THE EYERANIANS

1. Question on former Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi

Question: Former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has been indicted by a special Judges Court within the Iranian Judiciary for his involvement in the arrest orders of protesters that were taken to Kahrizak Detention Center. The detainees were brutally tortured and four of them were killed. Why did you give him a high position in your administration as Head of the Anti-Smuggling Task Force?

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Background

Saeed Mortazavi served as Tehran’s Prosecutor at the time of the June 2009 presidential elections. He issued a general arrest warrant four days before the elections, later used by security and intelligence agents to arrest hundreds of well-known journalists, students, and political activists deemed “suspicious.” Nicknamed the “Torturer of Tehran,” Mortazavi ordered the transfer of post-election detainees to Kahrizak Detention Center alongside high risk criminals, in substandard conditions, and subject to torture and abuse, resulting in the deaths of at least four persons, including Mohsen Rouholamini, Amir Javadifar, Mohammad Kamrani, and Ramin Aghazadeh following violent treatment. In total, 147 detainees were sent to Kahrizak. After the official announcement of Mortazavi by the Parliamentary fact-finding committee as “the Kahrizak Suspect,” he was removed from his position as Tehran’s Prosecutor on 30 August 2009, and was appointed as the country’s Deputy General Prosecutor. On Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s request, he was appointed as Head of the Anti-Smuggling Task Force.

Mortazavi was the main official responsible for the murder of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody nineteen days after her arrest on 23 June 2003 as a result of “a hard item hitting her head.” Even after a Presidential report at the time implicated him as most responsible, Mortazavi never admitted his involvement and avoided prosecution.

Another journalist and blogger, Omid Reza Mirsayafi, was arrested and imprisoned on the orders of Mortazavi in January 2008, only to die in custody on 18 March 2009, under suspicious circumstances. In 2004, in the “Case of the Bloggers”, Mortazavi’s ordered the arrest, torture, and extraction of false confessions from Omid Memarian, Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Javad Gholam Tayamomi, and Shahram Rafizadeh were verified
by all four detainees. Mortazavi threatened to kill the prisoners by orchestrating car accidents if they mentioned the torture they endured in prison when released.

In his position as Head of Branch 1410 and Press Court in 2000, through actions later referred to as “wholesale banning of the press,” he ordered closures of hundreds of publications, sending dozens of journalists to prison. Most imprisoned journalists were kept in solitary confinement and tried in closed door courts. Two United Nations Special Rapporteurs, Amibi Ligabo and Loui Juane, who investigated the arbitrary arrests and restrictions on freedom of the media in Iran, provided testimony in a report from 2005. The Rapporteurs called for the dismissal of Mortazavi from all judicial responsibilities.

2. Question on the murderer of former Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar

Question: A few months ago, a man who was in prison for 17 years in France for the murder of Iran’s pre-revolution Prime Minister, Shapur Bakhtiar, was sent back to Iran and received a hero’s welcome. How could a man who stabbed and murdered an exiled politician be received as a hero? Was it a gesture of support for those who eliminate the State’s opposition?

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Background:

Shapur Bakhtiar was Iran’s last Prime Minister under the Shah. He was murdered on 6 August 1991 in Paris, along with his assistant, Soroush Katibeh, at his residence outside Paris by agents of the Iranian government. One of his murderers, Ali Vakili Rad, was arrested, tried, and sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. The Iranian regime denied any involvement in the assassinations. However, the investigation led by the French investigative judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, documented the Iranian authorities’ involvement.

France released and returned Vakili Rad to Iran on 18 May 2010.He received a hero’s welcome upon his arrival in Tehran. Iran’s state media posted pictures and footage of Vakili Rad upon his arrival in Tehran, where he was received with flowers from Parliament Member, Kazem Jalili, and Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Hassan Ghashgavi.

3. Question on the jailing of critics of the President

Question: In your previous interviews you have always said that Iran is a free country. At the time I’m speaking to you, there are at least five people inside Iranian prisons on the charge of “insulting the President,” in other words, criticizing you. Why should your critics stay in prison?

