Petition Tag - political prisoner

Dissident sentenced to 14 years in jail.

Iranian dissident Mehdi Khazali has been sentenced to 14 years in jail, 10 years in exile and 90 lashes.

Author, critic and blogger, Dr. Mehdi Khazali is incarcerated in Evin prison and has been on a hunger strike for one month.

The director of Hayan Publications as well as a dissident blogger, Khazali received this sentence after more than 27 days on a hunger strike and he is in critically poor health.

Two days ago he was reportedly taken to the prison infirmary due to haemorrhaging of his digestive tract.

Khazali has been arrested on several occasions since the controversial presidential elections of 2009, which revealed a deep rift in the Islamic Republic establishment between the conservatives and the reformist factions.

His previous arrest occurred last July, and he was released on bail after a month-long hunger strike.

Khazali has used his blogposts to criticize the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad administration and denounce government policies.

He has written open letters to the Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khamenei, warning him against the current mistreatment of the opposition and inadequacies of the system.

Khazali is the son of the conservative cleric and member of the Assembly of Experts, Abolghassem Khazali, who has disowned his son.

Mehdi Khazali, who is also a physician, was disqualified from running in the last parliamentary elections and was denied and appointment to the board of directors of Iran’s College of Physicians.

View petition

Ehsan Houshmand, a Kurdish researcher and a journalist, has again been imprisoned. He has now been in solitary confinement for since January 6th and during this time has been allowed to call home only once.

Mehraveh, his five year old daughter cried for hours after this recent arrrest.

It is not clear why Mr. Houshmand has been detained, and the intelligence agents did not mention the reason for his detention.

Mr. Houshmand, 40, is an able and knowledgeable researcher in the field of ethnicity, and many of his works have been published in the country’s papers.

View petition

Political activist Yaser Yousefzadeh arrested in the city of Babolsar.

Yaser Yousefzadeh, political activist from Mazandaran province has been detained at his residence.

Security agents who were not in possession of an arrest warrant, raided Yousefzadeh’s residence and violently detained him.

According to reports by Jemran News, when the agents showed up, Yaser’s family members demanded that they produce an arrest warrant. The aggressive agents then violently confronted the family members and in the skirmish that ensued they used pepper spray on Yaser’s father.

Yaser ran towards them with bare feet in order to prevent the agents from hurting his father, and ended up getting and handcuffed and severely beaten up to the horror of his powerless parents. The agents then forced Yaser into an unmarked car and whisked him away.

Yaser was taken from his father’s home to his own residence after this savage attack, where the agents took his personal belongings after searching and ransacking his home. During the raid on his home, the brutality of the agents caused the whole neighborhood to get agitated and the agents again used pepper spray and viciously confronted Yaser’s distraught neighbors.

Yaser Yousefzadeh is a graduate of Polytechnic University (Amirkabir) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was an active member of Mousavi’s presidential political campaign in Mozandaran province and was a staff member of Mousavi’s campaign 88 in the city of Babolsar during the 2009 presidential elections.

Yousefzadeh had previously been detained and held in solitary confinement in a holding cell at the Sari Intelligence headquarters.

Article in Persian: http://www.rahana.org/archives/47498

View petition

Currently, lots of civil and cultural Azerbaijani activists have been arrested by the Iranian intelligence service. Since environmental activists in Tabriz, Urmia and other cities started to protest against Iranian parliament indifferences regarding Lake Urmia’s drought, the number of prisoners has been significantly increased. Most of them physically were tortured and some of them have been taken to unknown places.

"Abbas Lisani" is one of the Azerbaijani civil rights activists who several times have been arrested and imprisoned by Iranian regime. Lately Mr. Lisani was arrested on 10th September 2011 in his house and was taken to Ardabil's intelligence service center. According to the prisoners, who recently released, he was tortured and bitten by prison authorities. It is said that, other prisoners heard his painful voice when he was tortured.

"Abbas Lisani" is said to suffer from stomach problem, and pain in his ribs, which is allegedly a result of torture inflicted during previous periods of detention. He has started his hunger strike against unlawful condition of his arrest. However in his latest contact he told that ended his hungry strike. Said his wife Mrs. Rughayye Lisani. As result of Mr. Lesani’s gloomy situation, Mrs. Lisani suffers from nerve's disease and her health situation is undesirable.

Now Mr.Lisani's life is in serious danger. His family phone line is monitoring by "Iranian intelligence service" and whoever wants to visit his family are threatened by Iranian security forces.

We refer to human rights activists and organizations to inform other related organizations in order to condemn Iranian regime and ask to release Mr. Lesani by providing him sufficient aids regarding his health situation.

