Amnesty International is urging the Iranian authorities to reveal how many Afghan nationals it is holding on death row amid reports 45 Afghans may have been executed in Iran in recent weeks.

More than 4,000 Afghans are thought to be in Iranian jails. The number of those facing the death penalty may be as high as 3,000, mostly for drug-related offences.

According to Afghan news reports, Afghan MP Gul Ahmad Amini said on 12 April that 45 people had been executed in the preceding days and their bodies sent back to Afghanistan.

Iranian officials deny such numbers of executions and are refusing to confirm how many Afghans are at risk of execution.

“These numbers are truly disturbing,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. “Iran must immediately put a stop to these executions and reveal how many Afghans it has executed.

“We are also calling on the authorities to come clean on exactly how many Afghan nationals they are holding in Iranian jails. At the moment, nobody knows for certain how many have been arrested, what crimes they have been convicted of or what their fate is likely to be. This secrecy can only increase the risk of miscarriages of justice.

“We’re particularly worried by the fact that so many of the Afghans in Iranian prisons have been convicted of drug-related offences and may therefore be sentenced to death.”

An estimated one million Afghan refugees are living in Iran after fleeing more than three decades of conflict in Afghanistan. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of other Afghans have entered the country as irregular migrants.

Concern for Afghan prisoners grew in March following the visit of a group of Afghan MPs to Iran, which has one of the highest rates of executions in the world.

Following the visit, Afghan MP Taj Mohammed Mojahed said officials from the Iranian Supreme Court had told them that 5, 630 Afghans were in prison with more than 3,000 sentenced to death.

An Iranian prison official later confirmed that over 4,000 Afghan nationals are being held in Iranian jails. He admitted it was possible that the figure of 3,000 Afghans on death row was accurate since the majority of the prisoners were convicted of drugs-related charges.

In Iran, trafficking in more than specified amounts of various illegal drugs carries a mandatory death sentence.  Amnesty International recognizes that Iran faces serious social, security and economic problems relating to drug-trafficking, but believes that heavy reliance on the use of the death penalty to combat drug-trafficking is misguided, ineffectual and an affront to human rights.

“Sadly, these numbers only illustrate the extent to which the Iranian authorities misguidedly resort to the death penalty.  Our concerns are compounded by the serious shortcomings of the Iranian criminal justice system and discrimination against Afghans in Iran,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Background:

UN human rights experts have concluded that the death penalty for drug-related offences fails to meet the condition of “most serious crime”, under which the death penalty may be imposed. In addition, the UN has repeatedly urged member states to be transparent regarding the application of the death penalty.

Amnesty International has for decades documented shortcomings in the administration of justice in Iran and fair guarantees are routinely flouted.  Detainees are frequently held incommunicado for prolonged periods – which puts them at higher risk of torture and other ill-treatment – are often denied access to a lawyer and forced to “confess” under duress.

For more information please call

Elizabeth Berton-Hunter

Media and External Communications Officer

Amnesty International

416-363-9933 ext 332

Cell: 416-904-7158

Amnesty International has urged the Iranian authorities to release a human rights lawyer who was arrested after speaking out against the execution of one of his clients during interviews with international media.

Mohammad Olyaeifard was detained on 1 May on charges of “propaganda against the system” to begin serving a one-year jail term. His lawyers have not been informed of his sentence, in violation of Iranian law.

Before his arrest, Mohammad Olyaeifard said that he had been convicted because of an interview he gave to Voice of America’s Persian Service shortly after his client, juvenile offender Behnoud Shojaee, was hanged for a murder he committed when he was 17 years old.

“The arrest of Mohammad Olyaeifard sends a chilling message to lawyers in Iran that if they dare to denounce abuses or miscarriages of justice they will face reprisals,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.

“All he did was point out to the world that – for the 45th time since 1990 – Iran violated international law by executing someone for a crime committed when under 18.

“Mohammad Olyaeifard has been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and he must be immediately and unconditionally released.”

Shortly after his interviews, Mohammad Olyaeifard was summoned for questioning on the basis of a complaint brought against him by the Tehran Prosecutor and in November 2010 he was briefly arrested and charged before being released on bail equivalent to about US$50,000.

He was then sentenced to one year in prison on 7 February 2010 by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

He was arrested a second time on 8 March 2010 but was released six days later as his lawyers had not been informed of his sentence.

His lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, told Deutsche Welle’s Persian service that Mohammad Olyaeifard was rearrested on 1 May when he went to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran to meet a court official. He is now held in Section 350 of Evin Prison.

Mohammad Olyaeifard, who has defended many prisoners of conscience and juvenile offenders – those sentenced to death for crimes committed when under the age of 18, has previously been targeted for his work. He was once interrogated and accused of “propagating lies” for condemning the torture of one of his clients, while he has been a vocal critic of Iran’s executions of juvenile offenders.

Amnesty International has urged the Iranian authorities to ensure that while imprisoned, he is granted access to his family and lawyers and to adequate medical care. Mohammad Olyaeifard requires regular medication for severe migraines and fainted on 4 March.

The Iranian authorities have intensified the already severe restrictions on freedom of expression in Iran since the disputed presidential election last June, arresting politicians and activists, students, human rights defenders and journalists, as well as lawyers such as Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Abdolfattah Soltani and Mohammad Mostafaei, although all were later freed on bail.

The arrest of Mohammad Olyaeifard follows attempts by the Iranian authorities to undermine the independence of the Iranian Bar Association, including by barring candidates from standing for election to senior positions.

“This latest move of the Iranian authorities is an indication of the expanding realm of repression in Iran. It shows that no group is immune. The authorities are seeking to silence anyone who is criticizing them. Human rights organizations and their members, journalists, opposition figures, students and women’s rights defenders have been targeted. It is now the turn of lawyers”, said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers not only state that lawyers must be allowed to carry out their work “without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference” but also expressly recognizes that they are entitled to freedom of expression, which includes “the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights”.

Source: Amnesty International

Amnesty International has issued an urgent statement about the imminent execution of Jafar Kazemi in the next few days:

“The danger of imminent execution in Iran”

An Iranian, Jafar Kazemi, is in imminent danger of execution for participating in anti-government demonstrations. He has also been accused of collaborating with the MKO (Mujahedeen Khalgh Organization).

Jafar Kazemi was arrested on September 18, 2009 during a demonstration and was transferred to Evin prison. He has been accused of participating in a demonstration where 100,000 others participated and he has not been accused of any violent actions.

He has been sentenced to death for being ‘an enemy of God’ and propaganda against the regime. He was arrested along with at least one other person, Mohammad Ali Aghaii who has been accused of similar charges but Amnesty International has no information whether he has been sentenced to death as well.

According to reports, Jafar Kazemi has been interrogated for months and has been under pressure appear in fake v. confessions but he has refused.

In April 2010 he was informed that his order of execution has been re-confirmed by a court of appeals. His lawyer who has had limited access to his client has asked the Judiciary office to review this case. Unless this request is accepted, then the execution could happen at any moment.

In 1980s and 1990s Jafar Kazemi was arrested for being a member of MKO and for spending time at Ashraf Camp in Iraq. One of his sons is in Iraq.

Others who are in danger of execution for protesting after the election:

Amir Reza Arefi, Mohammad Amin Valian, Motahareh (Simin) Bahrami and her husband Mohsen Daneshpour Moghadam and their son Ahmad Daneshpour, two friends: Hadi Ghaemi and Reyhaneh Ghanbari.

Source: Amnesty International

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, the Coen Bros., Jim Jarmusch, Michael Moore, Ang Lee, Robert De Niro, and Oliver Stone, among other leading film industry figures, have condemned the detention of Jafar Panahi, the acclaimed director of “The White Balloon” and “Offside,” and are urging the Iranian government to release him

New York, NY (April 30, 2010) – Jafar Panahi, an internationally acclaimed Iranian director of such award-winning films as The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold and Offside, was arrested at his home on March 1st and has been held since in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. A number of filmmaking luminaries have come to Mr. Panahi’s defense and “condemn his detention and strongly urge the Iranian government to release Mr. Panahi immediately,” according to a new petition. (Petition text and full list of signatories is available below.)

Islamic Republic officials initially charged Mr. Panahi with “unspecified crimes.” They have since reversed themselves, and the charges now allege that he was making a film against the regime, a very serious accusation in Iran.

Mr. Panahi’s films have been banned from screening in Iran for the past ten years and he has been kept from working for the past four years, but he continues to stay in Iran.

“Mr. Panahi deeply loves his country,” says Jamsheed Akrami, an Iranian-American film scholar and filmmaker, who helped organize the petition. “Even though he knows he could have opportunities to work freely outside of his homeland, he has repeatedly refused to leave. He would never do anything against the national interests of his country and his people.”

