Mohammad Mostafaie, lawyer of two political prisoners Mr. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Miss Hengameh Shahidi, filed a complaint Against the Rulers of the Islamic Republic, on Behalf of Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Hengameh Shahidi, for investigation into their Judicial and Legal Cases. Mr. Tabarzadi had asked Mr. Mostafaie and other lawyers to file a complain on his behalf throgh international bodies.
To: The Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki Moon
cc: European Parliament
Complaint Against the Rulers of the Islamic Republic, on Behalf of Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Hengameh Shahidi, Clients of Mohammad Mostafaei, for investigation into their Judicial and Legal Cases
Respected Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki Moon,
Since the United Nations Human Rights Institutions are under your supervision, including the human rights council and the human rights committee, and in the third millennium, the respect for human rights is one of the priorities of the United Nations and many other countries, and the abuse of human rights by any real and legal individual is unacceptable, as the lawyer for Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Hengameh Shahidi, who are currently unlawfully imprisoned to long term prison sentences in the Islamic Republic security prisons under the worst conditions, I would like to register and declare my strongest objections as described below, against the following abusers of human rights:
Ali Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Sadegh and Javad Larijani, Mohseni Ezheii, Jafari Dolat-Abadi and other Islamic Republic officials. I sincerely hope by considering the given reasons and testimony, you will refer the matter to appropriate and competent authorities and help reclaim the rights of my clients.
The only “sin” my clients have committed is that they have not tolerated the tyranny and oppression against the people of Iran, which has stemmed from the wrong policies of the officials in the Islamic Republic and instead they have spoken out in their support. Sadly the lack of freedom of speech and expression in Iran has meant that whoever criticises the policies of the state in any way will be arrested by the security and revolutionary guards forces.
One of my clients, Heshmatollah Tabarzadi has been under pressure from Islamic Republic security forces for 16 years. He has been detained illegally on numerous occasions for long periods in Islamic Republic prisons including Evin and Rajai-shahr prisons. My client has spent 12 years in prisons, 33 months of which has been in solitary confinements. Recently he has been sentenced, by branch 26 of the Islamic revolutionary court, to 9 years and 74 lashes under trumped up charges of action against the country’s national security.
During 16 years of taking part in civil activities, my client has endured many inquisitions by the regime’s executive, security and judicial authorities. His publications have unjustly been banned and he has repeatedly suffered beatings and torture. His family have also been threatened many times and are currently banned from visiting him.
Another client of mine, Hengameh Shahidi has been imprisoned since July, 2009. She was the senior advisor to Mehdi Karroubi, one of the presidential candidates, on women’s affairs. During her captivity, she has spent many months in solitary confinement and as a result of the pressures exerted against her in Evin prison by security and revolutionary guards forces, she has been hospitalised many times. Her health is not in a good condition now. Intelligence ministry agents have threatened to execute her several times and even placed the rope round her neck to force her into making confessions and stage fake interviews. She too, has been sentenced by the branch 26 of the Islamic courts, to 6 years imprisonment. There is no shred of evidence against either her or Heshmatollah Tabarzadi that could justify charges of acting against national security.
Despite explicit mention in the Islamic Republic’s constitution that political prisoners must be tried by open courts and by a jury, all such trials are carried out in secret without a jury under the supervision of intelligence ministry agents who are under the direct command of the Supreme Leader, in order to cover up their unlawful acts of human rights abuses, and thus the prisoners are sentenced to long term prison sentences.
Now in view of the deteriorating emotional, mental conditions and physical torture of my clients who have been denied all basic rights required for the accused and charged stipulated by Iran’s own written laws as well as international laws and the human rights charter, I would like to state some of the violations carried out by Islamic Republic officials and ask you to investigate these matters until my clients are freed.
I call upon you not to be complacent or compromising when dealing with human rights conditions in Iran, and instead convince the Islamic Republic government to respect the basic and blatant human rights principles.
What is said here does not only include my clients but manifests itself with the way other prisoners in Iran are treated too:
- Investigation and following up of the crime and temporary detention of suspects is not based on international laws nor on Iran’s own written laws and there is no clear judicial guidelines regarding this.
- Security and judicial authorities in the Islamic Republic act according to their own personal preferences, abuse their power and are violent towards the suspects.
- Sentences issued are not based on testimony and evidence and the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is not observed. The accused do not enjoy judicial protection
- The accused are not given enough time to use lawyers and experts and they are unable to defend themselves properly.
- During the arrest and investigation by security and judicial agents, clients are humiliated, beaten and tortured and blindfolded. They are forced to make non crime related confessions which are then used against them. The answers to their questions are induced and the behaviour of the interrogators is illegal.
My clients are innocent and have committed no crime but the Islamic Republic officials have abused their powers and imprisoned them. They need international support and investigation to their cases and have their basic rights reclaimed.
Respectfully,
Mohammad Mostafaei, Defence Lawyer for
Hengameh Shahidi and Heshmatollah Tabarzadi