View petition

Shahrokh Zamani, Nima Pouryaghob, Mohammad Jarahi and Sasan Vahebivash have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in Tabriz, Iran.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the aforementioned individuals are labor activists and students in the city of Tabriz. The Revolutionary Court, Branch 1, has issued verdicts sentencing them to a total of 22 years and 6 months in prison. A fifth defender, Buick Sydler, was found not guilty.

Shahrokh Zamani was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of organizing an opposition group and propaganda against the regime.

Mohammad Jarahi received a 5 year prison term for organizing an opposition group. Nima Pouryaghob was sentenced to 6 years in prison on charges of organizing an opposition group and propaganda against the regime.

Sasan Vahebivash received a 6 month prison term on charges of the membership in an organization opposing IRI and propaganda against the regime.

The Revolutionary Court, Branch 1, tried and convicted these leftist labor activists and students on August 18, 2011. Prior to this trial, a bail approximately equivalent to $94,000 was set for Nima Pouryaghob while Sasan Vahebivash and Buick Sydler each posted approximately $30,000 bail to be temporally released from Tabriz Prison.

The verdicts issued against these political activists are unprecedented in Tabriz in the recent few years.

View petition

Amir Khorram was kidnapped following the summons order by the court in order to serve his sentence.

His 6 year prison sentence was issued for his participation in the Ashura protests and for his membership in the Freedom Movement of Iran. He is an Iran-Iraq War veteran. He has been the member of the Freedom Movement of Iran since 1986.

He was arrested in 2001 along with several other members of the group for the charge of attempting to overthrow the government. The accusation was later forgotten. He spent 3 months in solitary confinement.

He was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison for acting against national security by membership in the Freedom Movement if Iran.

There is no information as to his whereabouts.
Persian Article: http://www.rahana.org/archives/44206

View petition

Iranian authorities have arrested the prominent human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani in Tehran, according to reports out of Iran.

Security officials reportedly searched his home for hours today, Saturday, and later produced an arrest warrant for Soltani, who is also a member of Iran’s Human Rights Defenders Centre.

The charges have not been verified.

Soltani was previously arrested in June 2009 during the mass protests that broke out after the presidential election, over allegations of vote fraud in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory. The lawyer was held for 70 days and released on $100,000 bail.

The Iranian judiciary accused him of “challenging the elections, propaganda against the regime and establishing a group to act against national security.”

Germany’s Human Rights Office in Nuremberg gave Soltani a human rights award in December 2008, which he was unable to receive due to travel restrictions imposed on him by the Islamic Republic. His wife, Masoomeh Dehghani, accepted it on his behalf.

This past June, Dehghani was arrested and released on bail after five days. Soltani, who acted as his wife’s attorney, told ISNA that she was accused of distributing a 15,000-euro prize that came with the award among the families of political prisoners. Soltani added that he had not yet received any such prize.

Dehghani’s file remains open, and no sentence has been issued so far.

Soltani has represented numerous human rights cases, including those of Ali Afshari, Akbar Gangi, Haleh Esfandiari, the family of Zahra Kazemi, the family of Zahra Bani-Yaghoub and several Nationalist-Religious figures. He has also acted for numerous closed-down publications and student activists.

View petition

Political prisoner Misagh Yazdan Nejad has been denied medical care by judicial and prison authorities. Currently, he is behind bars in critical condition in Rajai-Shahr Prison.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), although the medical examiner and the medical commission have recommended to the prosecutor and prison officials that Misagh Yazdan Nejad needs to undergo a surgery, nothing has been done thus far.

Last year, after an urgent recommendation was issued by the medical commission, Misagh Yazdan Nejad was taken to an operating room in a hospital outside the prison, but the surgery was halted for unknown reasons.

Misaghh Yazdan Nejad is a 24 year old student who studied in Payam Nur College to become a translator. During a raid by intelligence agents, he was arrested on September 10, 2007 while attending a memorial service for the19th anniversary of political prisoners executed in 1987. He was subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison by Judge Abolqasem Salvati.

View petition

Vajih Nasheri, Baha’i citizen and wife of Vajihollah Mirza-golpour who had been led around the city with shackles, has been arrested.

Baha’i resident of Sari Vajih Nasheri has been arrested by three Intelligence Ministry agents.
During the arrest, her husband Golpour who had previously been arrested, interrogated and led around the city with shackles, asked to accompany his sick wife but his request was denied.
Mrs. Golpour is 60 and is suffering from diseases such as stomach ache. Even though 8 days have passed since her arrest, her husband has been unable to transfer her medications to her.
He had been told that he has to wait a week for the indictment while according to law a prisoner must be indicted within 24 hours.
It looks like a case has been filed against her following the letter she wrote describing what her husband went through during his arrest.
Persian Article: http://www.rahana.org/archives/43678

View petition

Behnam Darvishian was arrested in 2010 and transferred to Qazvin Intelligence Ministry. His father’s house was searched and his belongings were confiscated afterwards.

