Democracy" is deeply concerned with the fate of Mr. Ganji
Rights & Democracy is deeply concerned with the fate of Mr. Ganji. We call
on the Iranian authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that Mr.
Ganji receives appropriate medical attention outside of prison, and to release
him immediately and unconditionally.
Unfortunately, Akbar Ganji’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment is not an
isolated case. We are aware that there are other political prisoners in
Iran -- people being held for their views and for their peaceful
opposition to a regime that abuses human rights. Such arrests,
imprisonment and harassment is completely unacceptable according to international human
rights law and norms.
Rights & Democracy will continue to monitor the situation in Iran, and to
do its utmost to support initiatives that lead to the democratization ofa
the country and the amelioration of the human rights situation.
In solidarity,
Razmik Panossian
----------------------------
Razmik Panossian
Director - Policy, Programmes and Planning /
Directeur - Politiques, programmes et planification
Rights & Democracy / Droits et Démocratie
1001 boul. de Maisonneuve E., Suite/Bureau 1100
Montréal, Québec, H2L 4P9, Canada.
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:37 AM
1 comments
Monday, July 11, 2005
Iran News - Iranian dissident hits one month on hunger strike
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:07 PM
2 comments
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Green World Press Review/EU: Greens in the EP support dialogue with Iran, but call for ''positive signals'' from Tehran
EU: Greens in the EP support dialogue with Iran, but call for ''positive signals'' from Tehran
Green World Press Review/Rassegna Stampa Verde�Internazionale: "'' 'The release of both the opposition politician Akbar Ganji and an imprisoned journalist and 'blogger', could be considered a first step towards ensuring constructive relations between Iran and the EU,'' said the statement. "
Green World Press Review/Rassegna Stampa Verde�Internazionale: "'' 'The release of both the opposition politician Akbar Ganji and an imprisoned journalist and 'blogger', could be considered a first step towards ensuring constructive relations between Iran and the EU,'' said the statement. "
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:28 PM
0 comments
FrontPage magazine.com :: Akbar Ganji is dying.
FrontPage magazine.com :: War Blog by FrontPage Magazine: "Akbar Ganji is dying. "
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:25 PM
4 comments
Judicial investigation of July 19, 1989 assassination in Vienna
July 6, 2005
To: Austrian People and Human Rights Organizations
Re.: Judicial investigation of July 13, 1989 assassination in Vienna
IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America) is a non-profit network formed in the fall of 2001 by independent Iranian human rights associations based in Europe and North America. IHRAG activities are based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as other UN’s human rights conventions.
On July 13, 1989, two Iranian citizens, Abdol Rahman Gasemloo, Secretary General, and Abdollah Ghaderi, and in charge of foreign affaires, of The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, along with Fazel Rasool, were assasinated in Vienna.
In spite of the obvious comlilcity of Islamic Republic regime, specifically its highest authorities, in assassinating those two political leaders, Austrian police released the two prime arrested suspects and facilitated their return to Iran. Unfortunately, after 16 years, no outcome concerning the investigation of this file has been achieved yet.
According to recent declaration of a member of Austrian parliament, Austrian Green Party security spokesman Peter Pilz, and evidence obtained from a new witness who is very familiar with this plan, being a confidant of one of the suspected assasins, Nasser Taghi-Poor, the complicity of present Iranian leaders, including Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, “president” and currently head of the “expediency council”, Mr. Rezaei commander of the “revolutionary gard” at the time, and Mr. Ahmadi Nejad, the new “president” have been clearly established.
As a result, we, The Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG), would urge Austrian people , as well as Austrian human rights organizations, to strongly condemn the widespread, planned and systematic violation of human rights of Iranian people, and demand from their judicial authorities to investigate these murders and bring those responsible to justice.
Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG)
E-mail: IHRNENA@gmail.com
Phone: 1 - 514 – 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704-124-500 (Sweden)
Address: BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden
Human Rights News from Iran: http://ihrgint.blogspot.com
Iranian Human Rights Activists Association, Canada - Human Rights defense committee of Iran, Sweden - Vereinigung zur Verteidigung der Menschenrechte im Iran, Deutschland - Stichting voor de Verdediging van Democratie in Iran, Nederland – Iranian – Canadian community Association of western Canada, Vancouver - Committee to Defend Human Rights in Iran, California, U.S.A. - - noran (supporting committee for human rights in iran ), Norway – Activist of Human Rights- Irantestimony - Committee for defense of Liberty and Democracy in Iran – Austria , Aliance for Human Rights defense in Iran – Washangton, U.S.A – Iranische Menschenrechtsaktivisten-Schweiz - Center of activists for the defense of Human Rigts in Iran, Belgium - Menschenrechtgruppe IRAN – Deutschland - Verein zur Unterstützung der Politischen Gefangene im Iran, Berlin, Deutschland, - Unione Per La Democrazia In Iran, Italia
To: Austrian People and Human Rights Organizations
Re.: Judicial investigation of July 13, 1989 assassination in Vienna
IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America) is a non-profit network formed in the fall of 2001 by independent Iranian human rights associations based in Europe and North America. IHRAG activities are based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as other UN’s human rights conventions.
On July 13, 1989, two Iranian citizens, Abdol Rahman Gasemloo, Secretary General, and Abdollah Ghaderi, and in charge of foreign affaires, of The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, along with Fazel Rasool, were assasinated in Vienna.
In spite of the obvious comlilcity of Islamic Republic regime, specifically its highest authorities, in assassinating those two political leaders, Austrian police released the two prime arrested suspects and facilitated their return to Iran. Unfortunately, after 16 years, no outcome concerning the investigation of this file has been achieved yet.
According to recent declaration of a member of Austrian parliament, Austrian Green Party security spokesman Peter Pilz, and evidence obtained from a new witness who is very familiar with this plan, being a confidant of one of the suspected assasins, Nasser Taghi-Poor, the complicity of present Iranian leaders, including Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, “president” and currently head of the “expediency council”, Mr. Rezaei commander of the “revolutionary gard” at the time, and Mr. Ahmadi Nejad, the new “president” have been clearly established.
As a result, we, The Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG), would urge Austrian people , as well as Austrian human rights organizations, to strongly condemn the widespread, planned and systematic violation of human rights of Iranian people, and demand from their judicial authorities to investigate these murders and bring those responsible to justice.
Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG)
E-mail: IHRNENA@gmail.com
Phone: 1 - 514 – 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704-124-500 (Sweden)
Address: BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden
Human Rights News from Iran: http://ihrgint.blogspot.com
Iranian Human Rights Activists Association, Canada - Human Rights defense committee of Iran, Sweden - Vereinigung zur Verteidigung der Menschenrechte im Iran, Deutschland - Stichting voor de Verdediging van Democratie in Iran, Nederland – Iranian – Canadian community Association of western Canada, Vancouver - Committee to Defend Human Rights in Iran, California, U.S.A. - - noran (supporting committee for human rights in iran ), Norway – Activist of Human Rights- Irantestimony - Committee for defense of Liberty and Democracy in Iran – Austria , Aliance for Human Rights defense in Iran – Washangton, U.S.A – Iranische Menschenrechtsaktivisten-Schweiz - Center of activists for the defense of Human Rigts in Iran, Belgium - Menschenrechtgruppe IRAN – Deutschland - Verein zur Unterstützung der Politischen Gefangene im Iran, Berlin, Deutschland, - Unione Per La Democrazia In Iran, Italia
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:18 PM
0 comments
After 6 years, still no justice for Ebrahimi Nejad
After 6 years, still no justice for Ebrahimi Nejad
On July 9/1999, Ebrahimi Nejad was killed during the repression of the Iranian Student protest
On July 9/1999, Ebrahimi Nejad was killed during the repression of the Iranian Student protest
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 8:48 AM
1 comments
Saturday, July 09, 2005
UK EU Presidency 2005 Press Releases:European Union calls on Iran to release political prisoner, Akbar Ganji (08/07/05)
European Union calls on Iran to release political prisoner, Akbar Ganji (08/07/05)
"The European Union has made urgent representations about Akbar Ganji, a political prisoner detained in Iran. He is believed to be seriously ill and reportedly in need of urgent medical attention. In view of his condition and the need for appropriate medical care, the European Union calls on the Iranian authorities to free him immediately on humanitarian grounds. The European Union has also made representations about Nasser Zarafshan, another political prisoner, who has reportedly now been released."
