“Since their arrest last week, the whereabouts of Messrs. Soltani and Zeydabadi remain unknown”, said Karim Lahidji, Vice President of FIDH. “We are extremely worried and we fear for their physical and psychological integrity”, he added.
The disappearances of Messrs. Soltani and Zeydabadi, since respectively June 16 and 12, 2009, take place in a context of general repression on civil society. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports that 33 journalists are currently in jail, 23 of them having been arrested since the presidential election results; the last arrest took place in the night of June 20, when two journalists, Mr. Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee and his wife, Ms. Jila Baniyaghoob, were arrested in their home in Tehran by plain clothed officers of the Ministry of Intelligence. They were subsequently transferred to an unknown location. Ms. Jina Baniyaghoob is a well-known women’s rights activist in her country.
The Observatory calls upon the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Soltani, a long-standing human rights defender who has already been repressed on several occasions in the past, Mr. Zeydabadi and Ms. Baniyaghoob, as well as all other civil society activists presently detained in Iran insofar as their detention only aims at sanctioning their human rights activities.
“Brutal repression is not a response to peaceful claims for the respect of the right to free and fair elections”, said Eric Sottas, Secretary General of OMCT. “Their call must be heard, and the Iranian authorities should recognise the vibrant Iranian civil society has today a crucial role to play”, he concluded.
The Observatory also recalls that the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), a major independent human rights NGO in Iran, has been closed by the authorities in December 2008. Up to now, the doors of their offices are still sealed.
Accordingly, the Observatory calls upon the Iranian authorities to guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of all Iranian human rights defenders and to stop any kind of harassment against them, in conformity with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as international human rights instruments ratified by Iran.
For further information, please contact:
· FIDH : Gaël Grilhot / Karine Appy, + 33 1 43 55 14 12
· OMCT : Delphine Reculeau : + 41 22 809 49 39