A source close to the family informed the Human Rights House of Iran that Darvishian has not had prison visits with his family for the past 8 months and the follow-ups of his family have been inconclusive. He has only called them once last week and has informed them of his breathing problems.

The source added that he is held in solitary confinement units of Qazvin Intelligence Ministry and is in poor physical condition.

Darvishian is a blogger and a computer engineermg student. Another contributer to the same blog Ali Shafie was also arrested last year.

Darvishian was sentenecd to 3 years in prison for anti-regime propaganda and acting agianst national security by creating a blog. His sentence was upheld by the appeals court.

View petition

"I wish for a day when high standard laws are put in place according to human rights charter where no political prisoner spends an hour in jail."~Behrouz Javid, November 2010.

Behrouz Javid Tehrani is an Iranian student who was first arrested following the Iran student protests of July, 1999. He has spent most of the past ten years in jail, and is currently in poor health due to torture. In 2009, Human Rights Watch expressed concern at his condition and called for his immediate release.

Behrouz Javid-Tehrani was arrested in June of 2005 and spent 3 months in solitary confinement under physical and psychological pressure.

According to the Human Rights House of Iran, Javid-Tehrani made a complaint against his interrogators for the injuries sustained on his head during the interrogations but his complaint was never reviewed by the authorities.

He was tried and sentenced to 7 years in prison and 74 lashes which was upheld by the appeals court. His charges included anti-regime pr0paganda, insulting the Supreme Leader, gathering in front of the office of the United Nations and membership in the Democratic Front of Iran.

Contrary to the existing laws, he was taken to the Rajei Shahr Prison which is a place for holding criminals. He was beaten on numerous occasions by the guards and transferred to solitary confinement several times.

He has gone on hunger strike several times in order to protest the violation of his rights . He has also made complaints about having to change his prison ward frequently.

He is currently held in Solitary Confinement at Evin Prison and has been denied furlough despite the fact that 6 years has passed since his arrest.

View petition

Iranian government officials have denied medical care to Kourosh Kohkan who is a social activist locked up in Evin Prison since January 2010.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Kourosh Kohkan suffers from meniscus tear (torn cartilage) of the knee caused while intelligence agents were interrogating and torturing him in Evin Prison.

In April 2011, Kourosh Kohkan went on hunger strike to demand medical care and surgery for his knee. Subsequently, he was transferred to Taleghani Hospital and had a knee operation. Upon his return to Evin Prison after the surgery, due to the lack of medical care, the surgical site became severely infected. So far, prison officials have refused to provide further medical treatment to this political prisoner.

Judge Pierabasi presiding over the Revolutionary Court, Branch 26, has sentenced Kourosh Kohkan to three years and six months in prison and 74 lashes. For the time being, Kourosh Kohkan is serving his sentence in Evin Prison, Ward 350.

View petition

Bahman Ebrahimzadeh, labor activist, stood trial for the second time after spending more than a year in prison. During the second trial, Judge Moqayaseh presided over the Revolutionary Court, Branch 28.

According to a report by the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, Bahman Ebrahimzadeh was initially tried by the Revolutionary Court, Branch 15, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Following his request for appeal and the Supreme Court’s approval, he was tried again. It has been reported that Bahman Ebrahimzadeh’s attorney is optimistic about the second trial and hopeful that his client will receive a lighter sentence.

Bahman Ebrahimzadeh is also an advocate against child labor and has supported the Society to Defend Child Laborers and Street Children. He was arrested in June 2010 and was locked up in one of the solitary confinements in Evin Prison’s ward 2A. Bahman Ebrahimzadeh has been denied furlough since then.

View petition

Masoud Bastani, 32-year-old journalist was born in Arak. He has been editor of Jomhouriat website, and has had journalism backgrounds in Shargh newspaper, Jomhouriat and Kargozaran. He was arrested in 2002 and 2005 before of his recent arrest.

He was sentenced to six months imprisonment for defending Akbar Ganji and other political prisoners, and he spent this term in 2005 in prison of Arak.

Masoud Bastani was arrested on 5th July 2009, while he was referred to the court to track the status of his arrested wife, Mahsa Amrabadi. Earlier, security forces had gone to his house to arrest him, but when he was not at home, they arrested his wife and she had been transferred to Evin prison.

Masoud Bastani was arrested along with other political activists and journalists in Iran after the disputed presidential election. He was forced to confess against himself – in one of the Stalinist show trials which followed the post-election protests- due to severe physical and psychological pressure during interrogation, as was also the case with other defendants.

In the fourth trial, he was forced to discuss subjects and heavy charges against himself, rather than defense. One of the factors in his confessions was his detained wife who had been kept in prison to pressure him.