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Background:

• Student activist Bahareh Hedayat was sentenced to five years in prison for “assembly and collusion against the regime,” to two years in prison for “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and to six months in prison for “insulting the President.”
• Three student activists, Majid Tavakoli, Ehsan Mansouri, and Ahmad Ghassaban were tried in a closed session trial for “publishing and distributing student publications in which sanctities and the President have been insulted.”
• Former Parliament Member Ali Tajernia was sentenced to five years in prison for “assembly and collusion with the intent to disrupt public security,” and to one year in prison for “propagating activities against the regime,” and to 74 lashes for “insulting the country’s authorities (the President and his cabinet).”
• Journalist and member of Tahkim-e Vahdat Alumni Association, Ali Malihi was sentenced to four years in prison for “acting against national security,” and payment of a cash fine for “insulting the president.”
• Imprisoned political activist Heshmatollah Tabarzadi faces four charges: “propaganda against the state,” “gathering and colluding against national security,” “insulting the Supreme Leader and President,” and “insulting Islam.”

4. Question on the three jailed American hikers

Questions regarding jailed American hikers:

4a. Three Americans, who were arrested on 31 July 2009 in Iran, are still in detention after more than one year. Iranian authorities claim they are spies. Why don’t you take them to court and put them on trial? If you have any evidence that they are not just hikers, why you don’t you hold a free trial and show your evidence to the world?

4b. Why don’t they have access to their lawyer and why can’t they access their families? You might know that Sara Shourd has a dangerous health problem requiring treatment she has been denied. Do you approve of these irregularities? And if not, why haven’t you used your authority as President to send notice to the Iranian Judiciary and to ask them to comply with the law?

4c. A year after their arrest, why doesn’t the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence transfer the case to the Iranian Judiciary? The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence is in charge of the investigation and is under your control. Why haven’t you asked them to accelerate the investigation process and to send the case to court, or the Judiciary?

4d. What if something happens to any of the three Americans, like many Iranians who have lost their lives inside Iranian prisons, including the blogger Omid Reza Mirsayafi, who died in 2006 at Evin prison due to lack of medical attention? Would you take responsibility or would you say it was out of your hands?

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Background:

The Three American hikers:

Nora Shourd, mother of American hiker Sarah Shourd, announced to the media recently that in a surprise telephone call her daughter said her health has deteriorated and that she needs immediate medical attention, which is being denied to her. Families of the American prisoners in Iran are trying to pursue the issue with the United Nations.

Nora Shourd told a local television station that her daughter is still kept in solitary confinement. “This is extremely inhumane,” she said. Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal, and Shane Bauer have been in prison for more than a year for illegally crossing the border into Iran, something the three hikers say was accidental.

Though their families have hired an attorney for them since last November, the three UC Berkeley graduates have not yet been able to meet with him. During the past year, security organizations have evaded sending the case to the Iranian Judiciary, claiming that the case file is still incomplete. There has been growing concern about the health and conditions of prisoners inside Evin prison during recent weeks. Refuting charges such as espionage in his clients’ case, the three Americans’ lawyer, Massoud Shafie, said, “I have spoken with the case judge and the charge in the case is specifically “illegal border crossing.” We do not have any new laws for illegal border crossing and therefore, the old process will have to be observed in which a cash penalty is stipulated.” Shafie also said that it is very rare that an individual receives imprisonment as punishment for illegal entry. He added, “Only if the issue [of illegal border crossing] is related to another charge, may they receive imprisonment as punishment, and usually, such issues are dealt with through cash penalties. But the main point here is that the charge of espionage is being used inappropriately in this case. Illegal crossing is punished by cash penalties.”

Iranian authorities have so far shown no reaction to questions about Sarah Shourd’s health. The three hikers have only been able to make a few telephone calls over the past year. In addition to feeling depressed due to her solitary confinement, Sarah Shourd has reported a lump in her breast recently.

