By: Masih Alinejad, translated by Azita Eraani
Jars: This is the story of 30 Iranian lawyers arrested in the aftermath of the rigged presidential elections in 2009. Story of defense attorneys whose attempt at defending political prisoners, including those on the death row – awaiting execution or stoning – leads to their own persecution, or loss of license, or ban from leaving the country, or in many cases a forced or self-imposed exile with no permission to return.
In every country, lawyers are allowed to defend prisoners, irrespective of their own or the prisoner’s political affiliations. But in Iran, everything is different. During the turbulent days that followed the presidential elections in 2009, lawyers attempting to uphold the law in the case of political prisoners, ended up in prison, along with their clients.
In every country, lawyers are perhaps the only sector with security clearance to access case information and judicial files. In all countries where prisoner rights are grossly violated, it is always the lawyers who are recognized as the only credible witnesses to the infringement of prisoner rights. In Iran however, any lawyer engaging in a diligent pursuit of clients’ cases from courtrooms to detention centers; he/she will likewise end up facing persecution.
Thus, in the aftermath of the 2009 elections, a significant number of lawyers were arrested and imprisoned, many of whom are still in prison, and several were released within months of incarceration. Scores of other lawyers were also summoned and interrogated.
We began our reports on the bloody events of 2009 elections, with stories of slain protesters as recounted by 43 family members, followed by the saga of many names interwoven with Kahrizak prison which focused on other dimensions of those events. The third installment told the tale of 109 journalists and activists killed or imprisoned during the course of election events. Today’s segment will unravel yet another angle of those days, by honing in on all the lawyers arrested or incarcerated in the last 2 years.
The following report is a testament to the fact that Iranian lawyers who attempted to defend the political prisoners and those condemned to death by execution or stoning, eventually ended up in jail or lost their law practice or were banned from leaving the country, and those forced into exile are banned from returning. In the end, it appears that even those lawyers who have never walked into the courtroom or prison as a convict, are now afraid to accept the cases of political prisoners.
** the following is a partial list missing the names of other lawyers who may have been summoned or persecuted after the elections.
Ebadi is the most prominent Iranian lawyer, also known on the international stage as the first Moslem woman and first Iranian ever to have received the Nobel Peace prize. She was also the first female judge in pre-revolution Iran, who was stripped of her title and position after the revolution, since women are no longer deemed qualified as a judge.
Although, for years she was under intense pressure, even received death threats from the Iranian authorities, because of her history of taking on high risk clients such as those ‘accused’ in the chain-murders cases; however, in the wake of the disputed elections in June of 2009, despite being outside the country for a conference at the time, Shirin Ebadi became one of the most notable and recognized faces, that the Islamic Republic’s authorities launched a campaign against, by repeatedly defaming her on national television and harassing and arresting her family members. They also closed down the offices of Center for Human Rights Defenders, (CHRD) which was founded and directed by Ebadi.
Given these circumstances, the Nobel Peace Laureate chose not to return to Iran, but her husband, Javad Tavasolian and her sister, Noushin Ebadi were both arrested and later released on bail; which Mrs. Ebadi referred to as a form of Hostage-Taking in an attempt to put pressure on her.
Because of all the pressures, after his release from prison, her husband Javad Tavasolian was forced to testify against his wife on state television which was aired across the nation in an effort to discredit this lawyer’s actions and bring her integrity under public scrutiny. In response, a large number of lawyers announced that the televised confessions made by Ebadi’s husband, were akin to the same Stalinist forced confessions that were made by other prisoners which we witnessed in the months after the disputed elections. Shirin Ebadi had previously been arrested in July of 2000 in connection with a case known as the “Tape Makers”.