Mohamed Sharif – Masoud Bastani’s lawyer – was not allowed to meet with his client or to access the case file. He said about the court on 26th August 2010: “One cannot call this ceremony a judicial trial.”

Bastani was sentenced to six years in prison in September. This sentence includes: one year on charge of propaganda against the system, and five years on charge of gathering and colluding to create anarchy. He also was sentenced to a fine of the amount that was uncertain.

Bastani was transferred from Evin prison to Rajaei -Shahr prison on 25th January 2010, and was kept in “Prison for murderers”. It was unlawful act and contrary to the principle of separation and classification of prisoners. Additionally, and contrary to Iranian prison statutes, Bastani has been denied any prison leave.

On June 2, 2011 Bastani was viciously beaten by a prison guard in front of his visiting mother, wife and mother-in-law. After simply requesting that the guard allow him a couple of extra minutes to say goodbye to his loved ones, the guard grabbed him by the collar and banged his head against the wall.

View petition

Bahareh Hedayat, a prominent student and women’s rights activist, is suffering at the hands of the Iranian authorities in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Bahareh is a leading member of Iran’s pro-democracy student movement, Daftar-e Takhim-e Vahdat (Office for Consolidating Unity), and was active in the One Million Signatures Campaign for women’s equality.

Bahareh has received one of the heaviest and harshest prison sentences to date. She has been imprisoned for over one year under severe conditions in the women’s ward of Evin Prison in Tehran. The injustices and oppression inflicted upon Bahareh are retaliation for her peaceful activism as a university student and as an advocate of equality for women in Iran.

Around midnight on December 31, 2009, after the fraudulent June 2009 elections, Bahareh was arrested by the Intelligence Ministry of Iran for the fifth time over the past four years and was initially placed in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. On May 5, 2010, after an unjust trial, the authorities laid 16 charges against her. Bahareh was sentenced to 9 ½ years’ imprisonment—one of the harshest sentences a student movement leader has received in recent years.

In December 2010, while serving her sentence in Evin Prison, Bahareh published a statement in honor of “Students’ Day” along with two other imprisoned student activists. Because of this act, Bahareh was again called to the municipal court to face new charges.

From the moment of her arrest on December 31st 2009, she has spent three months in solitary confinement, has been deprived of temporary leave from prison, and over the past three months her weekly visitation rights and phone privileges have been revoked.

Before December 2009, Bahareh was arrested on four other occasions. Over the past three years, this brave and unremitting activist has spent Nowruz (the Iranian New Year) behind bars.

بهاره هدایت، فعال برجسته ی دانشجویی و زنان، در زندان مخوف اوین در شرایط دشواری به سر می برد. بهاره یکی از اعضای پرسابقه ی جنبش دانشجویی دموکراسی خواه ایران و عضو شورای مرکزی دفتر تحکیم وحدت و سخنگوی این اتحادیه و نیز از اعضای کمپین یک میلیون امضا است.

بهاره یکی از سنگین ترین احکام حبس که تا کنون صادر شده را دریافت کرده است. او بیش از یک سال است که در شرایط بسیار سخت در بند زنان زندان اوین در تهران به سر می برد. این همه بی‌عدالتی و ظلم، تنها به سبب فعالیت‌های منتقدانه دانشجویی و فعالیت مسالمت آمیز برای حقوق برابر زنان بر او وارد شده است.
ب

بهاره نیمه شب دهم دی ماه ۱۳۸۸ پس از کودتای انتخاباتی برای پنجمین بار طی چهار سال اخیر توسط وزارت اطلاعات بازداشت و روانه سلول انفرادی بند ۲۰۹ زندان اوین شد، و در پانزدهم اردیبهشت ۱۳۸۹، در پی برگزاری دادگاهی ناعادلانه با ۱۶ اتهام از سوی مقامات دادگاه مواجه شد. بهاره در نهایت به ۹ سال و نیم زندان محکوم شد. حکمی که یکی از سنگین ترین احکام حبس جنبش دانشجویی در سالهای اخیر، محسوب می شود.

در همین حال و در شرایطی که وی در حال گذران دوران محکومیت خود در زندان اوین است، به علت ارسال پیامی به مناسبت روز دانشجو از داخل زندان، مجددا به دادسرا احضار و با پرونده قضایی جدیدی روبه‌رو شده است.

وی از لحظه بازداشت در تاریخ دهم دیماه ۱۳۸۸ به مدت سه ماه در سلول انفرادی نگهداری شد و تاکنون از داشتن مرخصی محروم بوده و در طول سه ماه گذشته از داشتن ملاقات‌های هفتگی و تماس تلفنی نیز محروم بوده است.