"The European Union has made urgent representations about Akbar Ganji, a political prisoner detained in Iran. He is believed to be seriously ill and reportedly in need of urgent medical attention. In view of his condition and the need for appropriate medical care, the European Union calls on the Iranian authorities to free him immediately on humanitarian grounds. The European Union has also made representations about Nasser Zarafshan, another political prisoner, who has reportedly now been released."
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:06 PM
1 comments
GANJI RESISTANCE! - Site covering Ganji's struggleReporters sans frontires - Iran Judiciary continues to stall in Kazemi case, two years after her death
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 4:32 AM
2 comments
La lettre de Hélène Flautre Présidente de la sous commission des droits de l'Homme Strasbourg le 5 juillet 2005 à Monsieur Michael Matthiessen Représentant personnel pour les droits de l'homme du secrétaire général du Conseil de l'Union européenne Monsieur Matthiessen à propos de Mr Akbar Ganji.
July 05, 2005
EU: La libération immédiate de Mr Ganji
Hélène Flautre
Présidente de la sous commission des droits de l'Homme
Strasbourg le 5 juillet 2005
To : Monsieur Michael Matthiessen
Représentant personnel pour les droits de l'homme
du secrétaire général du Conseil de l'Union européenne
Monsieur Matthiessen,
Mr Akbar Ganji, journaliste et défenseur des droits de l'homme iranien incarcéré à la prison d'Evin à Téhéran depuis plus de cinq ans, a entamé une grève de la faim le 16 juin 2005 pour protester contre les conditions de détentions inhumaines qu'il subit. Selon les informations qui nous ont été transmises par sa femme et par Reporters sans frontières, il était hier dans un état désespéré; ses jours sont en danger.
Mr Ganji a été arrêté le 22 avril 2000. Il était à l'origine de divers articles prouvant la responsabilité de hauts responsables politiques dans les meurtres d'opposants et d'intellectuels en 1998 et il avait participé à la Conférence de Berlin consacrée aux réformes en Iran et jugée antiislamique par les autorités du pays. Le 13 janvier 2001, il a été condamné à 10 ans de prison. En mai 2001, sa condamnation est réduite à 6 mois en appel mais le 15 juillet 2001, la Cour Suprême revient sur ce verdict pour irrégularités dans la procédure et le condamne à 6 ans d'emprisonnement pour "trahison à la sécurité nationale et propagande contre les institutions de l'Etat Islamique".
Depuis, Mr Ganji purge sa peine dans des conditions inhumaines. Il est en cellule d'isolement, n'a pas le droit d'avoir de contact avec sa famille et ses avocats. Il ne bénéficie pas des soins adaptés à son état de santé. Il souffre d'asthme aigu et de sérieux problèmes de dos, son état de santé est alarmant et nécessite une hospitalisation immédiate. Les autorités judiciaires ignorent les avis des médecins de la prison qui recommandent depuis trois ans un suivi médical extérieur.
Le 19 mai 2005, il a déclaré entamer une grève de la faim illimitée qu'il a interrompue momentanément le 24 mai après avoir obtenu une libération provisoire pour se soigner. Le 15 juin le Ministère public a ordonné son incarcération et M. Ganji a repris sa grève de la faim. Il est vital que Mr Ganji puisse suivre son traitement médical.
