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Indicting Rafsanjani

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151. According to a dispatch from Reuters of 10 June 1992, an unspecified number of people were sentenced to long prison terms by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mashhad for their part in the May riots in that city.

 

152. The Iranian news agency IRNA reported on 11 June 1992 that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the authorities to "seek out troublemakers and eradicate them like weeds". It also quoted Mr. Mohammad Karami, Prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Shiraz, as saying that 45 people were sentenced to between 4 months and 10 years' imprisonment for their role in the Shiraz riots of 15 April, and that 20 more people were still being tried.

 

153. With regard to the preceding paragraph, the Government replied that:

 

"The officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have legal authority to take the necessary measures to secure public order and peace within the context and conventional standards approved by legal and international criteria".

 

154. According to a dispatch from the Associated Press of 10 June 1992, the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the Majlis that the incidents at Mashhad, Shiraz and several other cities were "led by small, hidden and masked counter-revolutionary elements".

 

155. It has been reported that those people were sentenced following unfair trials and procedures which were not consistent with internationally recognized standards of fairness. Some of those trials resulted in death sentences, and a number of people were sentenced to be flogged and/or to long-term imprisonment, while a number were yet to be tried.

 

156. In its letter of 24 November 1992, the Government stated the following:

 

"The judicial power severely opposes any prosecution and trial of the accused against the judicial procedure in accordance with the acknowledged standards, and as it was stated, no judgement without observation of the above-mentioned criteria is legal or dispensable. Also no verdict for execution shall be issued and implemented before undergoing several key legal processes at the following stages: the right to appeal; referral of the case to the State Supreme Court, the request for pardon after having had the endorsement of the verdict of execution by the State Supreme Court; and, awaiting response".

 

157. It was further reported that the Iranian Government had set up a special anti-riot Pasdaran unit called the Army of Ashora (Sepahian-e-Ashora) to crush any future demonstrations and riots in the major cities of Iran.

 

158. In response to this information, the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated, in the letter dated 24 November 1992, that:

 

"Following the mischievous acts of local hoodlums in the cities of Shiraz, Mashhad, Shoushtar and Ramhormoz, the disciplinary forces arrested some of the instigators under warrants from the judicial authorities, and most of them were released after being given guidance. The rest of the cases mentioned are baseless, and there have not been any anti-government protests or riots in the cities mentioned".

 

159. On 30 July 1992, there took place at Shush house-to-house searches during which Mr. Hassan Hori, Mr. Reza Kalachi and Mr. Ahmad Ghiyassi were reportedly arrested.

 

160. It has been reported that the authorities have failed to provide any information on the names and situation of most of those arrested, except the names of some of those arrested who were subsequently executed.

 

161. The Special Representative has received information on the following specific cases of detention arbitrarily imposed.

 

162. The arbitrary detention was reported, on four different occasions, of Mr. Ali Zahmat Keshan in Baluchistan Province, for political reasons. He stated that the unjustified arrests had ruined his reputation and damaged his job. He demands to be rehabilitated.

 

163. The arbitrary detention was further reported of Mr. Ismail Barzegar, by the Office of the Ministry of Justice at Rasht, Gilan Province, on suspicion of collaborating with an armed gang. The accusation was proved to be unfounded. He demanded to be rehabilitated and to receive social and economic assistance.

 

164. The arbitrary detention was reported of Mr. Gholam Reza Koushki, born in 1953, son of Mr. Seyyed Wali (identity card No. 514 issued at Sanandaj), on suspicion by the Office of the Revolutionary Attorney of Khorramabad of being a collaborator of the so-called Fedayin Organization-Majority Line. The accusation was proved unfounded and he was consequently released. However, he has lost his job as a teacher and, as a result of his imprisonment, the General Office of Education has withdrawn his teaching licence, thus preventing him from exercising his profession.

 

165. The Special Representative has also received reports of the following cases of alleged impunity of government officers:

 

(a) A founder of the Nohovat Foundation has reportedly been charged with misappropriation. He was accused of dealing dishonestly with property entrusted to him and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. However, he was promptly released;

 

(b) A former chief of the Police Information Office, suspected of organizing armed gangs, has allegedly been removed from his post. However, no judicial action has reportedly been initiated against him.

 

166. With regard to the preceding paragraph, the Government replied, on 24 November 1992, the following:

 

"First of all the Nabovat Foundation was a 100 per cent private establishment which was banned three years ago by the prosecutor general, following charges of financial abuse. Secondly, the accused in the case was tried in accordance with the law, and following the investigation of the Court of Appeal, the accused was sentenced to punitive imprisonment. Therefore, the validity of this claim is denied. Thirdly, the chief of the Investigations Department was arrested, following the accusations against him, and he was put under detention. At present, the accused is awaiting the completion of his file and the trial. The dismissal of one of the chiefs of the investigation department was due to incompetent management, and the charge of armed robbery is not applicable to him. The reports received do not correspond to the truth".

 

167. The Special Representative requests information from the Government regarding the situation of the prisoners listed in annex I to the present report.

 

168. On 22 January 1992, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) started to visit prisons in the Islamic Republic of Iran, at the request of the Iranian Government and on the basis of an agreement setting forth the ICRC standard procedures, in particular, access to all detainees, interviews without witnesses, repetition of visits and confidentiality of its delegates' observations. It was said that some difficulties were encountered in fully implementing the agreement. On 21 March 1992, while ICRC was negotiating with the Iranian authorities, it was notified by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs that all its activities were to be stopped and its 15 delegates obliged to leave Iranian territory.

 

169. According to an ICRC press release dated 27 March 1992, to justify their decision the Iranian authorities made accusations against ICRC concerning the manner in which it was fulfilling the mandate conferred on it by the third Geneva Convention of 1949 in respect of Iraqi prisoners of war and conducting the activities it had undertaken in the country's prisons, on the basis of the bilateral agreement. ICRC categorically denied these accusations and stated that all its activities in the Islamic Republic of Iran were conducted in compliance with the principles guiding its operations everywhere in the world and that it had therefore always worked openly with the Iranian authorities. ICRC also stated that it was extremely concerned by the consequences in humanitarian terms of the interruption of its activities, in particular since there were more than 20,000 Iraqi prisoners of war on Iranian territory, several thousand of whom remained in captivity, many of them for over 10 years.

 

170. With reference to the two preceding paragraphs, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran replied:

 

"Considering the situation which has developed regarding the status of the office of ICRC in Tehran, unfortunately, the normal activities of this office have been suspended. Nevertheless, in cases of finding a practical mechanism for the continuation of the Committee's activities, the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to review the matter, even prior to the removal of the obstacles concerning the initiation of the activities of the ICRC office in Tehran".

 

171. Subsequent to his interim report to the General Assembly, the Special Representative transmitted to the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva, by letter dated 23 December 1992, the following allegations.

 

172. The Iranian newspaper Abrar of 19 October 1992 reported that "Independent courts are going to be formed to try offences committed by children older than seven and below the religious age of puberty". According to the Canon Law, the age of adolescence is considered to be 14 for boys and 9 lunar years for girls. On 5 July 1992, Tehran Radio reported that according to the bill for the establishment of juvenile courts, for crimes punishable by sentences of one or more years of imprisonment under tazir, a judge and a counsellor will preside over the courts.

 

173. The Iranian newspaper Jomhuri-Islami of 22 September 1992, reported that the Commander of the Security Forces of Khuzistan Province stated that "2,400 persons were arrested in Khuzistan for propagating social corruption between March and August 1992".

 

174. The Special Representative requests information from the Government regarding the situation of the following prisoners:

 

(a) Mr. Abdollah Bagheri, a former member of the Kurdish opposition group Komala who was arrested at the beginning of November 1992 outside Mariwan, close to the Iraqi border. The precise date of his arrest and his present whereabouts are unknown. Abdollah Bagheri was reportedly no longer a member of Komala at the time of his arrest, but had been an active member of the organization for several years;

 

(b) Mr. Seyed Ali Sharifioun, who is being held at a labour centre affiliated to Ghom Prison. He was arrested on 2 March 1989 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment after a trial which allegedly failed to meet internationally recognized standards. During the first part of his trial, Mr. Sharifioun had no access to legal counsel. Later, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Ghom accepted the appointment of a lawyer but refused to deliver the file of the trial to him, preventing also any visit between lawyer and defendant. Mr. Sharifioun's real estate and personal property have been confiscated;

 

(c) Mr. Hans Bohler, a Swiss businessman, aged 51, who was arrested in March 1992 while working for a Swiss telecommunication company. Mr. Bohler is facing charges of corruption and having illegal contacts with Iranian nationals.

 

E. Freedom of expression, opinion and the press

175. It has been reported that the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom of the press contained in article 24 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran are largely ignored. The President of the Republic, in the course of a meeting with the former Minister for Culture and Islamic Guidance on 26 January 1992, stated that "criticism and discussion of problems in the press, dailies and periodicals, and in an open environment, without bearing grudges and without hatred, can help the growth and development of society". None the less, it was said that, in reality, any criticism of the Government or its policies remains subject to punishment and is perceived to be potentially dangerous because it could serve the enemies of Islam.

 

176. In its reply of 24 November 1992, the Government stated the following:

 

"It seems that in an equitable investigation, regarding the status of press and freedom of expression in the Islamic Republic of Iran, whereas, there are more than 28 newspapers and 450 publications, in addition to the hundreds of volumes of books which are being translated, compiled or written by local writers, most of which are printed and distributed by private printing houses, the conclusion may easily be reached that freedom of the press within the context of the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the most valuable achievements of the post-Islamic Revolution. In fact, among newspapers with wide circulation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, at present, the number of newspapers expressing opposition views towards the Government is higher than the number which are supportive of and tolerant towards its critics. Nevertheless, the press is obliged to observe respect for public opinion and is not permitted to dishonour the national and religious beliefs of the people, be they Muslim or from official minorities and this principle forms the baseline for the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards freedom of the press, expression and opinion".

 

177. It was reported that while the Iranian media do not lack variety, they are by no means free and that radio and television broadcasts are subject to extensive self-censorship and censorship.

 

178. In its reply of 24 November 1992, the Government stated that:

 

"According to the press laws, any individual who wishes to publish may do so by obtaining permission to be issued by a committee comprised of one judge, a representative of the press, a representative of people at the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and a representative of the Government. There is no monopoly for publication imposed by the Government, and in recent years the Government has directly supported the press through appropriation of subsidies".

 

179. An editorial of the Iranian newspaper Tehran Times of 27 July 1992 stated the following: "Most newspapers were afflicted with self-censorship or with a kind of party and group vengeance because, after the victory of the revolution, officials in charge of the country's important newspapers were mainly comprised of two parts: those who desired to use the newspapers as a ladder of success to reach higher State posts or those who left posts as ministers and top officials and fell in status and turned to the press to be present in the country's politico-economic scene". The newspaper added, "It is below the dignity of the Islamic Revolution of Iran that, after 13 years, a permit for the set-up of the country's syndicate of journalists has not been issued under conditions when land and automobile brokers have established their powerful unions with government permits. The Iranian Journalists' Society still lacks a syndicate".

 

180. It was further alleged that the Government's monopoly on newsprint has served as a highly effective censorship mechanism owing to the private sector's limited access to resources.

 

181. It was said that possession of a typewriter, photocopier, computer, fax machine or short-wave radio not registered with the authorities incurs severe punishment.

 

182. It was also reported that many valuable archives, notably concerning the Islamic revolution, have been destroyed.

 

183. On 18 April 1992, the Secretary of Qom Theological School, Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, called on the authorities to be more careful in supervising publications. He appealed to the President to remove counter-revolutionary elements and those against Islam from cultural institutions and urged the judicial authorities to react seriously towards any insult against Islam and bring those guilty to justice, according to the Tehran Times of 20 April 1992.

 

184. It has been reported that in April 1992, the sports monthly Farad was banned on charges including apostasy after accusations that the magazine had insulted Islamic society for having published a caricature of a football player which allegedly resembled the late Imam. Its editorial chief, Mr. Nasser Arabha, and its designer were arrested and are reportedly awaiting trial. The magazine's premises were burned by a mob.

 

185. It was reported that the premises of the cultural weekly Donya-é-Sokhan were also burned subsequent to its prohibition by the authorities. Its editorial staff were reportedly arrested.

 

186. It was further reported that the feminine weekly Zan-é-Rous was banned by the authorities.

 

187. Subsequent to his interim report to the General Assembly, the Special Representative transmitted to the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva, by letter dated 23 December 1992, the following allegation.

 

188. On 28 September 1992, the Provincial Supervisor of the Iranian newspaper Kayhan in East Azarbaijan and a reporter of that newspaper were arrested and beaten for reporting that the Governor of the Central Part of Tabriz was ousted from his post for violating the law. The arrests were reportedly ordered by the Governor of Tabriz, Mr. Najafi Azar, who considered that this news was a blow to his prestige, since the Governor of the Central Part had been appointed and brought to Tabriz by him.

 

F. Political rights

189. It was reported that in the election campaign for the parliamentary elections of 10 April the candidates were not allowed to print posters or to hold rallies because these were supposed to be "Western style" electioneering.

 

190. It was further reported that the qualifications of 39 former Majlis deputies were not confirmed by the screening committees of the Guardians Council. Among those disqualified were reportedly six ulema. The applications of one third of the over 3,000 candidates were turned down, according to the newspaper Salam of 8 April 1992.

 

191. The former Heavy Industries Minister, Mr. Behzd Nabavi, in an open letter, demanded that the Council publish the reasons for his rejection in the press. Hojjatoleslam Sadeq Khalkhali stated that he did not know why he was disqualified. According to Salam of 8 April 1992, he said: "We have repeatedly told the Guardians Council to publicly state our offences, but so far no one has told us anything and we have not been asked for a question and answer session. If we are treated in such a manner, think what will happen to others".

 

192. The Association for Women of the Islamic Republic criticized, on 6 April 1992, the disqualification of several female candidates by the screening committees of the Guardians Council. It further deplored the rejection of several women candidates who it said have been and are among "the most pious and committed personalities of the Revolution and have sacrificed their most beloved ones for the stabilization of the Islamic Republic system".

 

193. According to the Tehran Times of 16 April 1992 members of the police at Boroujen had stepped in to scatter two groups of political opponents who were on the verge of a serious fight near a polling station on 10 April 1992. However, the Majlis deputy from Boroujen, Mr. Davoud Towhidi, stated at the Majlis on 14 April that the police had physically abused some voters at polling booths and even opened fire on them.

 

194. Subsequent to his interim report to the General Assembly, the Special Representative transmitted to the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva, by letter dated 23 December 1992, the following allegation.

 

195. It has been reported that Mr. Qorban Ali Salehabadi, former Deputy of the Majlis (Islamic Consultative Assembly) from Mashhad, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran "for his efforts to undermine the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran".

 

G. The situation of women

196. The Special Representative has received reports that Iranian women continued to be banned from pursuing studies in agriculture, engineering, mining and metallurgy, and from becoming judges. In higher education, women are reportedly banned from 91 fields of study out of 169, 55 fields out of 84 in technology and mathematics and 7 out of 40 in natural sciences, and from all 4 fields of agriculture. It was reported that in the faculties of Letters and Humanities, out of 35 fields only 10 are available to women. Strict sexual segregation of teachers and students has allegedly resulted in the closure of many schools for girls owing to a lack of female teachers, overcrowding of classes and a severe decline in standards. In rural areas in particular, this has allegedly meant a denial of education to girls. It was said that more than 40,000 women elementary and high school teachers were fired by the Government during the period 1980-1985. Concern was voiced over reports indicating that 89 per cent of rural Iranian women are illiterate.

 

197. It was further reported that the employment rate for women has been drastically reduced, from 13 to 6.5 per cent. It has also been stated that women have to obtain the official permission of their husbands in order to work or to travel abroad.

 

198. Other reports indicate that men have the right to marry four wives and an unlimited number of "temporary" wives; judges see divorce as the exclusive right of men. Women cannot have custody of their children unless there is no father or grandfather, and if a woman refuses to meet her husband's demands she loses her rights to shelter, food and clothing. It was further reported that the practice of polygamy and of short-term marriages has become widespread.

 

199. Further, it has been reported that women can inherit only half as much as men, that women are segregated from men on public transport and that the public display of women's sports is subject to several restrictions. It was also said that the marriage of nine-year-old girls is sanctioned.

 

200. Concern continues to be voiced over legal provisions requiring women to observe Hijab by showing no more than their face and hands in public, wearing clothes that must completely cover their bodies. According to reports received by the Special Representative during 1992, arrests of Iranian women for non-observance of the full Islamic dress code or wearing make-up, colourful garments or adornments have continued. Offenders may receive a maximum of 74 lashes, be jailed or heavily fined, or be released after signing a commitment to observe the Islamic dress code.

 

201. It was reported that on 16 May 1992, several women were arrested in Tehran on charges of disregarding the Islamic dress code. The arrests were reportedly made during a search-and-control operation carried out in private companies, clinics and public places, including the Tehran suburbs, by the forces of the Greater Tehran Security District.

 

202. It has been further reported that 165 improperly veiled women were arrested on 7 June 1992 in Tehran by security agents implementing a new plan to combat social corruption; 139 women were reportedly released after signing a commitment to observe the Islamic dress code.

 

203. On 21 July 1992, several women were reportedly arrested in Tehran and Shiraz by groups of Guards and Bassij forces, on charges of violating the dress code. The women were reportedly taken by buses to unknown locations.

 

204. On 22 July 1992, several women were reportedly arrested at Roudsar, Isfahan and Ahwaz for being improperly veiled.

 

205. On 1 August 1992, groups of Guards and Bassij forces reportedly arrested several women in Tehran, Qazvin and Ghorgan for being improperly veiled. It was further reported that two guards poured green paint on the head and face of a woman arrested on Jomhouri intersection in Tehran.

 

206. It was further reported that two girls and a woman and her two children, were arrested on improper-veiling charges at Shahsavar.