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HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EACH PERSON REGARDLESS OF AGE, RACE, RELIGION OR POLITICS
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Ali Farahbakhsh Campaign
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Iranian journalist Ali Farahbakhsh sentenced to prison
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Ali Farahbakhsh
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A Revolutionary Court in Tehran reportedly sentenced journalist Ali Farahbakhsh to
three years' imprisonment and a fine of about US$71,000 on 26 March, on charges of
espionage and "receiving money from foreigners". He had been arrested on 27 November 2006,
when he returned from a conference in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on government and the media,
organised by Thai NGOs. Amnesty International fears that he is a prisoner of conscience,
detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and association.
Ali Farahbakhsh's arrest was not made public until 6 January. In a response to a letter from his mother and sister, the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, reportedly authorised an order for him to be released on bail. However Ali Farahbakhsh remains in Section 209 of Tehran's Evin prison, where he has been held since his arrest. His trial began on 24 February.
Ali Farahbakhsh has been allowed family visits, but according to his wife and mother he is in poor health and kept in solitary confinement. His lawyer reportedly met him for the first time on the first day of the trial, and was unable to prepare adequately for the trial since the judicial authorities either delayed or denied his access to the relevant documents.
The court hearings were held behind closed doors.
In an interview published by the Iranian news website Rooz on 4 April, Ali Farahbakhsh's mother, Badri, said that a mistake had been made in the way her son's trial was conducted. He was charged with receiving US$2,300 from abroad, which was intended to meet the costs of his trip to Thailand. The judge reportedly changed that to US$23,000.
According to the Rooz interview, Badri Farahbakhsh said that the judge in the case openly told her that he would not follow the Head of the Judiciary's instructions to release her son on bail. Ali Farahbakhsh's defence lawyer reportedly said that he would protest against the judgment and would seek to have the case referred to another court, where he would lodge an appeal.
A journalist for the Iranian daily newspaper Sarmayeh, Ali Farahbakhsh reportedly also wrote on economics and foreign affairs for other Iranian dailies such as Yas-e no and Shargh, which have been shut down.
On 21 April, the Association of Iranian Journalists issued an open letter signed by 247 of its members drawing attention to flaws in the administration of justice in the treatment of Ali Farahbakhsh. The letter called on the Head of the Judiciary to ensure that justice would be adhered to in this case.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Because of fundamental flaws in the administration of justice in Iran, it is easy for the authorities to harass intellectuals, journalists and other human rights defenders. The Penal Code contains a number of vaguely-worded provisions relating to association and "national security" which prohibit a range of activities, including many connected with journalism and freedom of expression, which are permitted under international human rights law.
Detainees are often held for weeks or months without access to their families, and are frequently denied access to a lawyer of their choice until an indefinite period of interrogation is completed.
Yas-e-No was closed down along with Shargh on 18 February 2004 for publishing a letter in which parliamentarians accused the Supreme Leader of heading a system that abused people's rights. Shargh later re-opened, but was closed down again on 11 September 2006 after it published a cartoon perceived by some as an insult to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and for failing to follow an order to replace its managing director.
On 23 October 2006, the authorities also banned the daily Rozegar, which had taken on many of the Shargh journalists, because the appearance of the newspaper was very much like that of Shargh, and for a new publication to resemble a banned one in this way is forbidden by Article 33 of the Press Law.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, Arabic, English, French or your own language:
- expressing concern that the trial of journalist Ali Farahbakhsh appears to have been summary in nature: his lawyer was unable to prepare adequately for the trial since his access to the relevant documents was delayed or denied, and that neither he nor his client were given adequate time to meet to prepare for the trial;
- stating that Ali Farahbakhsh appears to have been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his internationally recognized right to freedom of expression or association, which would make him a prisoner of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally;
- asking for a detailed account of the reasons for his arrest, the specific charges brought against him and the details of his trial;
- calling on the authorities to ensure that he is not tortured or ill-treated, and to allow him immediate access to any medical treatment he may require.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir -
istiftaa@wilayah.org
Fax: +98 251 774 2228 (mark FAO the Office of His Excellency Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 3390 4986 (please keep trying)
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email
Speaker of Parliament
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Imam Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 6 646 1746
Salutation: Your Excellency
and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
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Mother of Imprisoned Journalist: I Revert to God
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Omid Memarian o.memarian@roozonline.com - 2007.04.04
As the month of March came to its end, Ali Farahbakhsh, the journalists who has spent the last 5 months in prison in Iran on charges of espionage, was sentenced to three years imprisonment. His mother Badri Farahbakhsh and his father who is a retired judge tried everything to secure their son’s release. In her words, the judge for the case openly told her that he would not follow the instructions of the head of Iran’s judiciary to release Ali on bail. Following are the excerpts of an interview Rooz had with his mother Badri:
Rooz (R): What is the latest official news about your son:
Ali Farahbakhsh (AF): I was in court today and spoke with the court clerk. Judge Babai was not there himself. They have made a mistake in the sentence. They added a zero the sum of money that they claim my son received from foreigners. In the charges brought against my son, the amount that is mentioned is $2,300. But the judge changed that to $23,000. My husband says the charge is a joke. How could anyone be a spy for $2,300? Nobody believes that.