In her position as the sole Iranian winner of Nobel Peace prize and the founder and former president of Iran’s Center for Human Rights Defenders which has since been closed down and its members arrested; Shirin Ebadi has achieved international notoriety and she has submitted numerous reports to the United Nations on the continuing violations of human rights in Iran.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, another prominent Iranian lawyer, was arrested on September 4, 2010. She was among the group of lawyers who decided to represent a number of detained protesters. At the height of the widespread protests and mass arrests, while every anti-establishment newspaper was shutting down; Sotoudeh was actively seeking ways to disseminate news and information about “victims of the presidential elections” to foreign media outlets. One of her clients at the time was a 29-year-old young man named Arash Rahmani-Pour who was eventually executed.
Under intense pressure in prison, Rahmani-Pour was forced to appear in the controversial “Show Trials” and confess to having connections with the anti-revolution Monarchist party outside the country and actively conspiring to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Following these confessions, Rahmani-Pour and a fellow detainee, Mohammad-Reza Zamani, were the first post-election protesters condemned to execution.
Nasrin Sotoudeh was the first person to publicly reveal the facts surrounding the execution of this 19-year-old man. In an interview with VOA (Voice of America Channel), she said that, “every official statement released by the Judiciary, claims that Arash Rahmani-Pour was arrested during post-election events, while this is a complete fabrication of reality. He was arrested two months prior to the elections and the charges against him are for his actions when he was under 18 years of age.
Sotoudeh’s revelations led to a tidal wave of criticisms of Iran’s Judiciary -- both domestically and internationally -- for killing a young man with absolutely no connection to the election protests; which is what coined the phrase “Show Trials” in reference to the televised courtroom drama designed to instill fear in people’s hearts. In the end, the judicial system was left with no choice but to reluctantly retract its earlier claims and admit that the young man’s execution was not connected to the elections.
Meanwhile Sotoudeh took on another protester’s defense case, amid the much publicized denial by the state, of having killed Ahmad Nejati Kargar by beating him in prison.
Nasrin Sotoudeh had also worked as the defense attorney for Shirin Ebadi, the other prominent lawyer under political pressures and professional restraints by authorities. Sotoudeh has similarly defended high profile political prisoners such as Isa Saharkhiz, Kayvan Samimi, Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand, Atefeh Nabavi, among other detainees. And it was her defending of other victims of human rights violations that led to her own persecution and imprisonment.
She was sentenced to 11 years in prison, 20 years ban from practicing law and leaving the country, as well as $50 fine for “non-adherence to Islamic dress code” in one of her videotaped speeches. After hearing her sentences, Nasrin wrote a letter to the head of Judiciary thanking him for making her sentence longer than that of her clients, “for leaving the prison before my clients, would have been a painful experience,” she added.
Sotoudeh’s arrest and multiple hunger strikes in prison, have received significant international attention. Her husband, Reza Khandan who was also arrested and later released, has repeatedly expressed to the press, his grave concern about her condition and authorities not allowing their two young children to visit their mother.
3 - Mohammad Seifzadeh
Seifzadeh, an Iranian lawyer and co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, was arrested during the mass arrest of lawyers that followed the 2009 disputed elections. The news of his arrest was published on various websites, before it was formally announced by his attorney Marzieh Nikara on 3 May 2011. Seifzadeh’s arrest took place at a time when lawyers were being arrested in large numbers, or their passports confiscated, or practically prevented from defending political prisoners, due to the pressures exerted by the authorities, according to International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
According to close friends and colleagues, Seifzadeh had traveled to Oroumieh for a research project, but he was arrested on suspicion of attempting to flee the country, and transferred from the intelligence office in Oroumieh (NW Iran) to Evin prison in Tehran which is the main prison for political prisoners.
His wife, Fatemeh Golzar and his son were extremely worried about his safety during the first days of his arrest, and reported that on their first visit he appeared extremely thin and he was limping. In October 2010, Mohammad Seifzadeh was tried and charged with “Acting against national security” by establishing the Center for Human Rights Defenders; and “Propaganda against the state” through interviews with foreign press. He was sentenced to10 years ban from practicing law and 9 years in prison. The latter was subsequently reduced to 2 years. While in ward 350 at Evin prison, along with other political prisoners he signed a letter testifying that the activist Hoda Saaber had been severely beaten by prison guards, before his death.