5. Question on media censorship / shutdown of critical newspapers

Question: You claim Iran is a free country and at the same time the Ministry of Culture has shut down major newspapers that have been critical of your policies, including Etemad Melli, Etemad, Hayat-e No, and Kargozaran. Is the country free only for your supporters?

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Background:

During the administration of Ahmadinejad, the Iranian press has experienced an even worse time with censorship than before. Not only have many newspapers, publications, and websites been banned, but many of their principals have been prosecuted based on charges brought against them by Ahmadinejad’s cabinet members. Mohammad Ali Ramin, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Culture for Press is one of the most extremist thinkers in his cabinet, said to be the influencing force behind Ahmadinejad’s ideas on the Holocaust. In addition, immediately after last year’s post-election protests, hundreds of journalists and bloggers were rounded up, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for fake confessions, and tried for espionage and actions against national security. Dozens of Iranian journalists are in prison or have had to flee the country to seek refuge outside Iran. Intelligence and security agents and representatives from the Ministry of Culture now routinely dictate the content and topics the press is allowed to cover and report. The list of banned newspapers is long, but a few notable papers include: Etemad Melli, Hayat-e No, Etemad, Kargozaran, Tehran Emruz, Roozegar, Arya, Shargh, Hammihan, Shahrvand-e Emruz, Zanan Magazine, Madreseh, and Irandokht.

6. Question on media censorship / jailed journalists

Question: You’ve said that Iran is a free country with free elections. Why does Iran have the highest number of journalists in prison? Have you heard the names of journalists like Bahman Ahmadi Amouee? Kayvan Samimi? Ahmad Zeid-Abadi? Hengameh Shahidi? Issa Saharkhiz? They have been sentenced to long prison sentences and bans on their journalistic activities for what they have written. How can you then claim that Iran is a free country?

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Background:

Bahman Ahmadi Amouee and Jila Baniyaghoub, journalists and bloggers, imprisoned June 19, 2009

Amouee, a contributor to reformist newspapers and the author of a blog, was arrested with his journalist wife, Zhila Bani-Yaghoub. Bani-Yaghoub, editor-in-chief of the Iranian Women’s Club, a news website focusing on women’s rights, has been sentenced to one year in prison and a 30-year ban from journalism work. Amouee is serving a five year prison term.

Kayvan Samimi, journalist, imprisoned June 14, 2009

Samimi, manager of the now-defunct monthly Nameh, is serving a six year prison term at Tehran’s Evin prison.

Ahmad Zeid-Abadi, freelance journalist, imprisoned June 2009

Zeid-Abadi, who wrote a weekly column for Rooz Online, a Farsi and English language reformist news website, was arrested in Tehran in June 2009. Zeid-Abadi was also the director of the Organization of University Alumni of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a supporter of defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi. Zeid-Abadi spent most of the first year of his detention in solitary confinement under inhumane conditions. He was transferred to the notorious Rajaee Shahr Prison in February 2010 where he is serving his six year prison term next to smugglers and hardened criminals. In addition to a prison term, Zeid-Abadi has been sentenced to five years’ exile to the town of Gonabad, and a lifetime ban on political, social, and journalistic activities, interviews or analysis, whether in verbal or written form.

Issa Saharkhiz, freelance journalist, imprisoned July 3, 2009

Saharkhiz, a columnist for the reformist news websites Rooz Online and Norooz, and a founding member of the Association of Iranian Journalists, was arrested in July 2009 while traveling in northern Iran. Saharkhiz has had a long career in journalism. He worked for 15 years for IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, and ran its New York office for part of that time. He returned to Iran in 1997 to work in Mohammad Khatami’s Ministry of Islamic Guidance, in charge of domestic publications. Saharkhiz and a superior, Ahmad Bouraghani, came to be known as the architects of a period of relative freedom for the press in Iran. After Saharkhiz was forced to leave the ministry and was banned from government service in a trial. He founded a reformist newspaper, Akhbar-e Eghtesad, and monthly magazine, Aftab, both of which were eventually banned.
Saharkhiz wrote articles directly critical of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Saharkhiz has publicly complained about his inhumane conditions inside prison where he has not received medical treatment for broken ribs he sustained during his arrest, leading to physical disabilities. Saharkhiz was sentenced to 15 months in prison and a lifetime ban on journalistic activities on 30 July 2010. He is currently at Rajaee
Shahr Prison where hardened criminals are kept. Saharkhiz went on a two-week hunger strike recently to protest his inhumane prison conditions.