Je vous demande de faire tout ce qui est en votre pouvoir pour obtenir la libération immédiate de Mr Ganji afin qu´il puisse bénéficier des soins que nécessite son état. Je pense notamment qu´une démarche urgente de la part de la Présidence et des Ambassadeurs à Téhéran s´impose.
Sachant pouvoir compter sur votre diligence, je vous prie d'agréer, Monsieur Matthiessen, l'expression de mes sentiments les meilleurs.
Hélène Flautre
July 05, 2005
EU: La libération immédiate de Mr Ganji
Hélène Flautre
Présidente de la sous commission des droits de l'Homme
Strasbourg le 5 juillet 2005
To : Monsieur Michael Matthiessen
Représentant personnel pour les droits de l'homme
du secrétaire général du Conseil de l'Union européenne
Monsieur Matthiessen,
Mr Akbar Ganji, journaliste et défenseur des droits de l'homme iranien incarcéré à la prison d'Evin à Téhéran depuis plus de cinq ans, a entamé une grève de la faim le 16 juin 2005 pour protester contre les conditions de détentions inhumaines qu'il subit. Selon les informations qui nous ont été transmises par sa femme et par Reporters sans frontières, il était hier dans un état désespéré; ses jours sont en danger.
Mr Ganji a été arrêté le 22 avril 2000. Il était à l'origine de divers articles prouvant la responsabilité de hauts responsables politiques dans les meurtres d'opposants et d'intellectuels en 1998 et il avait participé à la Conférence de Berlin consacrée aux réformes en Iran et jugée antiislamique par les autorités du pays. Le 13 janvier 2001, il a été condamné à 10 ans de prison. En mai 2001, sa condamnation est réduite à 6 mois en appel mais le 15 juillet 2001, la Cour Suprême revient sur ce verdict pour irrégularités dans la procédure et le condamne à 6 ans d'emprisonnement pour "trahison à la sécurité nationale et propagande contre les institutions de l'Etat Islamique".
Depuis, Mr Ganji purge sa peine dans des conditions inhumaines. Il est en cellule d'isolement, n'a pas le droit d'avoir de contact avec sa famille et ses avocats. Il ne bénéficie pas des soins adaptés à son état de santé. Il souffre d'asthme aigu et de sérieux problèmes de dos, son état de santé est alarmant et nécessite une hospitalisation immédiate. Les autorités judiciaires ignorent les avis des médecins de la prison qui recommandent depuis trois ans un suivi médical extérieur.
Le 19 mai 2005, il a déclaré entamer une grève de la faim illimitée qu'il a interrompue momentanément le 24 mai après avoir obtenu une libération provisoire pour se soigner. Le 15 juin le Ministère public a ordonné son incarcération et M. Ganji a repris sa grève de la faim. Il est vital que Mr Ganji puisse suivre son traitement médical.
Je vous demande de faire tout ce qui est en votre pouvoir pour obtenir la libération immédiate de Mr Ganji afin qu´il puisse bénéficier des soins que nécessite son état. Je pense notamment qu´une démarche urgente de la part de la Présidence et des Ambassadeurs à Téhéran s´impose.
Sachant pouvoir compter sur votre diligence, je vous prie d'agréer, Monsieur Matthiessen, l'expression de mes sentiments les meilleurs.