4 - Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah
Following the rigged 2009 presidential elections, attorney Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah was arrested on 8 July 2009, by plain clothes agents at his office. The pressures he was under for representing a case [against Isfahan’s Metro] on endangerment of national heritage monuments, only exacerbated by taking on the multitude of cases of prisoners arrested during post-election protests.
While accusations of torture in prison where being vehemently denied by officials, Dadkhah kept revealing evidence of torture in his formal demands for medical attention for ill and injured political prisoners. About the pressures applied to prisoners during interrogation he had said, “The unsanitary and anxiety inducing conditions have jeopardized the lives of these prisoners.” He adds, “Ebrahim Yazdi for instance, was repeatedly pulled out of his cell in the middle of the night, for interrogation during his time in prison.”
Among the list of political prisoner clients whose failing health had been mentioned by Dadkhah, was Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, the blogger and internet activist who had designed an anti-filter software to facilitate bypassing of the internet blocks for other activists. He was arrested for this and for “Insulting the leadership” and sentenced to 15 years in prison where he has been suffering from serious health issues since his arrest. “Prison authorities are directly responsible for the dire physical condition of Maleki whose failing kidneys have now reached a life threatening stage, due to the lack of adequate attention and medical care in prison which requires his immediate transfer to a hospital outside prison,” said his lawyer, Dadkhah.
For his defense of so many political prisoners, as well as Majid Tavakoli among other Amir Kabir University students, and members of “Center for Strengthening Unity” and other victims of human rights violations, Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah was eventually jailed and subjected to harshest sentences ever issued by Iran’s Judiciary.
Although temporarily released on $50,000 bail, Dadkhah was charged with “Propaganda and acting against the Islamic Republic” as a spokesperson for Human Rights Defense Center and sentenced to 9 years in prison, 10 years ban from teaching in universities and 10 years ban from practicing law.
5- Abdolfattah Soltani
A well known Iranian lawyer and co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, Abdolfattah Soltani was arrested in his office on 16 June 2009, days after the presidential elections.
Mr. Soltani’s stellar resume includes defense cases for political and human rights activists such as Akbar Ganji; Zahra Kazemi; Zahra Bani-Yaghoub; Haleh Esfandiari and many members of National-Religious Party as well as, the Bus-Drivers Union. Although previously arrested and jailed for 7 months on “Espionage” charges, his arrest in the aftermath of presidential elections was for “Tarnishing the elections”. His family was kept in the dark about his whereabouts for the first month of his 2-month incarceration, during which his wife, Masoumeh Dehghani kept notifying the media about her husband’s circumstances, which ultimately led to her own arrest in July.
In an interview with Radio Farda, his wife had said that long before his arrest, Mr. Soltani had repeatedly filed complaints against the then Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, Judge Raasekh and judge Haddad. And his current sentencing by Judge Raasekh, who was a defendant in a prior case filed by Soltani, is most certainly biased.
It is noteworthy to add that Mr. Soltani and his wife were accused of “Supporting political prisoners’ families” by spending the monetary portion of the Human Rights Nuremberg Award that Soltani had received! Like many other political and human rights activists, Soltani is banned from leaving the country. Soltani is temporarily released on $100,000 and his wife on $30,000 bails.
6- Hasan Younesi
Hasan Younesi, a lawyer, political activist and son of a former intelligence minister during reformist administrations, following the 2009 disputed elections, began writing articles critical of the regime in his weblog which resulted in filtering of his site followed by his arrest in Feb 2011. In court he was accused of calling the Islamic regime “illegitimate” by writing and publishing an article titled “Real Islamic Republic vs. Sham Islamic Republic”, in which he accuses the regime of violating the citizens’ rights, lying, deceiving, killing its critics, advocating the murder of its opposition, and resorting to torture, crackdown and forced confessions; thereby portraying the Islamic regime as an illegitimate government.