Hengameh Shahidi, blogger and journalist, imprisoned June 2009

Hengameh Shahidi , an adviser to defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, a blogger and contributor to reformist newspapers such as Etemad e Melli, was arrested on 30 June 2009. The Committee of Human Rights Reporters, a local watchdog group, reported that Shahidi spent 50 days in solitary confinement and underwent “extreme mental anguish during her interrogation.”

After a brief release on bail, Shahidi was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, a sentence an appeals court quickly upheld in May 2010. She is currently at Evin prison in Tehran.

7. Question on persecution and prosecution of human rights defenders

Question: Why are human rights defenders such as Shiva Nazarahari and Nasrin Sotoudeh detained and prosecuted? They are usually charged with “acting against national security”. How can defending human rights in Iran endanger the country’s national security?

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Shiva Nazar Ahari is a human rights activist and editor of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters website. She was arrested on 14 June 2009 in her office. After spending 102 days in detention, she was released on 23 September 2009 on $200,000 bail. She spent 33 days of her detention in solitary confinement. She was arrested for the second time on 20 December 2009, and has remained in prison without furlough on charges of “propagation against the regime through cooperation with CHRR’s website,” and “actions against national security through participation in gatherings on 4 November 2009 and 7 December 2009.” Recently, Nazar Ahari, her family and her lawyer discovered that she was also charged with moharebeh, enmity with God. Nazar Ahari has denied participation in the mentioned gatherings and stated she was working during both events.

The second session of her trial is said to be scheduled for 4 September 2010. Shiva Nazar Ahari’s lawyer has expressed concern about his client’s upcoming trial considering the heavy charge of moharebeh in her case, a charge which could bring Nazar Ahari the death sentence.

Since last year’s elections, several other members of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) have also been arrested and released later on bail.

Last October, under pressure from security forces, Kouhyar Goudarzi, an aerospace student at Sharif Industrial University, was expelled.

The journalist and human rights activist was formerly a member of the Sharif University Islamic Students Association, an editor for the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, a producer for Radio Zamaneh, a member of The Human Rights Committee of Advar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat Alumni Association (Office to Foster Unity), and a member of the Allameh Faction of the Association. Goudarzi, who is faced with heavy charges
of “moharebeh, enmity with God,” and “actions against national security through relations with foreign organizations,” has not been allowed any furlough, and has gone on hunger strikes to protest prison conditions twice. Goudarzi’s charges could bring him the death sentence.

Rassoul Badaghi, a former member of the Human Rights Activists in Iran organization and member of the Iranian Teachers’ Association, is currently at Ward 6 of Rajaee Shahr Prison. Badaghi has been sentenced to six years in prison and a five years’ ban on partisan activities. Badaghi is also a member of the Unity Council for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran.

His lawyer, Massoud Shafie told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that his client was sentenced at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Courts with Judge Salavati presiding. “My client has been sentenced to five years in prison for ‘attending gatherings with the intent to disrupt national security,’ and one year for ‘propagating against the regime,’ and a five-year ban on participating in political parties and groups,” said Rassoul Badaghi’s lawyer, Massoud Shafie.

8. Question on allegations of forced confessions

Question: How do you respond to allegations by former prisoners that the Iranian Intelligence Ministry forced them to make false confessions which were broadcast on Iran’s national TV? What have you done to stop this?

