Alert Issued: July 7, 2009

Hundreds of people have been detained in Iran since the June 12th announcement of the disputed presidential election results. The detainees include prominent political leaders who opposed President Ahmadinejad during the campaign, student leaders, journalists, human rights lawyers and women’s rights activists.

Many of these detainees have now been held for weeks without charge or trial and with little or no access to the outside world. They have neither access to legal counsel nor contact with their family members. Reportedly, some of the detainees are being tortured to prompt confessions of instigating and organizing the mass protests that followed the June 12th announcement.

Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) will meet in Italy later this week.  Human Rights First is calling on the G8 leaders to issue a collective statement expressing serious concern regarding the widespread violations of human rights that have occurred in Iran since June 12.  Additionally, this collective statement should call for the immediate and unconditional release of all of those detained in Iran for the non-violent exercise of their basic rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.

Join Human Rights First in urging world leaders to speak up for detained activists in Iran.

Background

In the aftermath of Iran’s disputed presidential election, there has been severe repression of the Iranian people’s basic rights and freedoms.  Riot police and paramilitary security forces, called the Basij militia, used violence, including lethal violence, to disperse and disrupt peaceful political protests and to intimidate would-be protestors in Tehran and other Iranian cities. The government has placed stringent controls on the media forcing international journalists to leave the country and censoring or closing down independent newspapers and websites.  The government has also restricted access to information from satellite television, the internet and cell phone text messaging.

The government has made a concerted effort to detain known leaders of President Ahmadinejad’s political opposition, as well as independent journalists, bloggers and human rights activists, thereby decapitating the protest’s ability to gain momentum.

Given the lack of accessible information regarding Iran’s human rights violations, it is impossible to say how many people have been detained.  There were mass arrests at street demonstrations and during raids on university dormitories, as well as detentions of individuals from their homes in the days following the election.

Among the prominent political leaders under detention are:

• Ali Abtahi, the author of an influential political blog and a senior advisor to former President Khatami.
• Saeed Hajjarian, a journalist and a senior political advisor to former President Khatami who was paralyzed in a 2000 assassination attempt.
• Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, a leading reformist political figure and a former governor of Kordestan province under President Khatami.
• Mostafa Tajzadeh, a leading reformist political figure and a deputy minister under former President Khatami.

Other detainees include the prominent human rights lawyer, Abdolfatah Soltani, a co-founding member of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights, a Tehran-based human rights organization; and Zhila Bani Yaghoub, a women’s rights activist, blogger and leader of the One Million Signatures Campaign for women’s rights in Iran.

As family and friends call for the detainees’ release, a new round of detentions has ensued. For example, women’s rights activist Zeynab Peyquambarzardeh was detained during a Tehran protest July 4, 2009.

These imprisoned Iranians are victims of arbitrary detention. The government of Iran, as a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is obliged to release all of those detained merely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.

The leaders of the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States), who will meet in Italy from July 8 – July 10, have the opportunity to take a clear stand against widespread violations of human rights in Iran.  The leaders should make a collective statement calling for the immediate and  unconditional release of all of those detained in Iran since June 12, who merely exercised of their basic freedoms.  Such a statement would build on the statement issued by G8 foreign ministers at their meeting in Trieste on June 26, which called for an end to violence and urged the Iranian authorities to respect human rights, especially, freedom of expression.

The G8 leaders should also demonstrate that they are determined to monitor the human rights conditions in Iran and to take further action through the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms to end the violations.

Sample Letter

G-8 Leaders

Your Excellencies:

I write to express my grave concern about the ongoing widespread violations of human rights, especially with regards to detainees, in Iran.

In the aftermath of Iran’s disputed presidential election, there has been severe repression of the Iranian people’s basic rights and freedoms. It is my understanding that the government has made a concerted effort to detain known leaders of President Ahmadinejad’s political opposition, as well as independent journalists, bloggers and human rights activists, thereby decapitating the protest’s ability to gain momentum. It is also my understanding that there were mass arrests during street demonstrations and during raids on university dormitories as well as detentions of individuals from their homes in the days following the election.

In particular, I would like to call your attention to Ali Abtahi, Saeed Hajjarian, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdolfatah Soltani, Zhila Bani Yaghoub, and most recently, Zeynab Peyquambarzardeh, whose detentions appear to be politically motivated.

These imprisoned Iranians are victims of arbitrary detention. The government of Iran, as a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is obliged to release all of the detainees, who have merely exercised their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.

During your upcoming meeting, I urge you to take a clear stand against widespread violations of human rights in Iran. More specifically, I urge you and your colleagues to make a collective statement calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all of those detained in Iran since June 12, who merely exercised their basic freedoms. Lastly, I urge you and your colleagues to demonstrate that you are determined to monitor the human rights conditions in Iran and to take further action through the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms to end these mass violations.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. I will continue to closely follow the situation in Iran.