Younesi has also written similar articles such as “25 days of no news of Sohrab – then his death”, in which he refers to the 2009 elections, as a “military coup”. In another column named “From Ebrat to Kahrizak Museums” [Ebrat, a one time Shah’s brutal secret police prison, turned a museum] Younesi writes about torture in prison. These articles were used against him in court. Younesi was charged with “Propaganda against the regime” and “Conspiring to commit a crime”, therefore sentenced to 1 year in prison, $600,000 fine (or 2 additional yrs in lieu of), and 5 years ban from practicing law, all of which were upheld on appeal.
7- Ghasem Shole Sa’di
Lawyer and critic of the Islamic regime, Ghasem Sa’di was arrested on 4 April 2011 at Mehrabad Airport on his return from a trip to Shiraz. This lawyer and former representative of 3rd and 4th Parliament had also registered as a candidate for Presidency in 2009, but the Guardian Council disqualified him as a candidate.
After the elections, Sa’di had repeatedly analyzed the presidential elections process in interviews with various media outlets outside the country, and made suggestions such as utilizing the Majlis (Parliament) as a mechanism of scolding and critiquing the President in order to effectively end the current internal crisis. While participating in the early days of post-election street protests, he had said to VOA that the Leadership’s refusal to call for invalidation of election results and resignation of Ahmadinejad can only escalate the protesters’ radical demands.
Sholeh Sa’di was also among the harshest critics of the regime who in an open letter in 2002 had alluded to the “Illegal” appointment of Ayatollah Khamenei to his position as the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, for which he spent more than a month in jail. Since his current arrest and imprisonment in ward 350 of Evin prison he has developed severe spinal and neurological problems in need of serious medical attention, yet the authorities remain indifferent and inattentive to his serious condition.
The prominent lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr was arrested on 17 July 2009 while participating in protest rallies of those days. She had also represented the journalist and activist Shiva Nazar Ahari who had been arrested earlier during the post-election protests. Shadi Sadr who as a Women’s Rights activist had previously participated and arrested in a gathering in 2007, has represented many women activists as well as execution and stoning cases in Iran.
A variety of websites including Maydaan Zanan (women’s square) had quoted Shadi Sadr’s friends about her arrest: “Shadi was approached by plain-clothed agents who grabbed and pushed her into a Peugeot car where she sat shocked and limb. Our screams of “why are you taking her?” seemed to jolt her back and began screaming and banging on the car door. My friend opened the door and we struggled to pull her out of the car but the man sitting inside kept tugging her back in, when suddenly her overcoat was pulled out and she managed to jump out of the car and run in her shirt and pants, with my friend and I and the agents running after her. Another agent coming from the front caught and pulled her by her scarf. Shadi kept resisting, so her scarf came loose. Two other agents joined in; one carrying a baton. They began brutally beating her while holding us away from her – she kept resisting. Finally practically lifting her up, the agents threw her in the car and sped away.
Her arrest and the circumstances of it, achieved widespread reflection across the global media. Following an Amnesty International demand, she was released on 28 July, after 11 days in jail. She was later forced into exile, but her attorney Mohammad Mostafaie announced that the court had charged Shadi Sadr with “Acting against national security, through illegal gatherings and plotting a civil disturbance”, and “Resisting arrest”, for which she is sentenced to 6 years in prison and 74 lashes. In exile, Shadi made numerous appearances on international stage, giving a speech on human rights violations in Iran.
9- Mohammad Mostafaei
Mohammad Mostafaei is yet another prominent Iranian human rights lawyer defending several post-election protesters, himself arrested once in June of 2009 and later summoned to court for other cases he had represented.