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Background:

Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist, spent three months in prison after the Iranian election in 2009. Bahari, who made confessions under duress, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that his taped confession was a fabricated show, coordinated by Iranian state television and certain press outlets close to the Iranian government.

“Three teams of reporters came into the prison, Press TV, IRIB’s Persian service, and Fars News Agency…the interrogator said, ‘We will give some of the footage from your confession to be broadcast on the 8:30 program.’ During the confessions, the IRIB team members talked to the interrogators…they were completely coordinated. For example, the interrogator would hand them a piece of paper and would say: make sure
you ask this question, too,’” said Bahari.

Bahari told the Campaign that when he told his interrogator that he would not be able to remember all the questions and answers he was supposed to repeat before the camera, his interrogator said, “’In order to make it easier [for you], we will convert the text of your confessions into questions and answers. Therefore, the reporters would ask these questions and you would answer them.’ Therefore each of the three reporters had a set of questions and I gave the answers I was supposed to give. One was a reporter from the IRIB Persian service, one was a reporter from the English language Press TV, and the other was a reporter from Fars News Agency. All three of them and I were reading from a script. The IRIB reporters read the interrogator’s questions. When I made a mistake, just like an interrogator, the reporter would say ‘It’s better if you say it
this way.’”

9. Question on trials behind closed doors

Question: Do you agree with holding trials behind closed doors? If your Intelligence Ministry is confident that its claims against political prisoners are valid, why do they force them to appear on camera while they are in detention and talk against themselves? As you know, almost all of those who have confessed to their alleged wrongdoings while in prison, have later said those confessions were made under pressure. Why don’t you stop your Intelligence Ministry from committing such gross violations of human rights?

- And if you don’t agree what have you done to stop this?

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Background:

The Iranian state-controlled radio and television, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), has acted as an arm of intelligence and security agencies implicated in gross human rights violations since the disputed presidential election of June 2009.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran’s research and investigations into the content of programs produced and broadcast by the IRIB reveal a close working relationship between intelligence and judiciary officials in charge of prosecuting post-election detainees, such as in the case of Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek journalist who was detained last year. (See background information on Question 8.)

The Campaign’s research indicates that IRIB producers worked hand in hand with interrogators, intelligence officials, and judiciary officials to obtain and film false confessions. Through heavily edited segments, scenarios were propagated, promoted by the Intelligence Ministry, to conceal human rights violations and make unfounded allegations against dissidents.

A former IRGC commander and the chief editor of a reformist website, Hamzeh Karami has recently published an open letter to the Iranian Prosecutor General, in which he talks about torture during his interrogation sessions in the more than a year he spent at Evin Prison after the June 2009 elections.

Karami was detained following the June 2009 Iranian presidential election and was tortured into making a false confession of illicit sexual relations with relatives of opposition Green movement leaders. “They put my head in a dirty toilet 20 times to make me give a false confession. When I screamed ‘Ya Allah’ they said, ‘We are your God today and will do to you whatever we want.’” In the forced confession he gave at the Tehran mass trial last August, Karami implicated Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Hashemi Rafsanjani, claiming that Hashemi had been involved in fraud and manipulation of the Presidential election.

10. Question on stoning

Question: Do you agree with stoning? What is your personal opinion about stoning?

- And if you don’t agree what have you done to stop this?

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Background:

The Islamic Penal Code (IPC) requires the punishment of stoning for married persons accused of adultery. The following are some observations on the law:

• According to Iranian law, adultery shall be punishable by stoning if it is committed by a married man or woman who has access to their wife or husband for sexual intercourse. If adultery is proven by his/her confession, then at the time of stoning the first stone will be thrown by the Sharia judge and then by others. If the adultery is proven by the testimony of witnesses (only male witnesses’ testimony is admissible), then the first stone will be thrown by the witnesses, followed by the Sharia judge, and then others (Articles 83 and 99 of IPC).
• During this punishment, it is deemed appropriate for the Sharia Judge to inform people about the stoning time and date. It is necessary for a group of believers, no fewer than three, to be present during the stoning (Article 101 of IPC). The stoning of an adulterer or adulteress shall be carried out while each is placed in a hole and covered with soil, he up to his waist and she up to a line above her breasts (Article 102 of IPC). The size of the stone used in stoning shall not be too large to kill the convict by one or two throws and at the same time shall not be too small not to be considered a stone (Article 104 of IPC). From 2006-2008 we know of six cases of stoning being implemented. Currently we have a list of ten prisoners sentenced to stoning and being held in Iranian prisons: three men and seven women.

