The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.
Description of the situation:
The Observatory has been informed by the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) about the judicial harassment of Mr. Hadi Esmaeilzadeh, an Iranian human rights lawyer and member of the DHRC.
According to the information received, on April 15, 2014, Mr. Hadi Esmaeilzadeh is to be tried by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolution Court. During a preliminary interrogation on July 12, 2011, he was notified of the charges of “assembly and collusion with intent to commit anti-security crimes” based on his membership of DHRC, and “spreading propaganda against the State”, and was banned from leaving the country. However, his lawyers have not been given the opportunity to access and read his file for next week’s hearing.
Since the closure of the DHRC’s offices in 2008, Mr. Hadi Esmaeilzadeh has faced several interrogations by intelligence and security organisations as well as pressures to resign from the DHRC. He was also expelled from the Higher Institute of Banking of Iran in 2009 and from the Islamic Azad University-Bam Unit in 2012 because he refused to resign from the DHRC.
The Observatory recalls that Messrs. Abdolfattah Soltani and Mohammad Seifzadeh, two other human rights lawyers and co-founders of the DHRC, are currently serving long-term prison sentences in Tehran’s Evin prison and Karaj’s Rajaishahr prison, respectively, on charges related to their human rights activities. In January 2013, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Mr. Soltani’s detention was arbitrary. Mr. Soltani suffers from serious health problems but does not have adequate access to proper medical care in detention or outside medical facilities.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern with the ongoing persecution against Mr. Esmaeilzadeh by the intelligence and security organisations and the denial of his right to due process, and calls on the Iranian authorities to end his harassment, including at the judicial level.
Actions requested:
Please write to the Iranian authorities and ask them to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Hadi Esmaeilzadeh as well as of all human rights defenders in Iran;
ii. Release immediately and unconditionally all human rights defenders detained in Iran merely to sanction their human rights activities;
iii. Put an end to any kind of harassment – including at the judicial level – against Mr. Hadi Esmaeilzadeh and all human rights defenders in Iran and ensure in all circumstances that they can carry out their activities without any hindrances;
iv. Conform in all circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, in particular:
– its article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”,
– and 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 and 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. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Iran.