Although Mostafaei was known for usually defending death-row younger prisoners or those condemned to stoning, in the aftermath of 2009 elections, and his own brief incarceration he accepted the case of the journalist Hengameh Shahidi who had been arrested during the mass protests. In his weblog, Mostafaei began to write about the cases and prison conditions of Hengameh Shahidi as well as Shadi Sadr, the other post-election detainee. While still in Iran, Mostafaei kept posting on his blog his observations of Hengameh’s arrest, hunger strike, pressures and interrogations in prison; calling the continued incarceration of journalists and political activists “Illegal”. Mostafaei’s dissemination of such information was taking place at a time when scores of opposition newspapers were shutting down and their journalists sent to prison.
Mostafaei later took on the defense case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman on the verge of being stoned to death. This case also achieved international notoriety. Mostafaie was persecuted as a result and pressured by the intelligence authorities to the degree where after an interrogation in August of 2010 he ignored the twice issued court summons and eventually fled the country. His wife, Fereshteh Halimi and brother-in-law Farhad Halimi were arrested overnight and held as “hostages” in the case.
After escaping from Iran, Mostafaie wrote a letter addressed to Tehran’s Prosecutor demanding an immediate release of his family. Once his family members were released and joined him, Mostafaie began aggressively informing the world about Iran’s gross violations of human rights and prisoners’ rights, to the extent where the Islamic Republic staged a show on the state-run television (Sedo-va-Sima) denying Mostafaie’s claims and discrediting him and other Iranian lawyers in Diaspora who are reflecting the ‘voice’ of victims of human rights abuses in Iran.
10- Mohammad Olyaifar
Like other lawyers, Mohammad Oliyaifar who had defended political prisoners, was arrested in March 2010 after speaking about the execution of a young boy in a public interview. Among his many clients, there was Abolfazl Abedini the journalist and member of Pan-Iranist Party sentenced to 11 years in prison; as well as student activist Naseh Faridi sentenced to 6 years prison and 74 lashes. While investigating Faridi’s case documents in court, Oliyaifar himself was arrested on charges of “Propaganda against the state” for his public remarks about his underage young client Behnood Shojaee hanged earlier that year. Oliyaifar became gravely ill in prison and spent an extremely difficult one year in prison, due to the authorities’ disapproval of his transfer to an outside hospital. The widespread news of his case motivated Tehran’s Prosecutor to personally visit him in prison. Olyaifar was finally released upon completing his one year term.
11- Khalil Bahramian
An Iranian lawyer who defended a number of arrested protesters as well as several Kurdish political prisoners who were later executed. Though not officially confirmed but Bahramian was convicted by branch 28 of the Revolutionary court to 18 months in prison and 10 years ban from practicing law. Bahramian had represented Heshmatollah Tabarzadi [prominent democracy activist], as well as Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alam Holi and 3 other prisoners, all of whom hanged at the gallows of Evin prison in April 2010. Bahramian has repeatedly complained in interviews with outside media outlets, about the illegal manner in which these cases are dealt with.
Prior to his conviction, Bahramian had invited Tehran’s Prosecutor to a televised debate, as he said to Jars. “I, as the lawyer in the case and Mr. Dolatabadi as the Prosecutor are not permitted to speak about certain aspects of the case, but I say here and now that if the Prosecutor, myself and several of our veteran judges join together in a nationally aired television program, we can clear up many of the myths that have formed in public opinion,” he added. Without having a chance at a public rebuttal, Bahramian was accused of publicly speaking about the execution of Farzad Kamangar and other prisoners whose dead bodies weren’t even released to their families. He was sentenced to one year prison and 10 years ban on practicing law.
12- Kambiz Norouzi
Kambiz is a lawyer and president of Iranian Journalists Union. It was reported that following the 2009 elections, he was arrested along with many others in a gathering in front of Ghaba Mosque in Tehran. He was an active member of board of directors of Iranian Journalists Guild and a Member of Parliament’s Media Ethics Committee, with extensive history of professional efforts in upholding progressive journalistic laws. He was a co-founder of the Journalists Union which was closed down in the wake of elections and many of its members persecuted. As the president of the Union, Kambiz Norouzi was also arrested and charged with “Propaganda against the regime” and “Civil Disturbance” sentenced to 2 years prison and 76 lashes. The former sentence was reduced to one year and the latter to only 74 lashes, on appeal!