The six cases of stoning carried out between 2006-2008 all took place in secret. The authorities not only hide the implementation of sentences from the general public, they also avoid any public admission that such sentences are issued and implemented. For example, during the television program aired recently on Iranian TV, in which Sakineh Mohammadi was brought on to make “confessions,” the entire program did not mention the word “stoning” even once and did not admit the international outcry is over the practice of stoning.

11. Question on freedom of speech in Iran

Question: This is what Ali Motahari, the conservative Member of Parliament, says about the situation of freedom of
speech in Iran:’

“Right now, if you criticize high-ranking officials of the government, it won’t get published. Whichever newspaper wants to publish this criticism will be banned or if a website wishes to publish this kind of talk, it will get into trouble. For the past several months, none of the interviews I have done have been published in full.”

“Wherever there is the probability that the President or his cabinet might feel insulted, the content is taken out. We ask ‘Why did you take it out?’ They say, ‘If we print it, they’ll ban our newspaper.’ Is this how you wish us to prevent over evil? Unfortunately, the atmosphere is closed. There is an atmosphere of suffocation. Up until a year ago, things could be said more freely, but now the circumstances have changed.”

Why can’t you tolerate your critics?

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Background:

Dozens of newspapers and websites have been banned since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came into office. Hundreds of Iranian journalists and bloggers have been arrested during the same time, most of them after Ahmadinejad’s second election victory. Hundreds of university students who protested the election results were arrested, many of them imprisoned with long prison terms, exiles, and deprivation from education. Dozens of university professors and lecturers have been forced into early retirement or dismissed because of their independence of thought. Ahmadinejad’s Ministry of Intelligence, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology, and Ministry of Education have been instrumental in silencing those critical of the government and persecuting, interrogating, torturing, dismissing, and banning intellectuals, artists, journalists, activists, university students, faculty members, and union activists.

12. Question on violations of the right to education

Question: Over the past 4 years dozens of students have been denied pursuing higher education because of their political activities at universities. Some of them who have tried to object to the decision made by your Ministry of Science and Technology have been sent to prison. Is this not a form of educational apartheid, and are you prepared to end this practice?

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Background:

The right to education is an internationally recognized right and is explicitly enshrined in Iran’s constitution. However, since 1980, when the Supreme Council for the Cultural Revolution was formed, it has been extensively violated.

Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, these violations have considerably increased with a coordinated assault by the Ministry of Science, Intelligence Ministry, and the Judiciary, aimed at depriving student activists from continuing their higher education.

Since fall 2006, disciplinary committees on university campuses have routinely summoned dissident students and sentenced them to suspension terms. The increasing use of such committees to deprive students of their right to education—in violation of Iran’s international legal obligations– is aimed at intimidating the student body throughout the country. Suspension sentences ranging from one to three
semesters have been issued.

In many cases, university officials did not even honor their own regulations and issued sentences in absentia without providing students a chance to defend themselves or become aware of the reason for their suspension.

During the last five years, the regime has systematically dismissed students they deem ‘dangerous’. According to reports by human rights activists, in the last year alone close to one thousand students were banned from education through this method.

13. Question on issues raised by the UN’s Human Rights Council

Question: Do you accept the universality of human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Iran is a signatory? And if so, is this not inconsistent with Iran’s rejection of about 30 recommendations made by the UN’s Human Rights Council last June?