پیش از دی ماه ۱۳۸۸، بهاره چهار بار دیگر نیز در موقعیت های مختلف بازداشت شده بود. این فعال شجاع و خستگی ناپذیر سه سال است که نوروز را در زندان می گذراند.

View petition

After the election and the eruption of widespread anti-government protests, through intimidation and false promises, Iranian student Hamed Rouhinejad was forced to plead guilty in a show trials which resulted in issuing a death penalty by branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court. According to his father, Rouhinejad was initially charged with spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic. At his trial, he was accused of membership in the Association of Iran's Monarchy.

Rouhinejad has denied the charges. On Jan 2010 the death sentence of Hamed was reduced to 10 years of suspended imprisonment by the supreme court.

Hamed suffers from multiple sclerosis, and is in critical condition in Zanjan prison, northwestern Iran, where he is being held in solitary confinement. He has been denied visits and phone calls.

On Oct 19 2010 his father in an interview with radio farda said I visited Hamed 3 weeks ago on that occasion "He was in very poor health, physically and mentally."

He added that physicians at Evin prison and Imam Khomeini hospital have said that Hamed should be released from jail for at least three months for medical treatment, but neither the judge, nor the prosecutor agreed to that.

When he was transferred from Tehran to Zanjan, Hamed’s health deteriorated considerably due to lack of medical care. He is now at serious risk of dementia and death.

His Father added : I ask from all internal and international organizations, the Secretary-General of the UN, and Doctors without Borders to please examine my son’s situation. If they conclude that my son can endure being in prison under these conditions, there will be no objection. But anyone who sees Hamed just for a few minutes knows that he will not survive these conditions. I don’t believe my child will survive another month.

The barbaric human rights violations carried out by the Iranian regime cannot be allowed to continue.

Please do not stand by. Please sign this petition.

Hamed Facebook Page:
http://on.fb.me/99MibR

News Sources:

http://www.rferl.org/content/Iranian_Father_Worried_For_Jailed_Sons_Health/2194687.html

http://persian2english.com/?p=15308

View petition

Abbas Amir-Entezam (born 1933) was the spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister in the Interim Cabinet of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979. In 1981 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of spying for the U.S., a charge critics suggest was a cover for retaliation against his early opposition to theocratic government in Iran. He is now "the longest-held political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran".According to Fariba Amini, as of 2006 he has "been in jail for 17 years and in and out of jail for the last ten years, altogether for 27 years.

Imprisonment

In 1981, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, asked Entezam to come back quickly to Tehran via an encrypted message. After coming back to Tehran, he was arrested because of allegations based on some documents retrieved from U.S. embassy takeover, and received life time prison from court. He was released in 1998, but in less than 3 months, he was arrested again because of an interview with Tous daily newspaper, one of the reformist newspapers of the time.

In smuggled letters, Entezam has related that on three separate occasions, he had been taken blindfolded to the execution chamber - once being kept "there two full days while the Imam contemplated his death warrant." He has spent 555 days in solitary confinement, and in cells so "overcrowded that inmates took turns sleeping on the floor - each person rationed to thee hours of sleep every 24 hours." He suffered permanent ear damage, skin disease, and spinal deformities. He has attacked the regimes saying.

Islam is a religion of care, compassion, and forgiveness. This regime makes it a religion of destruction, death, and torture.

As of 2008 and after more than 25 years, Amir-Entezam is still in prison. He has always denied all the allegations that have been put against him in his trial and asks for a retrial.

For more info please visit: http://bit.ly/bu9gIV

Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/bu9gIV

View petition

September 14, 2010:

Abdollah Momeni, a prominent Iranian activist jailed since June 2009, has described to the world, that he is being severely tortured, was forced to make false confessions, and subjected to a “show trial” in a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Momeni is serving a 4 years and 11 months prison sentence in Ward 350 of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

There is no better way to describe what has happened to Abdollah Momeni, except to read this excerpt for yourself in his own words, a letter from Momeni:

Allow me to describe the first days of my detention. After being arrested in the manner described above, I was transferred to solitary confinement–cell 101 in Section 209 of Evin prison. Upon entry into the cell I noticed that there were feces under the carpet in the room, so I objected. I was told, “You are not worthy of anything better than this.”