13- Forough Mirzaee
The mass arrests of political activists in the wake of bloody Ashura events of 2009 also left victims in the lawyers community. Forough Mirzaee was among the young lawyers arrested along with her husband Rouzbeh Karimi, members of Graduates Association, during a raid of their house on 1 January 2010. Their dinner guests were also arrested that evening. After 30 worrisome days of not hearing about her daughter, Forough’s mother wrote a letter to the head of Judiciary, Mr. Larijani: “From the day after our children’s arrest, we have been searching the entire city for them. The Revolutionary court sent us to Evin prison and Evin passed us down to Security Police Department that pointed back to the Revolutionary court! What would you have done, if your own children were arrested in this manner and you were kept in the dark about them for 30 days? Would you still claim that our Judiciary system has upheld the law and justice in their case?
In an interview, Forough’s brother had said that “what is most troubling is that by defending political prisoners and student activists, my sister was always defending their civil and legal rights, but now she herself is deprived of the her own legal rights. She is paying the price for having defended the student activists.” According to an article about poverty stricken women and children in “Feminists School” website, Forough Mirzaee had often worked on many pro bono cases. She was released after 5 weeks in prison in February 2010.
14- Ardeshir Amirarjomand
The bloody Ashura also led the security forces deep into MirHossein Mousavi’s campaign where they arrested Ardeshir Amirarjomand, Assistant Professor at Shahid Beheshti University Law School. Amir-Arjomand who left Iran after his release continued working from afar, as an advisor to Mousavi on human rights violations in Iran. He also began organizing pockets of opposition within the Green Movement. After he was established as the spokesperson for the Green Path of Hope Coordination Council, the state-run Islamic Republic’s television station began portraying him as an agent of America and Israel, on various programs.
15- Maryam Ghanbari
Following the mass arrests of human rights lawyers, Maryam Ghanbari said in an interview with Rooz that “these arrests are designed to raise the moral cost of defending prisoners in the long run, so that the lawyers’ community would reject such cases, out of fear.” Ghanbari, a Women’s Rights Activist, was arrested in February 2010 by security forces that raided her house, arrested her and seized her computer and other belongings. Her mother unaware of her charges or whereabouts for weeks after her arrest wrote a letter to the Judiciary after which she was allowed a visit with her daughter in prison. Ghanbari was released on $50,000 bail on 10 March 2010.
16- Mohammad Reza Razaghi
Another member of Mousavi’s campaign, Reza Razaghi was also arrested after Ashura rallies in 2009. This young lawyer spent the first 3 weeks of his 53-day detention in solitary confinement and then released temporarily on bail, but sentenced by Judge Moghise of Branch 28 of Revolutionary Court, to 2 years in prison on charges of “Acting against national security”. After his return to prison and some time in ward 350 he contracted a prison related kidney disease, and on at least one reported occasion, kidney hemorrhaging. Razeghi was released after completion of his term on 23 July 2011.
17- Hasan Sarchahi
This young lawyer was brutally beaten upon his arrest after Ashura events in 2009. Under intense pressure in detention he capitulated to a televised confession. Prison officials kept him in limbo for many months in ward 350, even telling him once that the documents in his case were lost so they had to resume the interrogations from the beginning. Sarchahi was finally sentenced to 2 years in prison, upheld on appeal, which he is currently serving with no telephone privileges or family contact, as the telephone lines of ward 350 were disconnected after the hunger strike held by 16 of the prisoners.