Mr. Panahi is one of the most heralded directors in the world. He has won such top prizes as the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Offside (2006), the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Crimson Gold (2003), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Circle (2000), the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for The Mirror

(1997) and the Cannes Camera d’Or for The White Balloon (1995).

For further information please contact:

Susan Norget, susan@norget.com, 212-431-0090 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              212-431-0090      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or 917-833-3056 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              917-833-3056      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

PETITION: Free Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi, the internationally acclaimed Iranian director of such award-winning films as The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold and Offside, was arrested at his home on March 1st in a raid by plain-clothed security forces. He has been held since then in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

A recent letter from Mr. Panahi’s wife expressed her deep concerns about her husband’s heart condition, and about his having been moved to a smaller cell. Mr. Panahi’s films have been banned from screening in Iran for the past ten years and he has effectively been kept from working for the past four years. Last October, his passport was confiscated and he was banned from leaving the country. Upon his arrest, Islamic Republic officials initially charged Mr. Panahi with “unspecified crimes.” They have since reversed themselves, and the charges are now specifically related to his work as a filmmaker.

We (the undersigned) stand in solidarity with a fellow filmmaker, condemn this detention, and strongly urge the Iranian government to release Mr. Panahi immediately.

Iran’s contributions to international cinema have been rightfully heralded, and encouraged those of us outside the country to respect and cherish its people and their stories. Like artists everywhere, Iran’s filmmakers should be celebrated, not censored, repressed, and imprisoned.

Signed:

Paul Thomas Anderson

Joel & Ethan Coen

Francis Ford Coppola

Jonathan Demme

Robert De Niro

Curtis Hanson

Jim Jarmusch

Ang Lee

Richard Linklater

Terrence Malick

Michael Moore

Robert Redford

Martin Scorsese

James Schamus

Paul Schrader

Steven Soderbergh

Steven Spielberg

Oliver Stone

Frederick Wiseman

Petition Organizing Committee: Jamsheed Akrami, Godfrey Cheshire, Jem Cohen, Kent Jones, Anthony Kaufman

Source: Norget.com

“Around 70 journalists are now in the prisons of the Islamic Republic and many others, like me, are free on bail, lacking any security. We are afraid that anything that we write may be used as evidence of “propaganda against the system” or “conspiracy against national security”. My colleagues and I try to write as little as possible.” (Open letter from journalist Zhila Bani Ya’qoub to the Head of Iranian Judiciary)

Iranian journalists and bloggers are increasingly under siege in one of the biggest crackdowns on independent voices and dissent in Iran’s modern history.

Since last year’s disputed presidential election, which brought millions of protesters onto the streets, the authorities have intensified their long-standing suppression of both the traditional Iranian media and the rising number of “citizen journalists” who use new technology to expose human rights violations.

Iran has been described by press freedom organizations as the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa said: “Since the protests, the government’s growing bunker mentality has led to mounting waves of repression aimed at suppressing any criticism of the authorities or independent reporting on the human rights situation in the country.

“Dozens of newspapers and websites have been closed, and scores of journalists and  bloggers have been arrested and are held as prisoners of conscience or have had to flee the country for their own safety.

“Contact with some foreign media has been criminalized and a new ‘Cyber-Crimes Law’ is already having major implications for freedom of expression. The authorities must urgently relax both the long standing and new sweeping restrictions and immediately release those held as prisoners of conscience.”

The Association of Iranian Journalists was closed by the authorities in August 2009 and a number of its officials arrested, including Secretary Badrolsadat Mofidi who by April 2010 had spent four months in detention without charge or trial.

Blogging, once an effective way around Iran’s draconian press censorship, is now a risky business. The once-thriving blogosphere is under fire, with those involved subjected to arbitrary arrest or harassment. Some have had to flee the country for their own safety.

Aida Saadat, a freelance journalist and human rights campaigner, active with the One Million Signature Campaign and the Committee of Human Rights Reporters was repeatedly interrogated; and beaten up while walking home. Fearing for her life, she eventually fled Iran.

She told Amnesty International: “I could not find any human rights or other organization to defend me, as a journalist. They had been silenced. The men who attacked me said ‘this is just a warning. Next time we will kill you for your activities against the people of our country…’ This is what we have been facing. I and so many others had to leave. Our lives were at stake.”