Hélène Flautre
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:46 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Scotsman.com News - International - Austria investigates claims new Iranian president linked to killing
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:10 PM
1 comments
AP Wire | 07/05/2005 | Iran protests Austrian probe of new leader
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 2:09 PM
0 comments
IHRAG's letter to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of United Nations about Hunger strike of the political prisoners in Iran
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:41 PM
2 comments
Akbar Ganji'sletter to Free people every where ( translated by the weblog of " Zane Irani - Iranian Women)
A Letter to Free People Every Where
Nineteen days have passed since I began my hunger strike. I have lost nineteen kilograms. I am imprisoned. I do not have permission to make phone calls or read newspapers. I have been denied visitation. I cannot walk outside my cell. The liars say they have no political prisoners. They say the political prisoners are not on hunger strike. They distort the facts by calling a cell a suite, saying that prisons are as comfortable as they can be in a hotel! Calling a donkey a parrot does not miraculously turn the donkey into a parrot! Prisoner is someone whose liberty has been taken away. Does calling a prison a hotel change the nature of the prison? A political prisoner is someone who speaks his conscience. We are arrested solely because we differ from what is permitted. Human rights organizations are aware how hundreds of people have been imprisoned only because of different views.
Whole letter
Nineteen days have passed since I began my hunger strike. I have lost nineteen kilograms. I am imprisoned. I do not have permission to make phone calls or read newspapers. I have been denied visitation. I cannot walk outside my cell. The liars say they have no political prisoners. They say the political prisoners are not on hunger strike. They distort the facts by calling a cell a suite, saying that prisons are as comfortable as they can be in a hotel! Calling a donkey a parrot does not miraculously turn the donkey into a parrot! Prisoner is someone whose liberty has been taken away. Does calling a prison a hotel change the nature of the prison? A political prisoner is someone who speaks his conscience. We are arrested solely because we differ from what is permitted. Human rights organizations are aware how hundreds of people have been imprisoned only because of different views.
Whole letter
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:37 PM
3 comments
IHRAG's letter to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of United Nations
June 8, 2005
To: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of United Nations
Re.: Hunger strike of the political prisoners in Iran
IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America) is a non-profit network formed in the fall of 2001 by the independent Iranian associations based in Europe and North America. IHRAG activities are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as UN’s Human rights conventions.
On May30, 2005, political prisoners Bina Darab-Zand, Arjang Davoodi, Hojjat Zamani, and Amir Heshmat Saran, have started a hunger strike, to protest the inhumane conditions governing prisons in Iran, as well as the deterioration of their physical conditions caused by prolong imprisonment. One day later, four more political prisoners, Mohammad Lohrasbi, Khaled Hardani, Vali Feiz-Mahdavi, and Omid Abbasgholi-Nejad have joined the hunger strike. Nine more have threatened to join as well, and it is expected that more and more to do so.
Nasser Zarafshan, attorney for families of the victims of political murders, commonly known as serial murders, started his hunger strike yesterday.
Other political prisoners, Reza Amini, Hemet Hassan Azarpour, Abdollah Mohammadi, Mojtaba Samii-Nejad, and Akbar Ganji, had gone on hunger strike in the past three weeks.
Additionally in the realm of widespread, planned and systematic violations of human rights by Islamic Republic of Iran, in the past two months we have witnessed the following violations:
1) 15 execution; 2) 28 convictions to death sentence; 3) Conviction of one woman to stoning; 4) 2 convictions of decapitation; 5) 11 deaths and 6 injuries due to shootings by security forces; 6) Interrogation, arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, forced exile,… of 54 student activists, 72 journalists, and 55 political, cultural, and labor activists; and 7) 654 other arrests.
Your Excellency,
We, Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America, would like to call your attention to the deplorable conditions of these political prisoners, and urge you to use your good offices to exert pressure on the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran to free theses prisoners, whose demands for their rights are in complete accordance with all internationally accepted norms and standards of human rights.
Sincerely,
Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG)
E-mail: IHRNENA@gmail.com
Phone: 1 - 514 – 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704-124-500 (Sweden)
Address: BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden
Human Rights News from Iran : http://ihrgint.blogspot.com
To: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of United Nations
Re.: Hunger strike of the political prisoners in Iran
IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America) is a non-profit network formed in the fall of 2001 by the independent Iranian associations based in Europe and North America. IHRAG activities are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as UN’s Human rights conventions.