18- Rosa Gharachorlou
Along with 3 other lawyers she was arrested for being a “National security threat” as Tehran’s Prosecutor Abbas Dolatabadi called her. Following Rosa’s arrest who is also a member of Human Rights Lawyers Association, Amnesty International sent a letter to the head of Judiciary Sadegh Larijani about Rosa and 3 other lawyers, Maryam Karbasi, Maryam Kian Ersi and Sara Sabaghian; expressing concern about the treatment of human rights activists in Iran and demanding immediate and unconditional release of these lawyers. Rosa was subsequently released on bail.
19- Maryam Kian Ersi
Kian Ersi was arrested on 13 November 2010 at the airport, upon her return from a trip to Turkey. In a formal announcement, Tehran’s Prosecutor General, Abbas Dolatabadi stated that attorney Maryam Kian Earsi is detained for national security issues and for having committed un-Islamic acts while outside the country. This young lawyer had voluntarily represented Kobra Najar, a woman sentenced to stoning. Maryam was released on bail, after one month in prison in December 2010.
20- Sara Sabaghian
Along with colleagues Maryam Kian Ersi and Maryam Karbasi, Sara Sabaghian was arrested on 13 November 2010 at the airport. Just days before her arrest, Sadegh Larijani, Head of Judiciary had made remarks about the “Solemn vocation as a lawyer” and that he hopes that the lawyers of the country would uphold the high ethics of that profession. He made this remark while lawyers were being arrested in large numbers.
Sara Sabaghian was a member of Women and Children’s Rights Committee and a member of Lawyers Association. She was also reportedly arrested along with Mohammad Ali Dadkhah and held briefly. Sara was released after one month on bail.
21- Maryam Karbasi
She too was arrested and jailed along with other lawyers in November of 2010, and released shortly thereafter.
22- Bahareh Dovalou
Another young lawyer arrested along with Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah in July of 2010 and released shortly thereafter. One of her notable clients was Hajieh Esmailvand, a woman who was sentenced to death by stoning.
23- Maedeh Ghaderi
The wave of mass arrest of lawyers had reached smaller towns and provinces as well. Maedeh Ghaderi was a young attorney arrested in the city of Mashhad, shortly after the arrest of her husband, Ali Parandian an active member of the Green Movement. After her interrogation at the intelligence headquarters, she was transferred to Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashhad (NW Iran). She once attempted a hunger strike in prison, as a result of which she was denied visitation rights. After several months in prison she was released on $70,000 bail. She is currently awaiting her sentencing hearing.
24- Houtan Kian
Houtan Kian, the second lawyer representing Sakineh Ashtiani, the woman condemned to death by stoning, was arrested in his office in Eastern Azerbaijan, on 10 October 2010, while meeting with 2 German reporters and Sakineh Ashtiani’s son. While in detention, he endured intense pressure while kept in solitary confinement and denied the right to have a lawyer.
As a result of the international media focus on Sakineh Ashtiani’s case, as well as the mounting pressures, he later appeared on national television and made confessions incriminating himself. Many of his colleagues recognized those confessions as forced and torture-induced. Houtan had previously said to the media on numerous occasions, that his client Sakineh Ashtiani’s televised confessions were the results of torture. He once said to Voice of America (VOA) that the torturing of prisoners in order to extract false confessions is a fact that even no Judge or officials of the Judiciary can deny. And in time, Houtan himself became the victim of just such means of forcing prisoners to confess.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is a 43-year-old woman imprisoned since 2005 on charges of adultery. She was initially sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and murdering of her husband. Her stoning sentence was later overturned, as a result of much international scrutiny. At the time Houtan Kian told Associated Press that Ashtiani’s stoning verdict still holds and that it was only postponed. It was these public announcements about Sakineh Ashtinai’s case which had previously driven her first lawyer Mohammad Mostafaie through the courts and later into exile, and this time sent Houtan Kian to prison.