R: Did anyone from the court give any explanation about this mistake?
AF: Ali’s attorney was surprised when he saw the sentence and why the amount of money had been changed. He wanted to talk to the judge, but was told to wait until the end of the Iranian Nowruz holidays (which officially end on April 2nd, 2007). This is how lightly they take these things. The judge who passed this sentence should not be able to sleep peacefully at night, just as he has deprived us of sleep. How can they talk of Nowruz celebrations while we are going through hell. The morning I returned, they told me that the numbers was a typo. I asked him whether he understood what adding a simple zero does to the family of an imprisoned person, to which he responded that they had corrected the issue and asked for a review.
R: How did this happen? The extra zero.
AF: I do not believe this was a mistake. How can a judge not read the sentence? I am sure if my son had seen this figure, he would have had a heart attack.
R: Have they promised to change the sentence?
AF: I hope the sentence will be changed in the appellate court. We plan to sue the judiciary for causing us such distress in the mistake they have made. But when the word of the chief of the judiciary branch is not heeded to, how do you expect our efforts to succeed?
R: In response to your letter, Mr. Shahrudi, the head of the Judiciary Branch had requested that your son be released on bail. Where did that go?
AF: The judge blatantly told me he was not going to implement Mr. Shahrudi’s request. Our attorney put Shahrudi’s letter in the dossier, but every time I wanted to talk about it with the judge, he told me not to. He was indifferent to the letter, and did not care that Mr. Shahrudi was the head of this country’s judiciary. This makes one wonder: when the words of the head of the judiciary are ignored, how can one expect them to even listen to me. Mr. Shahrudi even sent a letter to the head of Tehran’s judiciary explaining that injustice was done to my son. Only my son’s release can compensate the pain that I have gone through.
R: Did they explain the reason for his detention during the Nowruz celebrations, especially as the investigation phase had been complete?
AF: I do not know what is at play that even when the head of Tehran’s judiciary appointed a judge to investigate the issue, nothing came out of it. The investigative judge told me that he had read the charges and that there was no problem with asking for bail. Still, our efforts to have our son with us during Nowruz were useless.
R: Did they say when the appeal would take place?
AF: They said they would apply after April 2nd.
R: How was your son when you last spoke with him?
AF: He was very, very demoralized. His heart aches had returned and so he needs the care of a specialist.
R: What did Ali think about the sentence?
AF: He was in a state of shock. The whole event from arrest, to detention and trail has been a nightmare for him. Out of fear for his condition, we did not tell him about the mistake in the Dollar number. He says he is innocent and that they have cocked up these charges against him. Ali’s colleagues too believe and say that he is innocent.
R: How are his wife and child?
AF: She is in a bad state as well. Especially as they live in Ramsar (a city in northern part of Iran). She is a surgeon who is doing her service out of Tehran while their infant is only 18 months old. She used to come to Tehran once a week to see her husband and then go back because of her work.
R: Has Ali’s attorney applied for bail?
AF: They would not allow Ali to see his attorney prior to the trial. On the day of trail they saw each other for the first time. The court hearings were in camera
R: Are you going to follow things up with Mr. Shahrudi?
AF: No. Because he already made recommendations on two occasions. There is no one else to see, so we are reverting to God. Ali’s father is ill too, and does not leave the house for weeks and says he did deserve this after years of service to his country and people. He said he was ready to go and spend time in solitary confinement instead of his son.
R: What would you tell the judge if you were to meet him?
AF: I hate you. You have broken my heart as a mother. You have injured my soul, made baseless accusations, and I hope God will punish you for it.
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Journalist Gets the Kafka Treatment
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Omid Memarian* - Apr 5 (IPS)
In a continued effort to suppress reform-minded critics, the Iranian government has sentenced yet another prominent journalist, Ali Farahbakhsh, to three years in jail and slapped him with a huge fine, partly due to a typo in the court documents.
Farahbakhsh was convicted of spying in a trial held behind closed doors on Mar. 26. He was first imprisoned five months ago on his return to Iran after participating in a conference on the news media organised by civil society groups in Bangkok, Thailand. His lawyer has appealed the sentence.
Farahbakhsh was arrested on Nov. 26 and held in solitary confinement for 40 days, until the Association of Iranian Journalists issued a statement publicly revealing the details of his case. The security forces had pressured his family to remain silent about his arrest, which was only confirmed on Jan. 7 by the director of Tehran's prison department, Sohrabe Soleymani.