On May30, 2005, political prisoners Bina Darab-Zand, Arjang Davoodi, Hojjat Zamani, and Amir Heshmat Saran, have started a hunger strike, to protest the inhumane conditions governing prisons in Iran, as well as the deterioration of their physical conditions caused by prolong imprisonment. One day later, four more political prisoners, Mohammad Lohrasbi, Khaled Hardani, Vali Feiz-Mahdavi, and Omid Abbasgholi-Nejad have joined the hunger strike. Nine more have threatened to join as well, and it is expected that more and more to do so.
Nasser Zarafshan, attorney for families of the victims of political murders, commonly known as serial murders, started his hunger strike yesterday.
Other political prisoners, Reza Amini, Hemet Hassan Azarpour, Abdollah Mohammadi, Mojtaba Samii-Nejad, and Akbar Ganji, had gone on hunger strike in the past three weeks.
Additionally in the realm of widespread, planned and systematic violations of human rights by Islamic Republic of Iran, in the past two months we have witnessed the following violations:
1) 15 execution; 2) 28 convictions to death sentence; 3) Conviction of one woman to stoning; 4) 2 convictions of decapitation; 5) 11 deaths and 6 injuries due to shootings by security forces; 6) Interrogation, arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, forced exile,… of 54 student activists, 72 journalists, and 55 political, cultural, and labor activists; and 7) 654 other arrests.
Your Excellency,
We, Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America, would like to call your attention to the deplorable conditions of these political prisoners, and urge you to use your good offices to exert pressure on the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran to free theses prisoners, whose demands for their rights are in complete accordance with all internationally accepted norms and standards of human rights.
Sincerely,
Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG)
E-mail: IHRNENA@gmail.com
Phone: 1 - 514 – 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704-124-500 (Sweden)
Address: BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden
Human Rights News from Iran : http://ihrgint.blogspot.com
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:25 PM
0 comments
Iran Focus-News - Special Wire - Three men publicly hanged in northeast Iran
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 1:18 PM
1 comments
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Iran Dissident Calls Jailors 'Stalinists' - July 5, 2005 - The New York Sun - NY Newspaper
Iran Dissident Calls Jailors 'Stalinists' - July 5, 2005 - The New York Sun - NY Newspaper: "WASHINGTON - Jailed Iranian dissident journalist Akbar Ganji has defied the will of his captors, vowing to refuse to end his 26-day hunger strike or to apologize for calling last month's election a fraud."
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 3:54 AM
2 comments
Monday, July 04, 2005
IRAN: GANJI, IMPRISONED JOURNALIST NEARS DEATH
IRAN: IMPRISONED JOURNALIST NEARS DEATH: "Tehran, 4 July (AKI) - The well-known Iranian writer and journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been in prison for more than four years, is in a critical condition after being on a hunger strike for the past 23 days. His wife, who met him in an Iranian jail, confirmed that the renowned dissident's life was in danger. 'My husband, before beginning the hunger strike weighed 77 kilograms, but today his weight has fallen to 58 kilograms and he can no longer stand on his feet,' Massoumeh Shafii, said in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
Shafii told AKI that her husband was in solitary confinement and that he was kept in isolation even during the period of open-air time allocated to prisoners. In the last letter that Ganji succeeded in releasing from prison, the journalist indicated that the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, was the �mastermind of the operation' behind his physical annihilation.
In the letter, Ganji also accused Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saiid Mortazavi, of 'being the material executor of this diabolical plan.'. Human rights activists suspect Mortazavi was behind the death Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian journalist of Iranian origin who was killed while in custody in an Iranian jail.
Ganji, who in the past published articles allegedly exposing the involvement of government officials in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s was jailed in April 2000, charged with 'acting against national security.' Ganji, who has already served 62 months in prison, suffers from acute asthma and is being held in solitary confinement at Tehran's Evin prison.
In his letter, the journalist said that in order to achieve justice, he had to take it upon himself to do something about the sit"
Shafii told AKI that her husband was in solitary confinement and that he was kept in isolation even during the period of open-air time allocated to prisoners. In the last letter that Ganji succeeded in releasing from prison, the journalist indicated that the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, was the �mastermind of the operation' behind his physical annihilation.
