Over the past days, Mr. Emad Baghi, who is also the founder of the Centre for Defence of Prisoners’ Rights, has been prevented from getting his passport without any reason being given by the authorities. This has prevented him from leaving Iran to go to Geneva, Switzerland, where he was to receive the MEA on November 2.
Mr. Baghi has thus become the first laureate in the 18-year history of the MEA not to be allowed to receive his prize in person.
"This de facto travel ban imposed on this prominent defender is one more evidence of the intensifying crackdown of the authorities on the independent civil society", FIDH Vice-President Karim Lahidji declared.
"By not allowing the 2009 MEA Laureate to come to Geneva, the Iranian Government tries to prevent the voice of the victims from shedding light on daily violations of fundamental freedoms of Iranian women and men", said Eric Sottas, OMCT Secretary General.
The Observatory recalls that over the past years, Mr. Baghi has repeatedly been subjected to acts of harassment. In particular, he was arbitrarily detained from 2000 to 2003 in relation to articles he had written against the death penalty. Likewise, on July 31, 2007, he was condemned by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to three years in prison for "activities against national security" and "publicity in favour of the regime’s opponents", following articles he had written and which called for the defence of persons who were sentenced to death in the southern Khozestan region. Mr. Baghi was finally released in September 2008 for medical reasons.
In the framework of the Observatory, FIDH and OMCT - both members of the Jury of the MEA - firmly denounce this blatant violation on Mr. Emad Baghi’s freedom of movement, and calls upon the Iranian authorities to cease all harassment against him - and put an end to all obstacles to his activities - as well as against all human rights defenders in Iran, in conformity with the 1998 United Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified by Iran.
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