PUBLIC
AI Index: MDE 13/093/2006
17 August 2006
UA
221/06
Incommunicado detention / fear of torture/ possible
prisoner of conscience
IRAN
Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir (known as Oxtay) (m), aged 31,
activist
Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir (known as Oxtay), a prominent
Azerbaijani activist, was arrested on 11 July. He is detained incommunicado at
an undisclosed location, believed to be either Tabriz prison or a Ministry of
Intelligence detention facility in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, where he is
at risk of torture. He may be detained on account of his peaceful activities on
behalf of the rights of the Azeri-Turkish minority, in which case Amnesty
International would consider him a prisoner of conscience.
On
28 June, at 10.30pm, around sixteen police officers from the Ministry of
Intelligence (Etelaat) entered Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir’s
house in order to arrest him. He was not present at the time. The police
searched the house until 12.30am before arresting Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir’s
brother Ali. The police confiscated Turkish-language books, CDs, family’s
computer, a poster, and family photograph albums. They allegedly threatened
members of his family that when they caught Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir he
would be tortured, or even shot. That night, the Ministry of Intelligence police
made repeated telephone calls to the family's house, demanding that they reveal
the whereabouts of Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir.
The
following day, Ali Babaei Ajabshir was released, on the condition that he would
convince his brother Mehdi to report to the Tabriz Ministry of Intelligence
office. However, Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir did not return home. On 11 July,
his family was told that he had been seen being arrested in the street by
Ministry of Intelligence officials. His family did not know his whereabouts
until 21 July, when he telephoned them and told them that he is detained
in a detention facility run by the Ministry of Intelligence in Tabriz. He has
had no contact with his family since and no access to his lawyer. It is not
known whether he remains detained at the Ministry of Intelligence detention
facility, or whether he has been transferred to Tabriz prison.
Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir is an activist from the Azeri-Turkish minority community. The largest ethnic minority in Iran, the Azeri Turkish community is believed to number between 25-30 percent of the total population and is found mainly in the north-west. Activists who promote Azeri Turkish cultural identity are viewed with suspicion by the Iranian authorities, who often charge them with vaguely worded offences as ‘’promoting pan-Turkism’’.
In
May 2006, massive demonstrations took place in towns and cities in northwestern
Iran, where the majority of the population is Azeri Turkish, in protest at a
cartoon published on 12 May by the state-owned daily newspaper Iran which
many Azeri Turks found offensive. Hundreds were arrested during or following the
demonstrations (see UA 151/06, MDE 13/055/2006, 26 May 2006, and UA 163/06, MDE
13/063/2006, 8 June 2006). Some of those detained have allegedly been tortured,
with some requiring hospital treatment. Publication
of the newspaper was suspended on 23 May and the editor-in-chief and the
cartoonist were arrested. Azeri sources have claimed that dozens were killed and
hundreds injured by the security forces. The security forces have generally
denied that anyone was killed, although on 29 May a police official acknowledged
that four people had been killed and 43 injured in the town of Naqada.
-
expressing concern that Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir, an activist from the Azeri-Turk
minority community, is detained without access to his lawyer or family, at an
undisclosed location;
-
calling on the authorities to disclose his places of detention and the reasons
for his arrest, including any charges against him;
-
calling on the authorities to ensure that he is not tortured and ill-treated,
and to allow him immediate access to a lawyer of his own choosing, his family,
and to any medical treatment he may require;
-
expressing concern that Mehdi Babaei Ajabshir may have been detained solely in
connection with his peaceful activities on behalf of the rights of the
Azeri-Turkish minority, in which case Amnesty International would consider him a
prisoner of conscience;
-
calling on the authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally unless
he is to be promptly charged with a recognizable criminal offence and given a
prompt and fair trial.
Leader
of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khameni
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax:
+ 98 251 774 2228 (mark "FAO the office of His
Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khameni’’)
Email:
Info@leader.ir
istiftaa@wilayah.org
Salutation:
Your Excellency
Head
of the Judiciary
His
Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry
of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:
Please send emails via the feedback
form on the Persian site of the website
http://www.iranjudiciary.org/contact-feedback-fa.html
The text of the feedback form translates as:
1st
Iine: name, 2nd line: email address, 3rd line: subject
heading
then enter your email into the text box
Salutation:
Your Excellency
Ministry
of Intelligence
Gholam
Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry
of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street
Pasdaran
Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:
iranprobe@iranprobe.com
Salutation:
Your Excellency
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The
Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic
of Iran
Fax:
+ 98 21 6 649 5880
Email:
dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email
Speaker
of the Parliament
Gholamali
Haddad Adel, Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami (Parliament)
Imam
Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax:
+ 98 21 6 646 1746
and
to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE
SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the
International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 28
September 2006.