Badri Alereza, Farahbakhsh's mother, told IPS that he had a heart attack in prison and needed serious medical care. Since his arrest, security agents have tried to get him to "confess" that his attendance at various conferences abroad was part of a foreign power's covert plans to incite Iranians against the government. But Ali has refused to do so, she said.
Human rights groups inside and outside Iran have repeatedly asked the Iranian government to provide a legal basis for his arrest, and to allow him to hire a lawyer. However, authorities refused him access to legal counsel until one day before his trial. On Mar. 30, Reporters Without Borders called for Farahbakhsh's immediate release.
In an open letter to Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the head of Iran's judiciary, Farahbakhsh's family asked him to release their son on bail and let him hire a lawyer. A week later, Ayatollah Shahroudi responded to their request positively, and wrote a note to the justice authorities in Tehran asking them to release him on bail and hold a fair trial.
"The judge for the case defiantly told me that he would not follow the instructions of the head of Iran's judiciary to release Ali on bail," Badri Alereza said a phone interview from Tehran. "This makes one wonder: when the words of the head of the judiciary are ignored, how can one expect them to listen to me? Mr. Shahroudi even sent a letter to the head of Tehran's judiciary explaining that an injustice was being done to my son."
Dr. Hadi Ghaemi, a Middle East and North Africa expert at Human Rights Watch, told IPS that the persecution of Ali Farahbakhsh is just another example of the Iranian government's determination to isolate Iranian journalists and activists.
"During the past six months, we have witnessed a concerted effort by the intelligence ministry to punish individuals who maintain close contacts with the international community," Ghaemi said. "Dozens of journalists and activists are banned from leaving the country and the government has imprisoned several people for attending conferences and seminars abroad."
Ali is accused of accepting 2,300 dollars from "foreigners", and to make matters worse, his sentence erroneously refers to his acceptance of 23,000 dollars. His has been ordered to pay three times that amount as his fine, meaning he is supposed to come up with 69,000 dollars, even though the judge had admitted that the number was a typo.
"They have made a mistake in the sentence. They added a zero the sum of money that they claim my son received from foreigners. In the charges brought against my son, the amount that is mentioned is 2,300 dollars. But the judge changed that to 23,000 dollars. My husband says the charge is a joke. How could anyone be a spy for 2,300 dollars? Nobody believes that."
"By accusing Farahbakhsh of espionage, simply for accepting a small financial compensation to attend an international conference, the government is making an example for others to stay away from such forums and interactions," stated Dr. Ghaemi.
"The Iranian government today is totally obsessed with what it believes to be an American drive to instigate a 'velvet revolution' in Iran," he added. "Their perception is particularly influenced by the State Department's announcement to provide financial assistant to Iranian civil society actors last year. While there is no evidence of anyone inside Iran accepting this offer -- indeed Iranian activists have strongly condemned this announcement -- people like Farahbakhsh and others are paying a heavy price because of it."
Last May, agents from Iran's intelligence service arrested Ramin Jahanbegloo, a prominent scholar, at Tehran's airport when he returned from a research trip in India. "He had relations with foreigners," said Intelligence Minister Moseni Ejeyee.
And in another blow to freedom of expression in Iran, security forces arrested three members of a 15-woman delegation of journalists en route to a training workshop in the U.S. state of Indiana on Jan. 25, accusing them of violating national security interests and threatening them with trial. They spent one night in notorious Evin prison before they were released on bail.
During the last several years, numerous influential journalists and civil society activists have been summoned, interrogated and even arrested about their activities and connections to countries outside Iran -- especially the United States, called the "Great Satan" by Ahmadinejad's mentor, Ayatollah Khomeini. Including Farahbakhsh, there are now six journalists in prison in Iran.
Interestingly, during the same time, governmental bodies have accelerated their support for religious organisations.
In the past few months, security forces have shown particular interest in the ties between journalists, intellectuals, and activists and organisations abroad. However, not a single accusation against anyone has been proven to date.
"I hope the sentence will be changed in the appellate court. We plan to sue the judiciary for causing us such distress in the mistake they have made," Farahbakhsh's mother told IPS. "But when the word of the chief of the judiciary branch is not upheld, how can we expect our efforts to succeed?"
*Omid Memarian is an Iranian journalist and civil society activist. He has won several awards, including Human Rights Watch's highest honour in 2005, the Human Rights Defender Award. (END/2007)
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FREEDOM IS A RIGHT OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS IN A WORLD WHERE LIFE IS VALUED AND PEACE MAY FINALLY BE A POSSABILITY
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Just in case you forgot - read the Universal declaration of Human Rights
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