Date: August 20, 2019
No: 2085-15
His Excellency António Guterres
Secretary General of United Nations
The United Nations
New York, NY 10017
Re: International Campaign Against the Outrageous Violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Kleptocratic Regime of Iran.
Your Excellency,
On March 8th, the International Women’s Day, Ms. Maryam Mombeini[i], the widow of an Iranian-Canadian environmentalist, Kavous Seyed-Emami, who died in the notorious Evin prison has been barred from leaving Iran. Maryam Mombeini with her sons Ramin and Mehran Seyed-Emami decided to flee after facing harassment, threats and smear campaigns over their rejection of Iranian authorities’ claim that their husband and father Kavous Seyed-Emami, committed suicide in prison. Iranian authorities confiscated Ms. Mombeini’s Iranian passport at the airport. The two brothers left their mother behind.
Kavous Seyed-Emami, one of the founders of the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, an environmental activist and professor of sociology who fought for Iran’s environmental causes was arrested, after being accused of spying, by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) along with several other environmental activists, including Niloufar Bayani, Houman Jowkar, Sam Rajabi, Taher Ghadirian, Sepideh Kashani, Amir-Hossein Khaleghi, and Morad Tahbaz. These environmentalist detainees are some of the best and brightest elite of Iran who were just concerned about saving our planet.
The head of Tehran’s Justice department Gholamhossein Esmaili[ii] declared to ILNA news agency “A group of those who gathered strategic intelligence and handed it over to foreigners have been identified. Some of them were arrested and some others will be arrested soon”. Two weeks after Kavous Emami’s arrest, on February 9,2018, the news of his sudden death was released to his wife, Maryam Mombeini. His suspicious death was labelled as suicide by the prison officials. Until recently, we have no news of the whereabouts of the detainees or their health status.
Islamic Judiciary has announced the suicides of other political prisoners among those arrested during the nationwide anti-government protests in January. With such a background, Prosecutor General of Tehran, Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi[iii], told ILNA news agency “Kavous Emami was one of the defendants in a spying case and unfortunately he committed suicide in prison since he knew that many had made statements against him and because of his own confession.”
The fates of detainees during anti-establishment protests[iv] and the unrest that erupted in late January 2018 still is unclear. Among thousands of detainees, Sina Ghanbari[v], a 22-year-old, died in custody in Tehran under unknown circumstances on January 6, 2018. Mostafa Mohebi, the head of Tehran’s prisons, claimed Sina hanged himself in the Evin Prison bathroom. Authorities have forbidden the families of those arrested from speaking to the media.
Mohammad Raji[vi], a war veteran, was one of more than 300 members of Iran’s Sufi Gonabadi who were detained following skirmishes with security forces in Tehran on February 19, 2018. He died from blows to his head in prison.
Currently, dozens of dual nationals are in jail in Iran, mostly on spying charges. Iranian physician and researcher, Ahmad Reza Djalali[vii], a resident of Sweden, has been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court’s Judge Abolghassem Salavati[viii], on the charges of “Corruption on earth, espionage, and collaboration with a hostile government”. He has been kept behind bars at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since April 2016.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe[ix], the British-Iranian charity worker, was on holiday visiting her family for Persian new year (Nowruz) in Iran. She was at the airport returning to the UK on the April 3, 2016 with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella, when she was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment after an unfair trial “for allegedly plotting to topple the Iranian regime.” Her daughter’s British passport was confiscated during the arrest, and the 3-year-old remains in Iran under the care of her maternal grandparents.
In the past, in June 2003, Zahra Kazemi[x], a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist, was beaten to death while in custody there. Iranian authorities arrested her as she was photographing the Evin prison. The Iranian authorities have not charged anyone in connection with her death. Since her death, the diplomatic relations between Iran and Canada have been tense.
Golrokh Iraee, a human rights prisoner exiled to Qarechak prison, is in dire condition on her 45th day of hunger strike. Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee[xi], were transferred from Evin to Qarechak prison in Varamin for supporting the uprising in January 2018 where they are at risk of developing hepatitis and other contagious diseases.
Soheil Arabi[xii], another blogger prisoner, is on day 33of his hunger strike. The lives of Ms. Golrokh Iraee and Mr. Soheil Arabi are in serious jeopardy.
Outside the walls of Iranian prisons there still are the sharia laws of the Islamic constitution as the barriers that oppose women’s rights and suppress other beliefs and political orientations since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian constitution based on Sharia law stipulates that all women must be fully veiled in public at all times. Women are barred from attending sports events. On February 9, 2018, 35 women[xiii] were detained in front of Azadi Stadium for trying to attend a particularly significant football match. The women were trying to attract Mr. Gianni Infantino’s attention to the ban on women attending sporting events.