After two days in Section 209, I was taken to Section 240 and transferred to the charge of the Ministry of Intelligence . After this, the conditions of prison became even more difficult and increasingly inhumane. Contrary to the regulations adopted by the Sixth Parliament, and the orders of Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, which required that two solitary confinement cells be combined into one to allow for extra space for prisoners, it seemed that in this Section each cell was divided into two cells reducing space and measuring 1.6 meters by 2.2. The width of the cell was shorter than my height and I could only lay down in one position. There was a metal bucket placed over a sewage hole, to make a makeshift toilet where we could relieve ourselves. A water faucet was placed over this makeshift toilet so that the prisoner would not have to be brought out of his cell for basic needs. Unfortunately, the positioning of this tomb-like cell, which benefited from the deathly silence of the ward, was such that the Qiblih [the direction of prayer] was in the same direction as the makeshift toilet and the distance between this toilet and my prayer position was only a few inches. There was also a light projector which was on 24 hours a day, so as to prevent prisoners from even imagining a good night’s rest. Enduring solitary confinement and difficult and lengthy interrogation sessions was something I had to become accustomed to. But along with solitary confinement, repeated sleepless nights resulting from lengthy interrogation sessions, being forced to stand on one foot for lengthy periods, enduring beatings and being slapped repeatedly were the preferred options in our Section during those days. The pressure and being taunted by interrogators for having refused their demands was so great that at times I would pass out during interrogation sessions.

The iron fist of interrogators would also result in my passing out. On several occasions the interrogator in charge of my case strangled me to the point of me loosing consciousness and falling to the ground. For days following these strangulations, I suffered such severe pain in the neck and throat area, that eating and drinking became unbearable. Of course, the negative impact of torture is not something which prisoners such as I have to contend with alone. At times, the interrogator himself suffers as a result of inflicting torture. I remember during one of my interrogations, after receiving repeated blows to the mouth, the interrogator, who would hit me with the back of his hand, noticed that his fingers had suffered cuts as well.

Interrogators even used my screams and cries which resulted from the beatings I was receiving to taunt other prisoners. Later I heard from some prisoners that during their interrogations, which were purposefully scheduled at the same time as mine [in a different room], they could hear my squealing. It seems that my screams were used to inflict emotional pressure on others.

Full English translation text: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/09/letter-momeni-khamanei/

View petition

The Thai government which is not elected by the people of Thailand, does not follow any international rules and regulations, including the Geneva Convention. They don't care about human rights or anything else.

This historical event was followed earlier this year on 10th April and 19th May 2010, with two tragic massacres. The Thai military and government shot down a pro-democracy activist movement in the streets of Bangkok. 91 unarmed civilians were killed, 2,000 injured, and also more than a few hundred people were jailed under the executive decree law.

Therefore, I would like you to take some strong action against this dictatorship, for the freedom, democracy, human rights and safety of the Thai people. In order to avoid future tragic losses and to defend democracy, we demand that the Thai government:

View petition

Keyvan Samimi (62 years old) is an Iranian journalist who was arrested on June the 14th 2009, soon after the presidential election, at the very beginning of the crackdown carried out by Iranian authorities.

He was chief editor of the now banned monthly Nameh ("Letter") and of the website Kharabat. He’s also a Human Rights activist and a member of the National Peace Council, the Committee against Arbitrary Detentions, the Committee in Defense of Citizens’ Rights, and the Right to Education Council. He was a political prisoner during the Shah's regime.

In June 2009, security forces broke into his house in the middle of the night, arrested him and confiscated his personal computer and belongings. According to his lawyer, Nasrin Sotudeh, she visited him for the first time on 10 September 2009 in presence of his interrogator. Mr. Samimi told her that he was beaten twice, and the prison’s doctor certified that the sign of torture was seen on his left leg. Sotudeh also said that she has had no access to his file, but during the visit, Mr. Samimi and his interrogator informed her that he was charged with membership in the illegal groups, including the "National Religious Coalition", the "National Peace Council", and the "Committee to Investigate Arbitrary Detentions" (http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2009/09/report09/).

Since the day of his arrest, Keyvan Samimi spent long time in solitary confinement in Evin prison (Tehran). He was allowed to leave the prison briefly in two occasions: in december 2009, when his daughter got married, and for the Persian New Year, in march 2010. He was finally sent back to prison the morning of April 20.

Keyvan Samimi was at first sentenced to 6 years of jail and to a lifetime ban from any journalistic, social and political activity. The main charges in Keyvan Samimi’s indictment were propagandizing against the regime and conspiring against national security. The indictment also included charges such as participating in post-election protests and issuing statements questioning the validity of the election results.
The Court of Appeal upheld 6 years of imprisonment but reduced the ban from life to 15 years (http://www.rhairan.us/en/?p=5251).

In the summer 2010, Keyvan Samimi was one among the 17 political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin jail who were on hunger strike from 26 July to 10 August 2010, to protest against inhuman prison conditions, after their transfer to solitary confinement. Even if Samimi was the eldest among them, he was also on "dry" hunger strike for almost a week (4-10 August) along with journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amouii and students’ leader Majid Tavakoli. Furthermore, he did't break the strike when his younger fellow inmates did. He has continued his protest until he and all his ‘imprisoned children’ have been transferred from solitary confinement to the general ward of Evin prison.
He ended his hunger strike after 24 days.

