{"id":2195062,"date":"2007-10-17T13:01:43","date_gmt":"2007-10-17T05:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/?p=2195062"},"modified":"2023-04-13T05:26:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T05:26:27","slug":"human-rights-watch-call-for-release-of-iranian-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/2007\/10\/17\/human-rights-watch-call-for-release-of-iranian-activist\/","title":{"rendered":"HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH call for release of Iranian activist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Source: Human Rights Watch<\/font>
<\/a><\/em> Iran: Release Leading Defender of<\/font> Prisoners\u2019 Rights<\/font><\/font><\/h1>\n

Emadeddin Baghi Jailed Under Politically Motivated Charges<\/font><\/h2>\n
\n

(Washington, DC, October 16, 2007) \u2013 Iranian authorities should immediately release prominent human rights defender Emadeddin Baghi and drop the politically motivated charges against him, Human Rights Watch said today.  <\/p>\n

On October 14, Baghi responded to a summons to appear before an interrogator at Branch 1 of the Security Unit of the General and Revolutionary Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office. The court charged him with \u201cpropaganda against the system\u201d and \u201cpublishing secret government documents\u201d for his activities as president of the Society for the Defense of Prisoners\u2019 Rights, a nongovernmental organization that he founded in 2003.  
\n 
\n\u201cThe Iranian government should applaud Baghi for his efforts on behalf of prisoners\u2019 rights, not arrest him,\u201d said Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa deputy director at Human Rights Watch.  
\n 
\nAfter Baghi\u2019s arrest, court officials set a bail of 500 million rials (approximately US$50,000). While Baghi\u2019s family was in the process of posting bail, Evin prison authorities arrived at the courthouse and announced that Baghi had to serve a 2003 suspended sentence. The court authorities revoked the bail, and prison officials immediately transferred Baghi back into detention.  
\n 
\nIn 2003, Judge Babayee of Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Baghi to a one-year suspended term for \u201cendangering national security\u201d and \u201cprinting lies\u201d in his book, The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran<\/i>.  
\n 
\nIn 2000, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Baghi to a three-year prison term on charges of \u201cendangering national security\u201d for his writings about the serial murder of dissident intellectuals in Iran in the late 1990s. He served two years of that sentence, and one year was suspended.  
\n 
\nBaghi\u2019s family and lawyers report that since his release in 2003, the authorities have summoned Baghi to court 23 times.  
\n 
\nIn July, Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Baghi, as well as his wife and daughter, to suspended three-year sentences for their work documenting and publicizing human rights violations in Iran\u2019s court systems and prisons.  
\n 
\nEmadeddin Baghi also founded the Society of Right to Life Guardians in 2005, an organization that aims to abolish the death penalty in Iran. His two organizations produce reports on the situation of Iranian prisoners and gather data about death penalty cases in Iran.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Human Rights Watch<\/font>
<\/a><\/em> Iran: Release Leading Defender of<\/font> Prisoners\u2019 Rights<\/font><\/font><\/h1>\n

Emadeddin Baghi Jailed Under Politically Motivated Charges<\/font><\/h2>\n
\n

(Washington, DC, October 16, 2007) \u2013 Iranian authorities should immediately release prominent human rights defender Emadeddin Baghi and drop the politically motivated charges against him, Human Rights Watch said today.  <\/p>\n

On October 14, Baghi responded to a summons to appear before an interrogator at Branch 1 of the Security Unit of the General and Revolutionary Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office. The court charged him with \u201cpropaganda against the system\u201d and \u201cpublishing secret government documents\u201d for his activities as president of the Society for the Defense of Prisoners\u2019 Rights, a nongovernmental organization that he founded in 2003.  
\n 
\n\u201cThe Iranian government should applaud Baghi for his efforts on behalf of prisoners\u2019 rights, not arrest him,\u201d said Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa deputy director at Human Rights Watch.  
\n 
\nAfter Baghi\u2019s arrest, court officials set a bail of 500 million rials (approximately US$50,000). While Baghi\u2019s family was in the process of posting bail, Evin prison authorities arrived at the courthouse and announced that Baghi had to serve a 2003 suspended sentence. The court authorities revoked the bail, and prison officials immediately transferred Baghi back into detention.  
\n 
\nIn 2003, Judge Babayee of Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Baghi to a one-year suspended term for \u201cendangering national security\u201d and \u201cprinting lies\u201d in his book, The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran<\/i>.  
\n 
\nIn 2000, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Baghi to a three-year prison term on charges of \u201cendangering national security\u201d for his writings about the serial murder of dissident intellectuals in Iran in the late 1990s. He served two years of that sentence, and one year was suspended.  
\n 
\nBaghi\u2019s family and lawyers report that since his release in 2003, the authorities have summoned Baghi to court 23 times.  
\n 
\nIn July, Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Baghi, as well as his wife and daughter, to suspended three-year sentences for their work documenting and publicizing human rights violations in Iran\u2019s court systems and prisons.  
\n 
\nEmadeddin Baghi also founded the Society of Right to Life Guardians in 2005, an organization that aims to abolish the death penalty in Iran. His two organizations produce reports on the situation of Iranian prisoners and gather data about death penalty cases in Iran.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2195062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5196210,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195062\/revisions\/5196210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2195062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2195062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2195062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}