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Background:

In June 2009, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights in Iran, and Head of the Iranian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that about 30 of the recommendations made to Iran during the June session of the UNHRC session in Geneva were rejected by the Iranian delegation because they were “against Iranian laws,” or “because they were disproportionate or contained poor language.” He then stated cases such as Iran’s refusal to join the United Nations Convention Against Torture, stating that Iran doesn’t join the Convention because there are types of punishment in Iran that are considered as torture in the Convention. He added that torture is prohibited in Iran and this is expressed in the Iranian Constitution.

Contrary to Larijani’s statements, there were cases which the Iranian delegation did not accept, deflecting blame by criticizing human rights violations in other countries thereby refusing to address the raised points. At one point, the Head of the Session reminded Larijani that the meeting was to review Iran’s report, not other countries. Those cases included prison torture, specifically, the events that took place at Kahrizak Detention Center, arbitrary and secret executions (such as the execution of Farzad Kamangar), long-term sentences after show trials (such as Jila Baniyaghoub’s 30 year ban from journalism), the refusal to grant congregation permits to political parties and opposition groups, and others. Larijani reiterated the government’s position that the murder of Neda Agha Soltan was committed by foreign agents, stating this claim without any comprehensive investigation into her murder or publication of the results of any such investigations. Many of the points raised in recommendations from other countries are important components of the Iranian Constitution and international commitments of the Iranian government, and are routinely violated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The issues raised by member countries of the UN Human Rights Council did not have poor language, nor were they against the Iranian Constitution, but simply encapsulated the widespread and systematic violations of human rights in Iran, information Larijani tried to conceal during all his speeches, dodging accountability and instead criticizing the situation of human rights in other countries.

Larijani said that the main problem is that member countries “view some of our punishments as torture,” such as “flogging.” Disregarding the fact that Larijani claims that flogging is a legitimate form of punishment and not torture, there are numerous other “punishments” Iran should be held accountable for. “Punishments” such as solitary confinement, stoning, the amputation of arms and legs, isolation of prisoners from the outside world including refusing them access to their families, lawyers, and fresh air, and psychological pressure for the extraction of false confessions. Iran’s accession to the UN Convention Against Torture would make Iran accountable in these areas, despite attempts to redefine methods of torture as “punishment.”

Larijani considers the criticism of “Western countries” as their support for what he calls the “election sedition.” What he calls the “election sedition” are the instances of widespread violations of human rights in the past year, which aside from the related political issues, have never been addressed by Iranian authorities. The violators, whether they carried out or issued orders, have never been held accountable by the Iranian Judiciary for their actions. Politicizing the criticism against the widespread violations of human rights in no way reduces the responsibility of the Iranian judicial authorities for giving immunity to those who ordered and carried out post-election violence.

14. Question on criticism of Iran’s human rights record by foreign governments and international rights groups

Question: You defend your country’s human rights record. But what do you think about the documented criticism of Iran’s human rights abuses by many foreign governments and international rights groups since 1984?

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Background:

During the June 2010 United Nations Human Rights Council Session in Geneva, many governments and human rights organizations accused Iran of being duplicitous about its record, promising cooperation with the council over human rights issues while busily subverting many of them at home — including freedom of religion, expression and assembly and an independent judiciary.

Amnesty International said the Iranian government was taking aim at students, journalists, political activists, trade unionists, human rights defenders and members of ethnic and religious minorities.

“Executions have been carried out for politically motivated reasons and used to send a chilling message to those who would demonstrate,” the organization said in a statement. “These human rights violations appear to be committed by state officials with total impunity.”

The head of the Iranian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani denied accusations that special United Nations rapporteurs investigating issues like torture had been denied access to Iran, saying they had an open invitation. He said Iran was held to a standard out of alignment with its Islamic culture.

“We are not a secular system, we are not a liberal system; we are perhaps the only democracy, the greatest democracy in the Middle East,” Larijani said in comments broadcast live via the Internet from Geneva.

(Also see background information on Question 13.)