View petition

*Updates:

Iranian woman has not been executed, official says

Iranian women 'in slavery': stoning woman's lawyer

Petition: Free Sakineh's son Sajjad, lawyer Houtan Kian, and two German Journalists

Jailed Iranian Woman's Son Reported Missing

Final verdict not yet decided on Iranian woman sentenced to stoning

Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani: My mother is innocent

Lawyer: Woman facing stoning in Iran has been whipped

Son seeks proof Iranian stoning case 'on hold'

Iran: Woman's stoning sentence on hold

Iran orders 99 lashes for woman facing execution, rights group says

Final verdict postponed for Iranian woman facing stoning

Sakineh Mohammadi was forced to "confess" on TV

* SAKINEH IS IN DANGER OF STONING OR ANOTHER METHOD OF EXECUTION

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case review postponed; final judgment will be made in 20 days

Islamic Republic judiciary authorities to decide Sakineh’s case on July 21

Children of Sakineh Ashtiani Mohammadi, have written a letter! MUST READ!

** June 23, 2010: SAKINEH HAS ASKED FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO FORGIVE HER, THEY [[[[[REJECTED!!!!]]]]] PLEASE KEEP SIGNING, AND SPREAD THE NEWS ABOUT HER! WE CAN SAVE HER!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Radio Free Europe | Radio Liberty

A lawyer and activist close to the case of an Iranian woman convicted of adultery say she may soon be stoned to death, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

Women's rights activist Soheila Vahdati spoke to Radio Farda on June 17 about the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Ashtiani, who has two children, has been imprisoned in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz since 2005.

Vahdati says Sakineh was earlier sentenced to 99 lashes in 2006 for having "illicit relationships." The sentence was subsequently carried out and her case was closed.

But authorities later charged Ashtiani with murder. Prosecutors alleged that Ashtiani and her boyfriend had killed her husband.

In making the murder case against Ashtiani, activist Vahdati says the court "illegally" reopened the adultery case against Ashtiani. It was the second time Ashtiani would be tried for the same alleged adulterous conduct.

According to Vahdati, Ashtiani was sentenced to be stoned to death for the same alleged act of adultery for which she earlier had been convicted to 99 lashes. It is not clear when she was sentenced.

While denying the charges against her, Ashtiani has asked the authorities for a pardon.

According to activist Vahdati, Ashtiani told the authorities, "if I have done any wrong, I repent."

Her clemency request was rejected.

Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaie, who represents Ashtiani, also maintains her innocence. Writing on his personal blog, the lawyer described Ashtiani's stoning as imminent and said his client will be executed "for an offense she has not committed."

According to Article 83 of the Laws of Islamic Punishment in Iran, ratified in 1991, the penalty for adultery is death by stoning.

However, murder is not punishable in Iran by stoning. Murderers who receive the death sentence are hanged.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Fear_For_Iranian_Woman_Facing_Death_By_Stoning_/2075376.html

-------------

**Facebook (for Sakineh): www.Facebook.com/SaveSakineh

View petition

Update: September 21, 2010 Trial has been held and the prosecutor has requested the death penalty by execution for Hossein 'Hoder' Derakhshan. The sentencing verdict has not been delivered to the court but the risk is implied. Please sign and forward petition to all contacts. Thank you.

Hossein 'Hoder' Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian Blogger, journalist, and internet activist. He has been advocating the use of the internet as a means for social and political reform in Iran.

He is credited with starting the blogging revolution in Iran and is called by many journalists as the father of Persian blogging or the 'Blogfather'. He also helped to promote podcasting in Iran. His weblog, like some other political Persian blogs and websites, has been blocked (or filtered) by the government in Iran, since 2004

On leaving Iran, he was shortly detained and summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence. A few days later he was interrogated by an intelligence official over the content of his blog and was forced to sign an apology before being allowed to leave Iran.

After returning to iran On November 1, 2008, Derakhshan was arrested at his family home in Tehran.
As of late April 2009, the New York Times stated that Derakhshan remained under detention and had not been charged. However, by late October 2009, approaching the one-year anniversary of his arrest, his family began speaking out to Persian and English-language media. His father, Hassan Derakhshan, most notably released an open letter to the new head of the Iranian Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani. asking for more information about his son's detention.

View petition

Writers expressing themselves in Azeri are deprived of linguistic freedom consisting of freedom of speech and freedom to write in their mother tongue and face perpetual problems having their work published in Azeri.

The arrested writers are being held in solitary confinement in Evin prison in Tehran, and are at risk of torture and other ill treatment.