Many of the detainees and those who fled worked for papers or online publications which supported  or could have been perceived as supporting the defeated reformist candidates in the presidential elections, or are freelancers, some of whom who had lost jobs with previously-banned publications while others provided an independent voice, often about the human rights situation. At one point officials arrested the entire staff of Kalameh Sabz, a newspaper established by opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Prisoner of conscience Isa Saharkhiz, a prominent journalist working with reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi, was arrested in July 2009 during the post election unrest; by April 2010 he had yet to be charged with any offence. His son, Mehdi, a US-based blogger, explains: “What happened is at one point they realized that the media is playing a big role at getting the news out and getting the truth out. So what they did was they arrested well known journalists, so other journalists who are working will learn from this… and they will write just what the state wants them to write.”

Other targets included journalists writing on human rights issues, such as the internationally-acclaimed Emadeddin Baghi, founder of the Association for the Defence of Prisoners’ Rights. Some journalists have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after conviction in mass “show trials”.

Detainees have faced human rights violations ranging from torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, solitary confinement for lengthy periods,  to grossly unfair trials. Many have been held incommunicado for weeks or months without charge or trial.

Some of those freed still remain under pressure, having had to give up the deeds to their – or their relatives’  – houses to raise bail. Detainees’ families have been harassed or temporarily detained; some have been warned their loved ones won’t be freed if they speak to the media about their plight.

Criminalizing contacts with foreigners: The ‘Velvet Coup’

With Iran’s media limited in their reporting by government censorship and  fearful of crossing the “red line” over the decades, many Iranians have in the past tuned in to foreign radio stations, or watched international TV networks via illegal, though previously largely tolerated, satellite dishes. Since the first election of President Ahmadinejad in 2005, Iranian security forces have conducted an increasing number of raids to seize such dishes.

The authorities have also reduced the number of foreign correspondents based in Iran; when political unrest erupted in mid-2009, those remaining were barred from covering mass opposition rallies.

International media broadcasting in Persian were singled out and their Iranian contributors targeted. The BBC’s Tehran correspondent was expelled. Maziar Bahari, working for Newsweek, – one of two international journalists arrested at the time – was released only after making a dubious public “confession” following weeks of physical and psychological torture.

Prosecutors in  mass “show trials” accused foreign broadcasters like the BBC and the Voice of America (VOA) of stage-managing the protests and planning a “soft coup”. Some of the accused were charged with working with foreign channels in order to “incite and provoke public opinion”.

In January, both the BBC and VOA were included on a list of “subversive” organizations which Iranians were banned from contacting. Both networks have had their satellite transmissions into Iran blocked but the truth is that now any contribution to any overseas Persian-language broadcaster is regarded as suspicious if not seditious.

From cassettes to Twitter

After decades of repression, Iranians are adept at finding a way around state censorship. In the 1970s, Ayatollah Khomeini, then an exiled opponent of the former Shah, used cassette tapes of his sermons smuggled in from abroad to denounce the Shah’s increasingly autocratic rule. Those cassettes played an important part in the subsequent Islamic Revolution.

In 1999, the closure of Salam newspaper led to mass student-led protests  - and eventually to  violent confrontations between them and the security forces. Over the next few years, the media became a focal point in the power struggle between conservative and reformist factions.

More than a hundred newspapers and periodicals were closed. There was a explosion of internet use as Iranian writers increasingly turned to it as virtually the only remaining forum for free expression. Internet usage in Iran in recent years has grown faster than in any other Middle Eastern country.

But the authorities have been hot on the bloggers’ heels, filtering and blocking access to many sites, ranging from those considered “immoral” or “anti-Islamic” to political websites or blogs critical of the government.

At one stage, an Iranian official claimed that five million sites were being blocked. Facebook and Twitter – used to spread information about last year’s demonstrations – were briefly shut down and other internet sites such as social networking site Badoo have been banned.

Last February, the authorities announced that access to Google’s email service was to be permanently blocked. Some tech savvy Iranians continue to find their way around the system, using filter-busting software, encryption services or “proxy” internet servers outside Iran, although they have been hampered by speed slowdowns, or even brief blockages of internet access.

The latest salvo in the battle came when the Cyber-Crimes Law came into effect in July 2009; human rights groups say it could help the authorities track down government critics. But images of the killing of Neda Agha Soltan during a demonstration in July 2009, captured by mobile phone camera and almost instantly distributed across the world, became the symbol of the futility of attempts by the authorities to conceal the truth and control new media and social networks.