25- Hadi Esmailzadeh
Many other Iranian lawyers have been summoned to court for interrogations and then fined and banned from leaving the country, without going to prison. Hadi Esmailzadeh is just such a lawyer who was summoned for questioning in July of 2011 and releases shortly thereafter. According to Jars, Hadi has been charged with “Illegal assembly and conspiracy to threaten national security” as well as “Propaganda against the regime by membership in the Center for Defense of Human Rights”. Esmailzadeh was released on $20,000 bail and banned from traveling.
26- Bagher Farhadi
This member of Lawyers Association of Fars and Kohgilouyeh province was arrested in March of 2011 and transferred to Evin prison in Tehran. At the time of his arrest he was having dinner with his family in a corner of Takht Jamshid parking lot, when he was abruptly attacked by a number of security forces, beaten and taken to the police station. In April 2011 the Lawyers Association issued a letter addressed to Commander of Fars Police reporting the circumstances of his arrest by direct orders of Officer Bakhshinejad of Marvdasht police station, then beaten and injured to the point where he had developed respiratory problems and high blood pressure, which were followed by further physical and psychological torture and finally at the insistence of over 20 other detainees taken to the Emergency Room of a hospital where he was taken to the CCU due to his critical condition.
In their open letter, the Lawyers Guild of Fars Province had demanded a response as to the reasons for such brutal behavior and objected to the illegal detention of their member. Bagher Farhadi was the chief director of Mousavi’s campaign in Fars province was working for the local government of Fars at the time. He resigned from his position in protest to the rigged elections in 2009 and resumed his job as an independent lawyer representing several staff members of Mousavi’s campaign who had been detained.
27- Vahid Ahmad Fakhreldin
Vahid was arrested by security forces on 10 March 2010 in the city of Ahvaz. He is a lawyer and university professor and a human rights activist. His family reported after one month of not having heard from him, that he was transferred to Evin prison in Tehran. Vahid was temporarily released in April 2010 on bail, but sentenced by judge Pir-Abbasi to 3 years in prison for “Acting against national security”.
28- Fatemeh Tamimi
Arrested in late April 2011, according to House of Human Rights of Iran, Fatemeh is a lawyer and a post-graduate student at the Law School in University of Shiraz. She was writing her thesis entitled “Political Analysis of Actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran” with guidance and advice of Dr. Seyed Mohammad Hashemi and Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, senior advisor to Mousavi. Tamimi was released after one week in prison.
29- Mostafa Daneshjou
Mostafa Daneshjou was a lawyer representing the Dervishes of Nematollahi order in Gonabad, who was arrested in May 2011 by intelligence agents and sent to Evin prison in Tehran and later transferred to a prison in the city of Sari. Mehdi Karoubi’s Saham News reports that by the order and influence of certain officials Mostafa Daneshjou had been transferred from Sari prison to a Drug Rehab Camp.
Mostafa was sentenced to 7 months in prison and his law license was revoked. In an interview with Committee of Human Rights Reporters, his lawyer, Farshid Yadollahi had objected to the illegal detainment of this lawyer and added that “the transferring of a political prisoner or a prisoner of conscience to some camp where drug addicts are kept, is completely against prison laws and authorities in Mazandaran State must immediately move Mostafa to a safe and standard location.”
30- Farshid Yadollahi
Another trend to follow was the pursuit of the lawyers of the Dervishes of Nematollahi order in Gonabad. Fashid Yadollahi was just one such lawyer under intense pressure and legal pursuit. He was ultimately released on bail. He was a member of the Human Rights Lawyers Commission of Fars Province. In numerous interviews with VOA, he had expressed concern and spoken about the mounting pressures exerted by the government on Gonabad’s Dervishes.
Chief Director of intelligence office in Kish [Island] had issued a letter to the head of Judiciary demanding the immediate arrest of this lawyer for his public revelation of information about cases involving Gobabadi Dervishes. In response, Judge Safinejad finally issued a warrant for Yadollahi’s arrest and sentenced him to 6 months in prison.
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