HARASSMENT OF DISSIDENT IRANIAN
CLERIC MUST END
Dissident Iranian cleric Seyed
Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi has faced continued intimidation and death threats
by the Iranian authorities since his release from prison on 4 January. He is
under 24 hour surveillance and has effectively been placed under house arrest.
He is critically ill, and could be returned to prison at any time.
Dissident cleric Seyed Hossein
Kazemeini Boroujerdi, 59, has faced intense pressure from the Iranian
authorities since he was released from prison on temporary medical leave on 4
January. He has been effectively placed under house arrest without judicial
order or oversight; the authorities have placed severe restrictions on his
freedom of movement. He is only allowed to leave his home in Tehran to attend
hospital and doctor appointments. He is not permitted any visitors and his home
is under 24-hour surveillance by officials from the Special Court for the
Clergy. Since his release, this court summoned him twice, on 15 April and 8
August, and subjected him to intimidation and threats of being returned to
prison. Officials from the court have paid frequent visits to his house to warn
him against speaking to the media, threatening to kill him if he does so.
Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi’s
health remains poor. Since his release, he has had medical tests and some
treatment but continues to suffer from numerous medical conditions, a number of
which he developed in prison and which were exacerbated by the denial of
adequate medical care in prison. These include heart disease; kidney problems;
severe arthritis; lumbar herniated disc; and spinal stenosis. He has numbness
and tingling in his hands and feet, back and leg pain, and has difficulty
walking and performing daily tasks. He also suffers from shortness of breath
and collapses frequently. His doctors have told him his medical conditions are
the result of years in prison, being kept in unsanitary conditions, given
inadequate nutrition, and lack of medical care.
Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi
was arrested on 8 October 2006. Following a grossly unfair trial before the
Special Court for the Clergy, he was sentenced in August 2007 to 11 years’
imprisonment on charges related to his advocacy for the separation of religion
and state. He has several months of his sentence left to serve. He could be
returned to prison at any time.
Please write immediately in Persian,
English, or your own language, calling on the Iranian authorities to:
Stop the harassment and
intimidation of Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi, and remove the restrictions
on his freedom of movement without delay, as they amount to arbitrary
deprivation of his liberty;
Lift the house arrest against Seyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi
and release him immediately and unconditionally as he is a prisoner of
conscience held solely for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of
belief, expression, association, and assembly;
Abolish the Special Court for the
Clergy as it is fundamentally unfair and lacks internationally recognized
standards of impartiality and judicial independence.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 28
SEPTEMBER 2017 TO:
Office of the Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Islamic Republic Street- End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran,
Islamic Republic of Iran Salutation: Your Excellency
Secretary General, High Council for
Human Rights
Mohammad Javad Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary Pasteur Street, Vali Asr Avenue
South
of Serah-e Jomhouri, T ehran, Iran
Email: info@humanrights-iran.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
President
Hassan
Rouhani
The Presidency
Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square Tehran, Iran
Also send copies to diplomatic
representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic
addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3
Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please
check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is
the first update of UA 78/14. Further information:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/016/2014/en/
URGENT ACTION
HARASSMENT OF DISSIDENT IRANIAN CLERIC MUST END
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Since his release in January 2017,
Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi has been banned from writing and
distributing publications, delivering speeches, continuing his teachings, and
organizing ideological or doctrinal meetings. He has also twice been summoned
to the Special Court for the Clergy. On 15 April 2017, he was summoned to the
court where he was warned by the Special Prosecutor for the Clergy not to make
any statements about the presidential election that was taking place in May
2017 or else he would be returned to prison. He was summoned again on 8 August
2017 and asked about an incident during which some of his followers and
students had gone to visit him in the parking lot of a hospital where he had an
appointment. The Special Prosecutor for the Clergy told him that he had no
right to visits with his students and followers and that if he were to see them
again he would no longer be allowed to go for hospital appointments. The
Prosecutor also told him “We are worried about you. We are worried that some
vigilantes will come and attack, beat you, and kill you”, a statement which
Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi understood as a veiled threat against him.
Prior to his medical leave, a number
of conditions were set by the authorities for Seyed Hossein Kazemeini
Boroujerdi’s release. In addition to making a hefty bond payment of three
billion Rial ($USD 92,670) and presenting two bail guarantors, he had to give
written undertakings to three separate security bodies, including the Ministry
of Intelligence, with a commitment that he would not talk to the media or take
part in gatherings of more than 10 people. In prison, he had been suffering
from a number of medical conditions, including continuous pain in his bones and
joints which have made it difficult for him to walk. The doctor he saw in Evin
prison clinic prior to his release had told him that he may have a herniated
spinal disc and he had recommended a magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) scan.
However, Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi was never transferred to a hospital
to have the scan and he was denied specialized medical care while in prison.
Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi
has long advocated for the separation of religion from government. Prior to the
start of his imprisonment in 2006, his views had led to him being summoned
repeatedly before the Special Court for the Clergy and to his repeated arrest
since 1995. On 30 June 2006, he conducted a large religious ceremony in Tehran
during which he advocated the separation of religion and state. In the months
that followed, the authorities tried to arrest him several times, but were
prevented from doing so by his followers, who gathered outside his house in
Tehran to protect him. Dozens of his followers were subsequently arrested by
security forces in September and October 2006. On 8 October 2006, Seyed Hossein
Kazemeini Boroujerdi was arrested and charged with around 30 offences,
including “enmity against God” (moharebeh). His trial, held before the Special
Court for the Clergy was grossly unfair. The independent lawyer whom his family
had appointed for him was rejected by the court. Instead, the court provided
him with a state-appointed lawyer whom he had never met before his trial. The
court sentenced him to 11 years’ imprisonment on 13 August 2007 and defrocked
him (he is banned from wearing his clerical robes and thereby from practicing
his clerical duties). The exact charges for which he was convicted remain
unclear as he was never issued a verdict. Instead, the judge read the verdict
to him in court. It is believed that he has been convicted of a number of
spurious vaguely-worded national security offences stemming from the peaceful
exercise of his right to freedom of belief, as well as freedom of expression of
expression, association and assembly.
The Special Court for the Clergy
holds exclusive jurisdiction over “offences” committed by clerics. These
include broad and vaguely worded offences such as “counter-revolution,
corruption, fornication, unlawful acts, accusations which are incompatible with
the status of the clergy, and all crimes committed by ‘pseudo-clergy’, both in
terms of the ugly acts they commit and the effect they have on the reputation
of the clergy”. The court is regularly used to squash dissent within the
clergy. The court stands outside the country’s judiciary as a separate
institution and falls under the direct supervision of the Supreme Leader.
Name: Seyed Hossein Kazemeini
Boroujerdi Gender m/f: m
Further information on UA: 78/14 Index:
MDE 13/6942/2017 Issue Date: 17 August 2017
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