It’s all led to what Mehdi Saharkhiz describes as “a cat and mouse game,” with Iranians trying to circumvent official filters as soon as they are set up. He also points to a huge rise in the number of “citizen journalists” many of whom have managed to send news or videos for posting on his US-based website.

During the 2009 protests, he says the amount of video material coming in was “staggering”. Some contributors, he says, are professional journalists who now prefer to work anonymously in order to keep under the official radar. Others may be friends or neighbours of political prisoners, or just individuals who see something they want to share with others.

“Every person has become a media,” he said. “Even taking pictures of this stuff is extremely dangerous for them. But they want to do this because they want to be heard. You can’t control 70 million people.”

Source: Amnesty International

29 Mar 2010

Maziar Bahari was imprisoned by the Iranian regime for attempting to report on 2009’s disputed election. He describes his ordeal, and suggests what can be done to help journalists jailed by the Islamic Republic

Being a journalist in Iran is one of the most insecure jobs in a country run by one of the most insecure governments in the world. The Islamic Republic has made journalists its prime target. More than a hundred journalists have been arrested since the disputed presidential elections last summer. It’s very difficult to put a precise figure to the number in prison because it’s been a revolving door. They arrest a group of journalists one day and they let others go the next day. The government is trying hard to prove that it is in control and in charge of the lives of each and every citizen.

In the age of the Internet and satellite television the Iranian government is trying hard to change the tide of history. It wants to take Iran back to the era of shortwave radio and terrestrial television, media that it could easily censor and control. A wise government would listen to the voices of its own people. The Iranian government is shooting the messenger.

“You should not break a mirror because it shows your faults. You should change yourself,” goes a Persian saying. By breaking the mirror the Islamic Republic is losing its legitimacy as a religious government and a government chosen by the people. The actions of the government of Iran are far from Islamic principles of fairness and kindness. Since last June, the government has also been ignoring the people’s peaceful demands for reforms within the framework of the regime.

In fact the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei has decided to do away with all democratic pretensions and establish a militarised dictatorship with the help of the Revolutionary Guards. It is an attempt which will ultimately be defeated by the Iranian people. The current Khamenei/Guards project may take a few years or even decades to fail but the Iranian government will finally relent and accept the demands of the Iranian people for democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.

How did we get here?

After the victory of the popular Islamic Revolution in 1979, the new government managed to maintain a certain level of legitimacy. The traditional religious masses supported the government. While the government stifled many voices of dissent it allowed many reformist newspapers, opposition activists, human rights lawyers and journalists to survive and continue criticizing the government with a certain degree of impunity.

The regime did so because the gap between the educated elite and the traditional religious masses was so wide that the government did not feel really threatened by the opposition to its ineffective and authoritarian governance. The opposition had very little influence on the thinking and actions of the people. In fact when the mouthpieces of the government ridiculed the opposition for being elitist, they were telling the truth.

The Digital Age, the Dawn of a New Era

In the pre-internet era, the increasingly educated Iranians did not have a chance to communicate with the outside world or even with each other.

Internet and satellite television brought the knowledge that was in the monopoly of a selected group of western educated elite to a greater number of Iranians. The gap between the elite and the masses was quickly disappearing. And that frightened the government.

Fighting the Future

The protest of millions of people against Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June 2009 was a clear manifestation of this narrowing gap. I was on the streets of Tehran during those days. The demonstrators were not all secular, educated, westernised individuals. They were factory workers, housewives and farmers.

In the absence of any clear vision for the future of the country and looking for a quick fix the government chose to blame the media for stirring people. The government particularly tried to incriminate Western media for trying to create a velvet revolution such those in Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and Georgia in the past. After the June 2009 presidential elections the takeover of the government by the Guards gained a new momentum. They took charge of all the cultural activities in the country as well as the intelligence apparatus. The Guards started doing what they do best: suppression dissent through violence.

My Experience

The Guards arrested me nine days after the election. My interrogator told me, “There is no difference between culture, journalism and intelligence.” He said, “You gather and report information. That is exactly what a spy does.”

For 118 days in 2009 I witnessed an ignorant confused regime trying to fight its own people through sheer paranoia. During those 118 days I heard (because I was mostly blindfolded) so many ridiculous ideas and outlandish interpretations of what is going on in the world by my interrogators that at the end nothing surprised me.

