Between 20 and 30 students,
including those named above, are being detained
without charge mostly in
Tehran
Amnesty international
PUBLIC
AI Index: MDE 13/147/2007
13 December 2007
UA 331/07
Arbitrary arrests/ fear of torture or
ill-treatment/ possible prisoners of conscience
Between 20 and 30 students (male and female)
associated with the student group Students for
Freedom and Equality (Daneshjouyan-e Azadi Khah
va Beraber Talab), including:
Rosa ‘Essa’ie, (f) member of Iran's Armenian
minority, student at Tehran’s Amir Kabir
University
Mehdi Geraylou (m), student at Tehran University
Anousheh Azadfar (f), student at Tehran University
Ilnaz Jamshidi (f), student at Free University of
Central Tehran
Rouzbeh Safshekan (m), student at Tehran University
Nasim Soltan-Beigi (m), student at ‘Allameh
Tabatabai University
Yaser Pir Hayati (m), student at Shahed University
Younes Mir Hosseini (m), student at Shiraz
University
Milad Moini (m), student at Mazandaran University
Between 20 and 30 students, including those named
above, are being detained without charge mostly in
Tehran but also other cities,
following scores of demonstrations and mass student
sit-ins linked to Iran's national University
Students’ Day, 7 December. They may be prisoners
of conscience, detained solely for exercising their
right to freedom of expression and association, and
it is feared that they could be tortured or
otherwise ill-treated in detention.
Dozens of students have been detained over the last
six weeks, following protests against the
replacement of scores of professors and other
actions apparently intended to further limit of
freedom of expression on university campuses,
including the banning of a number of student
publications, and suspensions and expulsions of
students from their places of higher education.
Activists from the students' groups, the Office for
Strengthening Unity (Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat)
and Students For Freedom and Equality (Daneshjouyan-e
Azadi Khah va Beraber Talab) were said to be
among those who took part in these demonstrations.
According to a report from news agency Agence
France Presse (AFP) on 11 December, a
spokesperson for Iran’s judiciary stated that it
continues to hold up to 24 students, including some
arrested in previous months; the Persian-language
website:
http://takravi1.blogfa.com/
features 28 names. Most of those detained in
Tehran are said to be held in sections
209 and 240 of Evin Prison and others in a state
intelligence unit called Daftar-e Paygiri
(Follow-up Office).
The recent student demonstrations – often
involving hundreds of students – took place in
Shahroud, east of
Tehran; at Mazandaran University in
Babolsar in the north of the country; and in Shiraz,
in the south. One student in custody, Yaser Pir
Hayati, is known to be a student at Tehran’s
Shahed University, an establishment solely for the
children of Iranians killed during the Iran-Iraq war
(1980-1988). On 12 December, family members of those
still detained gathered outside Evin prison and
outside Iran's parliament building to protest
against the incommunicado detention of their
relatives.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Student groups have been at the forefront of demands
for greater human rights in
Iran
in recent years. Since the election of
President Ahmadinejad in 2005, there
have been increasing restrictions on civil society
in
Iran.
In April 2007, Minister of Intelligence Gholam
Hossein Mohseni Ejeie publicly accused student
activists and campaigners for the rights of women in
Iran
of being part of an "enemy conspiracy".
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as
quickly as possible, in Persian, English, Arabic or
your own language:
- calling on the authorities to release all students
detained in recent weeks if they are prisoners of
conscience, held solely on account of the peaceful
exercise of their rights, and for any others to be
tried promptly and fairly, in accordance with
international fair trial standards, on recognisably
criminal charges or else released;
- seeking details of any charges brought against
those in detention;
- seeking assurances that none of those arrested is
subject to torture or other ill treatment;
- calling on the authorities to ensure that these
detainees have unfettered access to relatives, legal
representation, and any medical attention they may
require;
- reminding the authorities that confessions
extracted under duress are prohibited by Article 38
of the constitution of
Iran,
which says that "All forms of torture for the
purpose of extracting confession or acquiring
information are forbidden," and that
Iran
is a state party to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), of which Article
7 states that "No one shall be subjected to cruel,
inhuman or degrading punishment.".
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali
Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic
Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head
of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e
Jomhouri,
Tehran 1316814737,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:
info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the
subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Intelligence
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street,
Pasdaran Avenue,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue,
Azerbaijan Intersection,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:
dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website:
www.president.ir/email
Speaker of Parliament
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 3355 6408
Email: hadadadel@majlis.ir
(Please ask that your message be brought to the
attention of the Article 90 Commission)
and to diplomatic representatives of
Iran
accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the
International Secretariat, or your section office,
if sending appeals after
24
January 2008.
Working to protect human rights worldwide
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