View petition

In September 2008, the following poets and writers were arrested and imprisoned merely because they wrote in their mother tongue:

Azeri: Alireza Sarrafi, Hasan Rasedi, Akbar Azad, Saeid Muganli, Mehdi Neemi, Hamid Arghish. They are now in solitary confinement in Evin prison.

They are deprived of Linguistic freedom consisting of freedom of speech and freedom to write in their mother tongue, facing perpetual problems having their work published in Azeri Freedom to have their children educated in mother tongue.

These issues apply to all Azeris in Iran. Between 16 and 23 million Azeris live in Iran.

View petition

Michael McGee Jr. is an Alderman in the 6th aldermatic district of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On Memorial Day, May 28, 2007, Alderman Michael McGee Jr. was arrested on various state charges with federal charges to be added later.

Alderman McGee Jr. is denied bail, which is his right as a citizen. He has not had his day in court to determine his guilt or innocence. The reasons for denial of bail are frivolous and historically bail denials are generally reserved for murderers or other dangerous criminals.

His being denied bail is based on the accusation of using the jail telephone to intimidate witnesses. This is totally false. Even though his bail of $50,000 was posted for the state charges, he was then held on federal charges. He was given a bail of $10,000 by one federal judge, Patricia Gorence along with a series of restriction that would largely confine him to his home.

However, prosecutors appealed that ruling, once again denying his bail by citing telephone calls from the Alderman while in the Milwaukee County Jail, that they said were aimed at intimidating witnesses and swaying testimony. U.S. District Court Judge Ruldoph Randa overturned Gorence's ruling, an unprecedented ruling never before done in the history of Milwaukee jurisprudence.

We the citizenry of Milwaukee are outraged at this blatant show of disrespect for an officer of the City of Milwaukee and demand his release on his own signature bond as have been given to those of his stature.

View petition

Manuela Terre Sanchez is a nine year old fifth grader in Hamilton, Ontario CANADA. She is being held in Colombia on is a Family Law "Hague Convention" matter.

Officials there say she is a Columbian citizen, and Columbia is not recognizing her Landed Immigrant status in Canada. In August, Manuela, & her family made a trip to Columbia for a holiday. When they were set to return home to Canada, she was refused.

Her family stayed in Columbia trying to get it all worked out, but her parents, being threatened with prison, decided the safest thing to do was to return to Canada to fight for Manuela. And so the fight continues.

This family's human rights have been torn apart for political reasons that make no sense. To make matters worse her Biological father in Canada has sent a letter to Columbia stating (though he gave up all rights to her legally 6 yrs ago) she should remain in Columbia not Canada, the only home she has known since age 1. Our Government needs to intervene ASAP!

View petition

Blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, 36 years old, is currently serving an unmerited prison sentence of four years and three months after grossly unjust trials. He was sentenced for damaging property and blocking traffic, after he brought a class-action lawsuit against the local authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for implementing a campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations, which allegedly affected thousands of local women.

Human rights advocates, including myself, believe Chen’s sentence is a politically motivated effort to prevent him from pursuing his peaceful human rights activities. Hence, we strongly advocate for his immediate and unconditional release from prison.
Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International stated:

"We condemn utterly the sentence imposed on Chen Guangcheng and consider him a prisoner of conscience. Chen has been imprisoned solely because of his peaceful defence of human rights and he should be released immediately."

"The charges against Chen were politically motivated and the trial was grossly unfair from start to finish. Chen's lawyers were obstructed at every step of the way, from collecting evidence to representing him in court. By some accounts the trial lasted only two hours; and the courtroom was filled with official representatives preventing members of the public and most of Chen's relatives attending."

Chen was initially convicted in August 2006 during a swift two hour trial. Since his conviction, his defense attorney, supporters and even his family, have been subjected to harassment, beatings, and intimidation. He appealed his sentence, and to everyone’s astonishment the appeal court ordered a retrial. However, the retrial was unsuccessful because the appeal court refused to consider new evidence from key witnesses.

Chinese activists have expressed that the lengthy sentence reflected that officials are cracking down on human rights advocates who include a growing number of lawyers, academics and dissidents trying to expand citizens’ freedoms through litigation and internet campaigns for legal reform.

According to Chen’s wife, Yuan Weijing, Chen hasn’t eaten well for the past few months and has not received a decent meal since his transfer to the Linyi Prison. Chen also expressed that the prison applies a cruel system: where certain prisoners are empowered to governing other prisoners. Chen’s wife thinks he is being mistreated in prison and we are all very worried about his well-being. Time is of the essence, we most join together to advocate for his immediate release. Also we most continue to build awareness about the illegal practice of forced abortions and sterilizations against women being practiced in various regions of the world.

View petition

Please sign this petiton to name a street in Harlem, NY in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Your help is needed.

www.freemumia.com

www.mumia.org

View petition