For some reason or another, my interrogator had a fascination with New Jersey. I’m not sure why, I never managed to ask him why, but to him, New Jersey sounded like paradise on earth. He maybe was a big fan of the Sopranos or Jersey Shore, I don’t know, but he thought that whatever happens to people in paradise, including eating the forbidden fruit, copulating with as many men and women as you want, orgies and drinking alcohol was happening in New Jersey. He was upset that I had been in New Jersey, and he had never been. So I was not only a spy, I was a spy that had been to New Jersey.

Of course the memory of those days is funny in hindsight. When you are in a dark interrogation room and you’re blindfolded and you’re subjected to beatings and tortures, as I was and as many of my colleagues in Iran are, your interrogator’s ignorance is far from being funny.

What I saw was tantamount to a scene in Martin Scorsese’s Casino, when a man’s head is squeezed to the point of explosion in a vise. The narrowing gap between the masses and the elite is that vise. The regime reacts as thuggish and violently as those mobsters in Scorsese’s Casino.

What the West can do?

I can say these words on this platform because of the support I received from the international community. I was lucky enough to be working for Newsweek. My colleagues went beyond their call of duty and rallied all their contacts in the international media, and among the diplomatic community, to call for my release.

I was also lucky and blessed by the support of organisations like Index on Censorship, Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontieres who are advocating the situations of the imprisoned journalists or journalists under duress by other countries.

The fact that I was finally freed (albeit on bail) shows that the Iranian government is not as indifferent to negative publicity as it pretends to be. Iran is not North Korea. Iran needs the help of international community to survive. The Iranian government right now is using international satellite technology to send its message of hate. It is using the same broadcasting laws and regulations as the West to have the offices of its foreign broadcasters in different countries. The world community should prevent the Iranian government from benefiting from what it denies its own people. I was really happy about the European community’s decision this week to penalise Iran for jamming satellite transmissions. I hope they follow these new measures with more urgency and vigour than in the past.

Supporting the free flow of information to and from Iran is investing in Iran’s future. It narrows the gap between Iranians and the rest of the world. It is the quickest shortcut to democracy for Iranians.

In the meantime Khamenei and the guards, as well as their stooge Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will try their best to suffocate the voices of dissent through brute force. Many lives will perish and be lost in the process. There will be periods of silence and days of turbulence. But in the end, as Prophet Mohammad said, “An infidel can rule a nation for a long time. But an oppressor will never succeed in doing so.”

This is a keynote speech given by Maziar Bahari at the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards on 25 March. To support the campaign for the release of Iranian journalists from prison go to /www.oursocietywillbeafreesociety.org

The Free Jamal! campaign announces 31 March 2010 a Global Day of Action against Japanese anti-refugee policies to coincide with the end of UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante’s mission to observe the human rights situation of migrants in the country and his scheduled press conference on that day in Tokyo.

Free Jamal! calls on all members and supporters of the campaign to hold demonstrations in front of Japanese embassies and consulates on 31 March to express their strongest objection at the Japanese government’s treatment of refugees.

Free Jamal! supports the struggle and the demands of thousands who are detained in the prisons of the Japanese Immigration Authorities and are highlighting the treatment of Jamal Saberi – a well-known women, worker and human rights’ activist for the people of Iran – by the Japanese Ministry of justice as a clear example of the unjust behaviour by the Japanese government towards refugees.

Free Jamal! demands the immediate release of Jamal Saberi, the repeal of his deportation order and that Japan must grant him refugee status.

Special representative of the Free Jamal! campaign, Farshad Hosseini, will be present in Tokyo next week to support the Global Day of Action locally.

The Japanese government and its Ministry of Justice should be aware that the whole world is watching their misbehaviour towards refugees and migrants, including Jamal Saberi who has been at the frontline of defending refugee rights in Japan for 18 years.

On 31 March Japanese officials will recognise that intending to deport Jamal Saberi as well as any underhand dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran will be exposed and will cost Japan dearly as a consequence. The Free Jamal! campaign with all its members and supporters are determined to free Jamal Saberi and to realise all demands.

Hambastegi – International Federation of Iranian Refugees

Contact
Free Jamal! campaign: Patty Debonitas
Tel: +44 750 797 8745
Email: freejamalcampaign@gmail.com

Special representative in Japan: Farshad Hosseini
Tel: + 31 681285184
Email: farshadhoseini@yahoo.com

freejamal.blogspot.com

Jamal Saberi (full name, Jalal Ahmadzade-Nouei) is a political activist opposed to the current Islamic regime in Iran.  After refugee status was rejected for Saberi by the Japanese government, he was arrested, and now he faces deportation to Iran; a move that will no doubt lead to Saberi’s arrest by the Iranian regime.  In detention, Saberi will face torture and possibly death.

Jamal Saberi left Iran for Japan in 1990. In 1992 he joined the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI) and began his political activities in Japan against the violation of human rights in Iran. As a member of WPI, an Iranian opposition party, Jamal wrote many articles against the Islamic Republic of Iran.  He also wrote articles that exposed Japan’s diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime. Several of his writings have appeared in the Japanese press as well as Iranian publications such as Hambastegi (organ of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees – IFIR) and Javanan-e Komonist (organ of Communist Youth Organization).

He applied for refugee status in Japan on May 28, 2002. His application was turned down by the Immigration Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Justice on March 28, 2002. He appealed this decision in April of the same year. The appeal was rejected and the Japanese police issued an order for his arrest and deportation.

Jamal was arrested in late October 2003 and transported to the Immigration Bureau’s detention center, where he was kept for one year.  At the time of his arrest, Jamal had already become a popular human rights activist among the Left organizations, human rights organizations, and the trade unions. Consequently, his detention was protested by several organizations that eventually succeeded to stop the deportation order.

Albeit, the Japanese government did not grant Jamal refugee status, and the UNHCR did not make any efforts to assist Jamal Saberi.

Jamal Saberi’s lawyer has stated recently that his client is in danger of deportation to Iran.

Human rights activists around the world are working hard to ensure that Jamal Saberi does not get deported to Iran.  The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) has urged all organizations  to take immediate action to save Jamal Saberi from deportation to Iran.  The IFIR demands from the Japanese government to release Jamal from jail, revoke his deportation order, and take appropriate measures to protect his life in Japan.

Send off your appeal via the following form and/or phone/fax your appeals at:

Japan ministry of justice

1-1-1, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo 100-8977 the Red Brick Building (The Ministry of Justice)

Tel: 00813 3592-7911 or 0081-3-3580-4111

UNHCR IN Japan – Tokyo

4-14 Akasaka 8-chome, Minato-ku,

Tokyo 107,

Tel: 0081- 3-3499-2310

Fax: 0081-3-3499-2273

New York, March 1, 2010—In response to the brutal crackdown against journalists, writers, and bloggers in Iran, a coalition of leading press freedom and free expression groups have launched a petition drive calling for the release of those imprisoned. More such professionals are now in prison in Iran than in any other country in the world—at least 60, 47 of them journalists.

“I know my jailers in Iran were aware of the depth of international concern,” said Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari, who was jailed for 118 days in Iran. “We need to raise a similar outcry on behalf of the more than 60 journalists, writers, and bloggers jailed there today. Adding your name to this petition will help us deliver the message that people around the world are watching.”

The “Our Society Will Be a Free Society” campaign—a reference to a pledge made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on the eve of the 1979 Revolution—is gathering signatures for an online petition to be sent to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 20, the Iranian New Year.

To sign the petition, visit the campaign Web site www.oursocietywillbeafreesociety.org or access our page on Facebook.

“The Iranian government is counting on the world to forget about the journalists and writers who have been imprisoned under cruel conditions,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We can’t allow that to happen.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN, Reporters Sans Frontières, Index on Censorship, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, the International Federation of Journalists, Article 19, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, and the International Publishers Association have joined forces for “a sense of shared, urgent concern for the welfare of journalists, writers, and bloggers and a profound alarm over the situation for free expression in Iran.”

For more information about the campaign and to find links to upcoming events and relevant articles please visit www.oursocietywillbeafreesociety.org.

Source: CPJ

Iran:  Amnesty International supports calls for gender equality as activists arrested and discrimination is entrenched

Amnesty International has signed up to support a call for freedom and gender equality made by Iranian women’s rights activists ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2010 (http://www.irangenderequality.com/).  The activists leading this initiative are asking organizations and individuals outside Iran to echo their call and to act as a voice when their own are silenced through repression.

Discrimination against women in law and practice

Although in February 2010 Iran ostensibly agreed to guarantee equality for women in law during the review of Iran’s record by the UN Human Rights Council in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review, Amnesty International deplores the fact that the Iranian authorities are further entrenching discrimination against women and girls in law and practice. Not only are the authorities failing to amend existing discriminatory legislation, but they have implemented regulations and are considering introducing legislation which would worsen women’s unequal treatment under the law.

For example, since September 2009, female students have been required to study at universities in their home towns or cities, thereby restricting their free access to higher education.  No such requirement exists for male students.

In addition, the Majles, Iran’s parliament, has continued its discussion of a controversial piece of legislation, known as the Family Protection Bill, which has been dubbed the Anti-Family Bill by women’s right campaigners.

Following intensive lobbying by activists, in 2008, the Majles Law and Legal Affairs Committee dropped two clauses of particular concern to women: a clause which would allow men to take a second wife without the permission of his first wife and another which would impose a tax on the mehriyeh – a sum contracted to a woman on her marriage, which is only usually payable in the event of her divorce.  However, in January 2010, the spokesperson of the Law and Legal Affairs Committee announced that the Committee had reinstated these clauses with some modifications, which women’s rights activists believe will, if passed into law, constitute a retrograde step for women’s rights in Iran.

Amnesty International is adding its voice to the more than 2200 women’s rights activists and equal rights defenders who have to date signed a statement objecting to the proposed legislation. See for example http://familylaw.irangenderequality.com/spip.php?article150  The organization is calling for the Bill not to be adopted in its present form.  Instead, the Iranian authorities must uphold their commitments made in Geneva in February 2010 to adopt measures to guarantee women’s equality under the law and to ensure the equal treatment of women and girls in law and practice by immediately reviewing this Bill to ensure that its adoption and implementation will not lead to any form of gender discrimination.

Against this backdrop of entrenched discrimination against women and girls in Iran, women have also suffered state repression during the post-presidential election violence. According to IranGenderEquality.com, at least 138 women, – among them students, civil society campaigners, political activists and journalists –have been arrested since June 2009. While some have been released on bail, others have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms or are still held months after their arrest without charge or trial.  Some – such as members of the “Mourning Mothers” – a group of women whose children were killed during the post election repression and their supporters, have been arrested for peacefully protesting about human rights violations and demanding accountability. Others appear to be held solely on account of their family relations.

Recent arrests of women documented by Amnesty International include:

Mahboubeh Karami – a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign (also known as the Campaign for Equality) who was arrested on 2 March 2010 at her home on the basis of a general arrest warrant dated May 2009.  This is the fifth time she has been arrested in connection with her activism.

Shiva Nazar Ahari, a member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters was arrested for the second time since the June 2009 election on 20 December 2009, and remains held in Evin Prison without charge or trial. At least six other members of the Committee are also currently detained.

Behareh Hedayat, a member of the Central Committee of the the Office for the Consolidation of Unity (a national student body which has been active in calling for political reform and opposing human rights violations) was arrested on 31 December 2009, and is also held in Evin Prison without charge or trial.  Shortly before her arrest, in early December 2009, her recorded video speech for a conference in the Netherlands entitled “International solidarity with Iranian students’ movement On the occasion of Iran’s National Student’s Day” A video of her address may be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l26k19Ps5oo&feature=related was widely circulated on the internet.

Zahra Jabbari, was arrested on 18 September 2009, when mass anti-government protests were held.  She is detained in Evin Prison, apparently on account of her having relatives based with the Peoples Mohahedin Organization, a banned opposition group. Her trial has not yet been concluded.

Seven supporters of the Mourning Mothers – Leila Seyfi Elahi, Zhila Karamzadeh Makvandi, Fatemeh Rastegari, Mrs Ebrahim, Elham Ahsani, Farzaneh Zaynali and Manijeh Taheri – who were arrested on 7 and 8 February 2010 are reportedly detained in Section 209 of Evin Prison without charge or trial.

Mahsa Jazini – a journalist based in Esfahan and member of the Campaign for Equality was arrested on 7 February 2010 and released from Dastgerd prison in Esfahan on 1 March. According to reports, she was told at the time of her arrest that the reason for her detention was that she was a feminist.

Maryam Zia, a children’s rights activist who is the director of the Association for the Endeavour for a World Deserving of Children was arrested on 31 December at her home and is believed to be held in Evin Prison.

Amnesty International believes that all these women are prisoners of conscience, held solely for their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association, or on account of their family links and calls for their immediate and unconditional release