Furthermore, more than 30 Iranian women[xiv] “Daughters of Revolution Street[xv]” have been arrested since the end of December 2017 for removing their veils in public to protest the mandatory hijab.
On March 8, 2018, there was a strong call, more emphatic than ever, for commemorating the struggle for women’s rights, and progress in gender equality worldwide. In contrast, Iran reportedly impeded Women’s Day gatherings and detained participants. Several women’s rights activists[xvi] have been jailed by security forces.
Maryam Mombeini, like many other activists’ families, is hostage to the regime. The Islamic Republic’s security agencies use the prisoners and their families as bargaining chips for money or influence. We are facing a powerful kleptocratic system of political nepotism and familial surrogacy that uses corruption as a tool to stay in power. The Iranian economy is suffering from the rampant corruption. The judiciary is suffering from institutional corruption, and there is no independent court to stop the corruption in other parts of the government.
These are some outrageous violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Islamic regime of Iran. Iran National Council for Free Elections appeals to your high office and the international community to take immediate and effective action to save the lives of detainees and their hostage families.
We are fearful that these innocent women and men will not escape suspicious deaths without an international outcry and firm diplomatic actions by the leaders of the Free World to force the Islamic republic regime to comply with the following:
- Give Maryam Mombeini, a Canadian citizen, immediate freedom to safely return to Canada;
- Take immediate and effective action to save the lives of two jailed hunger striking prisoners, Mrs. Golrokh Iraee and Mr. Soheil Arabi, whose lives are in jeopardy,
- Immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners;
- Allow an independent investigation into the suspicious deaths in the Islamic regime’s prisons;
- End the persecution of women who speak out against compulsory veils and for access to sports stadiums, and abolish “discriminatory and humiliating practices” against women in the name of Sharia.
We sincerely thank you for your assistance and consideration to this urgent humanitarian matter.
Very truly yours,
Special Envoy for Human Rights
Iran National Council for Free Elections
CC:
His Excellency Trudeau Justine,
Prime Minister of Canada
His Excellency Emmanuel Macron,
The President of the French Republic
Her Excellency Chancellor, Angela Merkel,
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
The Right Honourable Theresa May MP,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Honorable Donald Trump,
President of the United States of America
********************
His Excellency António Guterres
Secretary General of United Nations
His Excellency François Delattre
Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations
Her Excellency Nikki Haley
United States Ambassadors to the United Nations
His Excellency Matthew Rycroft
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations
His Excellency François Christoph Heusgen
Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations
His Excellency Marc-André Blanchard
Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations
His Excellency Excellency Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein,
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Her Excellency Asma Jahangir’s Office,
UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
********************
Ms. Delia Matilde Ferreira Rubio
The former president of Transparency International’s chapter in Argentina
Mr. David Kaye,
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Mr. Salil Shetty, Secretary,
Secretary General of the Amnesty International
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/03/canada-calls-for-safe-return-to-canada-of-kavous-seyed-emamis-widow-maryam-mombeini.html
[ii] http://www.defenddemocracy.org/gholam-hossein-esmaili/
[iii] http://www.defenddemocracy.org/abbas-jafari-dolatabadi/
[iv] https://irannc.org/en/uprising-of-heirs-of-iranian-constitutionalism-december-30-2017/
[v] https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/09/iran-deaths-detained-protesters-raise-concerns-ill-treatment
[vi] https://iranwire.com/en/features/5201
[vii]https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/12/iran-upholding-academics-death-sentence-in-secret-shows-utter-contempt-for-right-to-life/
[viii] http://justice4iran.org/j4iran-activities/human-rights-violator-abolghassem-salavati/
[ix] https://www.amnesty.org.uk/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-uk-woman-iran-prison-mother-facts
[x] https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/08/02/iran-imprisoned-dissident-dies-custody
[xi] https://irannc.org/en/re-golrokh-iraee-atena-daemi-were-severely-beaten-by-interrogators-in-evin-prison/
[xii] https://irannc.org/en/international-campaign-for-immediate-release-of-prisoner-of-conscience-soheil-arabi-on-hunger-strike-in-tehrans-evin-prison/
[xiii] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43243414
[xiv] https://iranwire.com/en/features/5131
[xv] https://theconversation.com/iranian-women-risk-arrest-daughters-of-the-revolution-92880
[xvi] https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-blocks-womens-day-gathering-detains-participants/29086857.html
