Iran negates it’s voice in Human Rights by committing same atrocities as it’s neighbors

URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY
Arbitrary arrest and ongoing detention / Disappearance / Judicial harassment
Iran – August 19, 2011

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 reliable sources of the enforced disappearance of Mr. Kouhyar Goudarzi, member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), the summons against Mr. Ali Kalaei, a former member of the CHRR, the arbitrary arrest and ongoing arbitrary detention of Messrs. Ahmad Ghabel, a religious scholar and activist fighting against death penalty and reporting on extra-judicial executions in Iran, Saeed Jalalifar, member of the CHRR and a former member of the Association for Defence of Street and Working Children, and Kayvan Samimi Behbahani, a 67 year-old human rights defender and journalist, and of the ongoing judicial harassment against, Ms. Shiva Nazarahari, member of the CHRR and of the “One Million Signatures” campaign.

According to the information received, around July 30, 2011, Mr. Kouhyar Goudarzi was arrested in Tehran. As of issuing this urgent appeal, his whereabouts remain unknown. In the morning of July 31, 2011, his mother Ms. Parvin Mokhtar’e was arbitrarily arrested at her home in Kerman, by four plainclothes agents, without a warrant. She is currently detained at the Central Prison of Kerman. While in detention, she has been informed that she was accused of “insulting the Supreme leader”, “propaganda against the regime”, and “acting against national security”, whereas she has no political or human rights-related activities. The Observatory believes that her arrest and detention are related to the human rights activities of her son.

The Observatory recalls that Mr. Kouhyar Goudarzi was previously arrested in December 2009 [1] and subsequently sentenced to one year in prison [2] , on charges among others, of “propaganda activity against the regime through effective collaboration with the Committee of Human Rights Reporters website”, “collection and publishing of biased news against the regime and transfer of this information to terrorist organisations based abroad” as well as “interview with foreign media and publishing articles in websites,” pursuant to Iranian Criminal Code. He served the sentence and was released on 14 December 2010.

On July 25, 2011, Mr. Ali Kalaei received a summon order which gave him three days to appear before the Executive Branch of Evin Prison, to serve his seven-year imprisonment sentence. He was sentenced in December 2010 on charges of “propaganda against the system”, “publishing false reports about prisoners”, “giving interviews”, “assembly and collusion with intent to commit crimes through membership of the CHRR”. Mr. Kalaei was previously detained on three occasions, in December 2007, February 2010, and May 2010. [3] No information could be obtained since then as to his situation. …more