In the letter, Ganji also accused Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saiid Mortazavi, of 'being the material executor of this diabolical plan.'. Human rights activists suspect Mortazavi was behind the death Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian journalist of Iranian origin who was killed while in custody in an Iranian jail.
Ganji, who in the past published articles allegedly exposing the involvement of government officials in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s was jailed in April 2000, charged with 'acting against national security.' Ganji, who has already served 62 months in prison, suffers from acute asthma and is being held in solitary confinement at Tehran's Evin prison.
In his letter, the journalist said that in order to achieve justice, he had to take it upon himself to do something about the sit"
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 12:05 PM
3 comments
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Iran News - 'Jailed Iranian Ganji weakened by hunger strike'
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 11:54 AM
0 comments
Journalists association calls for retrial of Ganji - Irna
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 11:53 AM
2 comments
Reporters sans frontires - Iran Yosef Azizi Banitrouf freed on bail after 68 days in prison
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 8:25 AM
2 comments
Palestine Chronicle:Interview with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi
posted by HRIRAN.ORG at 8:24 AM
1 comments
Friday, July 01, 2005
- Amnesty International
- International Freedom of Expression eXchange
- Reporters Without Borders
- HRW
Reports
IHRAG
- Report on the situation of death penalty in Iran
- Persecution of Students movement in Iran 20 July -20 September 2003 21 September - 20 October 2003
- Persecution of Students movement in Iran (November 2002- October 2003)
- Annual Report 2004 (Second edtion)
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
- <“Like
the Dead in Their Coffins”
Torture, Detention, and the Crushing of Dissent in Iran- <2003
- <2002
Reporters without Borders
UN
- <“Like
the Dead in Their Coffins”
- Iranian Human Rights Activists Association, Canada (faalanhrc@yahoo.ca)
- Center of activists for defense of Human Rights in Iran/Belqium
- Center for Thought, Dialogue and Human Rihjts in Iran/Canada Totonto
- Human Rights Defenders /Germany
- Stichting voor de Verdediging Van Democratie in Iran /Holland
- Human Rights Defense comity/Sweden
- Committie to defend human rights i Iran /USA California
- Noran Supporting committee for Human Rights in Iran/Norway
- Ianian Canadian community Association western Canada /Canada Vancoover
- Committee for defense of Liberty and Democracy in Iran /Austria
- Association for defenders of human rights and democracy in Iran/France
- Aliance for Human Rights defense in Iran/USA Washington
- Human Rights Defenders /Switzerland
- Human Rights Activists - Irantestimony
Previous Posts
- Pictures of killed an injured in Tehran
- Shots fired at Iran protest
- Bypassing Iran's firewalls
- USA Today: One dead after shots fired at Iran prot...
- Human Rights Watch: Four Journalists Sentenced to ...
- Iran to try Bahais for spying for Israel
- Iran rights group slams razing of 'political' graves
- Amnsety:Iran: Human Rights in the spotlight on the...
- Stop obliterating remnants of Humanitarian crime o...
Archives
- 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003
- 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004
- 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004
- 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004
- 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004
- 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004
- 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004
- 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004
- 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004
- 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004
- 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004
- 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004
- 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005
- 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005
- 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
- 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005
- 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005
- 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005
- 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005
- 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005
- 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005
- 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005
- 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005
- 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009
- 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009
- 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009
- 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009
- HRW
- Reporters Without Borders
- International Freedom of Expression eXchange
Who are we?
IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America) is a non-profit network formed in the fall of 2001 by the independent Iranian associations based in Europe and North America. IHRAG activities are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as UN’s Human rights conventions.
Contact : E-mail : IHRNENA@gmail.com Phone: 1 - 514 - 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704 124 500 (Sweden) Address: K.F.M.R.I, BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden