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Persecuted Citizens of Saudi Arabia, Iran And Tunisia

By Countercurrents.org

28 January 2013
Countercurrents.org

Persecution of advocates and activists for human rights and poor are regular incidents in several countries. The three incidents, cited below, related to Saudi Arabian, Iranian and Tunisian citizens show a part of the existing reality.

Saudi diplomat

Mishal bin Zaar Hamad al-Mutiry, a former Saudi Arabian diplomat who was due to be deported from Qatar to his native country was able to travel to Morocco after receiving support from Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee, said Amnesty International [1].

Mishal, 50, and his family are now in Morocco after leaving the Gulf country on January 18, 2013.

The Qatari authorities halted his deportation to Saudi Arabia after pressure, including from Amnesty International, and efforts by Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), which intervened to help pay the al-Mutiry family’s travel expenses to Morocco.

“The spotlight shone on this case resulted in the Qatari authorities curtailing their plans to deport Mishal al-Mutiry long enough for him and his family to leave of their own accord, and the assistance of the NHRC was crucial to ensuring they could travel,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Program Director at Amnesty International.

“Given that Mishal al-Mutiry faced a real risk of torture in Saudi Arabia, it is a huge relief that the authorities did not end up forcing him to return there.”

Before leaving for Morocco, Mishal al-Mutiry had lived in Qatar since August 2011, when he fled there from his native Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, Qatari police had twice summoned Mishal al-Mutiry to inform him of impending plans to forcibly return him to Saudi Arabia in line with requests from the Saudi Arabian authorities.

Amnesty International believes that there is a credible risk the former diplomat could face arbitrary detention or torture if he sets foot in Saudi Arabia again.

The fears stem from his previous ill-treatment in the country’s capital, Riyadh, and the Saudi Arabian authorities’ intolerance of criticism.

In 2006, the ex-diplomat said he was detained for six months and tortured after officers allegedly working for the Saudi Arabian authorities tracked him down and forced him to board a plane from Brussels back to Riyadh.

At the time, Mishal al-Mutiry had been living in the Netherlands, where he had been granted political asylum in 2004. He feared retribution from the Saudi Arabian authorities after they dismissed him from his job at the country’s embassy in The Hague following allegations he made that the embassy was complicit in funding terrorism.

“We will continue to monitor his situation and react if the risk of being deported to Saudi Arabia arises again,” said Luther.

Iran

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, was returned to prison unexpectedly curtailing a three-day temporary leave to visit her family, which was expected to be extended [2].

Nasrin, who has been serving a six-year prison sentence since September 2010, was granted her first furlough from Tehran’s Evin Prison on January 17, 2013 on production of a hefty bail.

Amnesty International has long campaigned for her unconditional release as a prisoner of conscience, as she was jailed solely for her peaceful work as a human rights lawyer.

Sotoudeh has denied all the charges against her, which include “spreading propaganda against the system” and belonging to an “illegal” organization, the Centre for Human Rights Defenders.

“Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose human rights work has been recognized internationally, including when she was awarded the EU’s Sakharov Prize last year, is a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately, unconditionally and for good,” said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program.

“Nasrin Sotoudeh’s three-day release was merely a cruel charade and illustrates how little respect the Iranian authorities have for their international human rights obligations.

Impact on Sotoudeh’s family

Vaguely worded charges like those against Sotoudeh do not amount to recognizably criminal offences, but they commonly lead to the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience.

“It is becoming increasingly common for the Iranian authorities to use the denial of access to family visits as a form of punishment for imprisoned human rights defenders. Children of prisoners are often deeply affected by the absence of a parent and denial of family visits only compounds their distress,” said Harrison.

Before her recent three-day release – which is provided for under Iranian law – Sotoudeh had been regularly prevented from having face-to-face meetings with her husband Reza Khandan and their two young children since her imprisonment in 2010. She was also frequently prevented from speaking with her family.

In the meantime, the Iranian authorities have otherwise harassed or taken punitive measures against her family members.

On one occasion her husband was detained overnight for his peaceful advocacy to secure his wife’s release.

The authorities also placed an illegal travel ban on their 13-year-old daughter, which prompted Sotoudeh to stage a 49-day hunger strike in prison late last year.

Khandan, along with several Iranian women’s rights activists, met with parliamentarians to raise concern about her case, which assisted in getting the travel restriction lifted, prompting Sotoudeh to end her hunger strike on December 4, 2012.

A spokeswoman for the Security Committee of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said that a number of its members took part in an inspection of Evin Prison on January 21. Shortly after they left, Sotoudeh was summoned back to prison.

Khandan told Amnesty International that her prompt return had come as a surprise, and he plans on writing to parliamentarians to raise concerns that her release may simply have been a pretext for ensuring she was absent when the inspection took place.

“The authorities had indicated to us that her release would be more than three days. It was totally unexpected [that she would return so soon]...and when we took her back to Evin Prison, outside the gate, the children wept – it was so hard on both of them,” said Khandan.

Others temporarily released

In the past week, several other imprisoned activists and journalists – all prisoners of conscience – have been granted temporary conditional leave from Evin and other Iranian prisons.

Among them was Bahareh Hedayat, whose furlough also began on January 17, the same day as Sotoudeh’s release.

A student and women’s rights activist serving a 10-year prison sentence following her arrest on December 31, 2009, Hedayat has been convicted of “insulting the president”, “insulting the Leader”, “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security”, and “spreading propaganda against the system”.

On January 22, four imprisoned journalists were granted temporary releases from Evin Prison and Raja’i Shahr Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.

Among them were Mahsa Amrabadi and her husband, Masoud Bastani. Held at different prisons, both have been convicted of security-related charges including “propaganda against the state” for articles they wrote regarding the disputed 2009 presidential election.

Bahman Ahmadi-Amoui (Ahmadi Amou'i), a journalist who received the Hellman-Hammett Award in 2011, was also released temporarily. He is serving a five-year sentence in Raja’i Shahr Prison on charges that include “spreading propaganda against the system” and “insulting the president”, while his wife, Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, who is also an award-winning journalist, remains in Evin Prison where she is serving a one-year sentence.

The fourth journalist released on furlough on Tuesday was Ahmad Zeidabadi, who is also the spokesperson of the Graduates’ Association. He was sentenced in November 2009 to six years’ imprisonment, five years in internal exile, and a lifetime ban on all social and political activities after appearing in sessions of a mass “show trial” in August 2009.

On January 10, Iranian human rights defender and lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, was also released on furlough. He began serving a nine-year prison sentence in September 2012 after being convicted a year earlier on charges including “membership of an association [the Centre for Human Rights Defenders] seeking the soft overthrow of the government” and “spreading propaganda against the system through interviews with foreign media”.

“Any release, albeit temporary, of these prisoners of conscience is welcome news for them and their families, but they must not be returned to prison and their sentences must be overturned. The Iranian authorities must also immediately and unconditionally release all other prisoners of conscience currently in Iran’s jails,” said Harrison.

Tunisia

Two activists in Tunisia, who face charges in relation to their drawing of graffiti last November, must not be jailed for exercising their freedom of expression, said Amnesty International [3].

Oussama Bouajila, 25, and Chahine Berrich, 23, from the anti-poverty street art group Zwewla (“the poor”) are charged with “spreading false information with the aim of disrupting the public order”, “defying the state of emergency” and “writing on a public building without permission”.

They were charged in November after they were caught writing slogans in support of the poor on a university wall in the city of Gabes, in the south east of Tunisia.

“These men should not be penalized for what their graffiti said. It is unjustifiable to threaten them with prison terms simply for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Both men could face up to five years each in prison if convicted.

They have been charged with “disrupting public order” under Article 121(3) of the Penal Code, which has been used repeatedly by the Tunisian authorities to repress freedom of expression.

Article 121(3) criminalizes the publication, distribution or sale of information that disrupts public order or public morals.

Amnesty International has previously expressed concern over the continuing state of emergency in Tunisia and the potential restrictions on human rights that it allows.

“The state of emergency should not be used as a blanket justification to arbitrarily restrict freedom of expression, a right that Tunisians fought so hard for during the uprising two years ago,” said Philip Luther.

Amnesty International is calling for two of the charges – “spreading false information with the aim of disrupting the public order” and “defying the state of emergency” – to be dropped.

It considers that the penalty for the third charge – “writing on a public building without permission” – should not effectively amount to a punishment for peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression.

Source:

[1] Amnesty International news, Jan 24, 2013, “Ex-diplomat flees Qatar amid fears of deportation to torture in Saudi Arabia”,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/ex-diplomat-flees-qatar-amid-fears-deportation-torture-saudi-arabia-2013-01-24

[2] Amnesty International news, Jan 23, 2013, “Iran: Release human rights lawyer for good”,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iran-stop-cruel-charade-and-release-human-rights-lawyer-good-2013-01-23

[3] Amnesty International news, Jan 22, 2013, “Tunisia must drop unjust charges against graffiti activists”,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/tunisia-must-drop-unjust-charges-against-graffiti-activists-2013-01-22

 




 

 


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