Incommunicado detention of human rights lawyer Zeinab Taheri

Ill-treatments/ Judicial harassment

Iran

June 22, 2018

The Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation AgainstTorture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situationin Iran.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by the Leaguefor the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI) about the arbitrary arrest,incommunicado detention and judicial harassment of Ms. Zeinab Taheri, a human rights lawyer.

According to the information received, on June19, 2018, Ms. Zeinab Taheri was summoned to the Prosecutor’s Office for Cultureand Media in Tehran and detained on charges of “disturbing the public opinion”,“spreading propaganda against the system” and “publishing lies”. TehranProsecutor Mr. Jafari Dolatabadi subsequently said during a press conference organisedon the same day that Ms. Taheri had “incited the public opinion and mobilisedthe counterrevolution against the judiciary”, and that “the hostile media usedher remarks to published reports against the judiciary”.

Later on the same day, Ms. Zeinab Taheri wastransferred to the Qarchack women’s prison in Sharhr-e Rey, southern Tehran,where she has been detained incommunicado since. Ms. Taheri would allegedlyhave been subjected to ill-treatments during her detention and subsequentlytransferred to a hospital. She has also reportedly started a hunger strike toprotest her detention.

Ms. Zeinab Taheri’s arrest came a day after oneof her clients, Mr. Mohammad Salass, a Sufi dervish, was executed, forallegedly driving a bus that killed three members of the security forces nearthe house of a Sufi Order’s leader four months ago. Ms. Taheri took over thecase in its final stage and applied for a retrial at the Supreme Court.However, the Supreme Court did not invite her to a hearing and did not seem totake notice of her application. In the final week leading to the execution ofher client, Ms. Zeinab Taheri said that he had been coerced to confess undertorture and had voiced her objections and criticism of the unfair proceedingsagainst her client, including on Twitter,where she had vowed to "reveal for public opinion all possible"evidence of her client’s innocence. Ms. Taheri also wrote an open letter to Iran’sSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to ask him to intervene in the case. Theinternational community voiced its concerns about the judicial proceedings thatled to the execution of Mr. Mohammad Salass[1].

The Observatory expresses its deepest concernabout Ms. Zeinab Taheri’s incommunicado detention and urges the Iranianauthorities to immediately and unconditionally release her and to guarantee inall circumstances her physical and psychological integrity.

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities of Iran askingthem to:

i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physicaland psychological integrity of Ms. Zeinab Taheri, as well as of all human rightsdefenders in Iran;

ii. Immediately and unconditionally release Ms.Zeinab Taheri, as well as all human rights defenders detained in Iran, as theirdetention is arbitrary as it is merely aimed at punishing them for their humanrights activities;

iii. In the meantime, guarantee her right to due process and fair trial, as protected underinternational law, including the unhindered access to her lawyer and family;

iv. Put an end to all acts of harassment,including at the judicial level, against Ms. Zeinab Taheri, as well as of allhuman rights defenders in Iran and ensure that they are able to carry outtheir activities without hindrance;

v. Carryout a transparent, impartial, immediate and thorough investigation into theabove-mentioned allegations of ill-treatment in order to identify all thoseresponsible, bring them before an independent tribunal, and sanction them asprovided by the law;

vi. Conform in all circumstances to theprovisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9,1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, in particular its Articles 1 and12.2.;

vii. Ensure in all circumstances respect forhuman rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international humanrights instruments ratified by Iran.

Addresses:

· Leader of theIslamic Republic, H.E. Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, Fax: + 98 21 441 2030,Email: info_leader@leader.ir; Twitter: @khamenei_ir

· President HassanRouhani, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98 21 644 54811; Email:media@rouhani.ir; Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) and @Rouhani_ir (Persian).

· Head of theJudiciary, H.E. Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: +98 21879 6671 / +98 21 3 311 6567, Email: info@dadiran.ir /info@dadgostary-tehran.ir / info@bia-judiciary.ir

· Minister ofForeign Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax:+98-21-66743149; matbuat@mfa.gov.ir

· Secretary General, High Council for HumanRights, Mr. Mohammed Javad Larijani, Islamic Republic of Iran. Email:info@humanrights-iran.ir

· H.E. Mr. JavadAmin-Mansour, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran tothe United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 7330203, Email:mission.iran@ties.itu.int

· H.E. Mr. Peiman Seadat, Ambassador, Embassy ofIran in Brussels, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 762 39 15. Email:secreteriat@iranembassy.be

Please also write todiplomatic representations of Iran in your respective countries.

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Geneva-Paris, June 22, 2018

Kindly inform us of any actionundertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatoryfor the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in1997 by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the FIDH. Theobjective of this programme is to intervene to prevent or remedy situations ofrepression against human rights defenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members ofProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanismimplemented by international civil society.

[1] See for instance EEASStatement on an execution carried out in Iran on June 19, 2018.