15. Questions on prisoners who died during their detention

Question: During the past few years several prisoners have died inside prisons, such as the blogger Omid Reza Mirsayafi in January 2008 and more recently four post-election protestors at Kahrizak prison. Have you done anything to address ill-treatment and torture inside prisons?

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Background:

Omid Reza Mirsayafi: On 18 March, 29-year-old blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi died while in Tehran’s Evin prison. According to an account by Hesam Firoozi, a physician also imprisoned in Evin, Mirsayafi had taken extra doses of his medication. Firoozi’s account, as provided by the group Human Rights Activists in Iran, notes that Mirsayafi suffered from serious depression. Firoozi was present during the initial stages of Mirsayafi’s treatment inside the prison’s medical clinic and reported that prison doctors failed to provide proper care by not sending him immediately to a hospital to save his life. Mirsayafi was prosecuted solely for his opinions expressed in his private blog. He was charged with insulting authorities and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Zahra Kazemi: Iranian-Canadian freelance photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died while a prisoner at Evin prison on 11 July 2003, almost three weeks after she was arrested for taking pictures outside the prison during a student protest in Tehran. Two days later, it was reported that Kazemi had died in hospital, after suffering a stroke during her interrogations. Two days later, in a contradictory statement, it was said that she had fallen, hitting her head on a hard object. On 16 July 16 2003, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Iran’s then vice president, conceded that Kazemi had died as a result of being beaten.

Later, the Iranian government would charge an Iranian security agent in Kazemi’s death. He was acquitted of a charge of “involuntary murder.” In July 2004, Iran’s judiciary said the head injuries that killed Kazemi had come as a result of an “accident.”

The four detainees who died inside Kahrizak Detention Center: Hundreds of protesters were arrested during post-election events in Iran. More than 100 detainees were transferred to Kahrizak Detention Center. Witnesses and reports indicate widespread and consistent beating, torture, and violent mistreatment of detainees occurred at the sub-standard detention center. A 2009 investigation by the Iranian Parliament indicated that the order to send those detained on 9 July 2009 to the Kahrizak facility was issued by the then Tehran Prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi. The violent treatment of the detainees by officers, the sub-standard hygiene of the facility, the physical abuse of prisoners by authorities, and criminal cellmates under orders from prison authorities caused the deaths of at least four young detainees Mohsen Rouholamini, Amir Javadifar, Mohammad Kamrani, and Ramin Aghazadeh. The young medical doctor who was in charge of the Kahrizak Detention Center’s Infirmary, was later found dead under mysterious circumstances.

16. Question on the discrimination against members of Iran’s Baha’i community

Question: Do people with Baha’i faith have the same rights as other Iranians? If so, why are Baha’is systematically refused the right to higher education?

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Background:

• Baha’is are banned from working in government offices.
• They are not allowed to study at university.
• Iranian inheritance laws do not apply to Baha’is
• Baha’i business owners are often denied a license to set up shop.
• Baha’i cemeteries have been desecrated (in Najafabad, Isfahan, Borujerd, Yazd, Semnan, Najafabad, Vilashahr, Abadan, Khorramshahr, Sangsar, Mashhad, and Damavand)Hateful graffiti on Baha’i houses and shops (in Abadeh)
• Arrests, detention, interrogation, and punishment of Baha’is in several cities for “propagating and spreading Baha’ism” and “propagation on behalf of an organization that is anti-Islamic.”
• Noticeable increase in the persecution of Baha’is since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• Destruction of properties of Baha’i residents (in Ivel, Mazanderan)

Before his death last year, Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, the most senior authority on Shia Islam, issued a fatwa calling on the Iranian government to grant followers of the religion basic civil and political rights.

Mohammed Javad Larijani, head of the Human Rights Council of the Iranian Judiciary, defends court action against the religious group.

“Baha’is have to answer to the courts in Iran because they engaged in cult-type activities contrary to the most basic human rights of the people,” Larijani told the United Nations Human Rights Council.

These questions were provided by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.