URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
New information
IRN 002 / 0705 / OBS 055.6
Acquittal
Iran
May 30, 2007
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has received new information on the following situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Description of the situation:
The Observatory has been informed by the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LDDHI) of the recent acquittal of Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani, a lawyer at the Bar of Tehran and a founding member of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran.
The Observatory welcomes Mr. Soltani’s acquittal and thanks all the persons, organisations, and institutions that intervened in his favour.
Background information:
Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani was arrested on July, 30, 2005 while taking part in a sit-in at the Bar of Tehran in order to protest against the arrest warrant issued against him by Mr. Said Mortazavi, the Prosecutor of Tehran, on July 27, 2005, for “espionage”, without any other precisions.
On July 31, 2005, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice announced that Mr. Soltani had been arrested for having illegally disseminated information from one of his clients who was charged with revealing Iran’s nuclear secrets. On December 3, 2005, the investigating judge in the case against Mr. Soltani decided that the latter should remain in pre-trial detention for a period of three additional months. Mr. Soltani was detained incommunicado at the Evin Prison up to January 2006, when he was allowed to meet one of his lawyers,.
On March 6, 2006, Mr. Soltani was released after a bail of 100,000 euros was paid thanks to national and international solidarity.
On July 16, 2006, he was informed that the Revolutionary Court of Tehran had sentenced him to a five-year prison term and to the loss of his civic rights, for failing to respect the confidentiality of the preliminary inquiry into the case of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in 2003 from acts of torture and ill-treatments to which she was subjected during her detention. Mr. Soltani, the Kazemi family's lawyer, had questioned the independence and fairness of the trial, stressing that the main officials allegedly involved in the case had not been prosecuted by the court, including Mr. Said Mortazavi. Mr. Soltani appealed against this judgment.
Actions requested:
Please write to the Iranian authorities and ask them to:
Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani and all human rights defenders in Iran;
Put an immediate end to any kind of reprisals - including judicial harassment - against all human rights defenders in Iran;
Conform in any circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, in particular its article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and articles 12.2 which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Iran.
Addresses:
Leader of the Islamic Republic, His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader, Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran, Faxes: + 98 21 649 5880 / 21 774 2228, Email: info@leader.ir / istiftaa@wilayah.org / webmaster@wilayah.org
President Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98 21 649 5880. Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
Head of the Judiciary, His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: +98 21 879 6671 / +98 21 3 311 6567, Email: Irjpr@iranjudiciary.com
Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Manouchehr Mottaki, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdolmajid Keshk-e Mesri Av, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98 21 390 1999, Email: matbuat@mfa.gov
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 7330203, Email: mission.iran@ties.itu.int
Ambassador Mr. Ahani, Embassy of Iran in Brussels, 15 a avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 762 39 15. Email: iran-embassy@yahoo.com
Please also write to diplomatic representations of the Islamic Republic of Iran in your respective countries.
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Paris - Geneva, May 30, 2007
