Original: English

Both she and her husband left Iran over 10 years ago.

Within the past two years, she went to Iran with her son from abroad, where she had been living. During that time, nothing happened, but as she was about to leave, they took her passport and interrogated her four times. She was mostly questioned about her husband’s activities and statements in foreign media.

Her husband started to be politically active at the age of 14. In 2012, he received a letter from authorities that he was not permitted to leave Iran (he was already abroad though at this point). No reason for the travel ban was listed on the letter, so he consulted a lawyer, and the lawyer implied that he should not get involved in such things.

Recently, she and her husband did go back, along with their nine-year-old son, to Iran. Her husband had not been back to Iran since the events of 2009; he agreed to go back “because of President Rouhani’s pledges.” But hers and his passports were taken away. She and her son were eventually able to come back to their home abroad, but he is still in Iran.

When they were in Iran, they were interrogated once together, but he was summoned three more times. The accusations against him are propaganda against the regime and interviewing with foreign media He was told of his charges orally.

He was not tortured or mistreated during interrogations.

He is now free on bail; his father guaranteed a large bail amount in order to secure his release.

Intelligence officials promised him that he would be permitted to leave the country, as long as his father continues to pay the bail. However, in reality, officials did not give his passport back to him, and he now has a new trial summons.

They did agree with the authorities not to speak about the case to others, but after a few months, Iranian state press wrote about his case on its own.

He is 29-years-old. He was arrested in 2009 after the post-election events. His brother had been arrested in 2009, and authorities did not notify the family of the charges initially or allow visits. During the election events, there were rumors that Mr. Moussavi and Kraroubi would be arrested. He received an SMS that in case of arrest, he and other Green Movement supporters would all meet at a certain square. He was arrested for allegedly passing this text on to others.

He worked at a computer shop. Authorities came to his place of work, and searched his computers there. They then went to his home, confiscated both of his personal computers, and took him to Evin Prison. He was at Evin Prison for 16 days, and was interrogated three times. The first time was short, but the third time it began at 8am and lasted until 4 or 5pm. During the stay in solitary confinement, he was allowed to bathe only twice per week, and there was no possibility to go outside. The only three times he was removed from solitary confinement was for interrogation. He had no contact with his family during that time and no one knew where he was.

On the eve of the 16th day, he was transferred from solitary confinement to Section 240. There were always between three and six people in his cell there. He stayed there for 15 days and was freed on the 31st day of prison. He later came to know that family friends had put 20 million tuman down in bail for his freedom.

In March 2010, he received a letter stating that he had to go to court, in order for them to review his case, and then the date was changed to July. He went to court with his lawyer. The whole case took “maybe seven minutes.” His lawyer argued that he did not need to go to prison for what he was arrested for, but a week later he received notice of a three-year prison sentence. He appealed, and a week later the sentence was confirmed at an appellate court. He decided to leave the country.

Amir Reza Bakhtiar

Member of the National Front Party

Mr Reza has been a member since 1382 (2003-2004). He would like to speak about two cases. The first case is of Mr. Abbas Amir Intizam, who was the spokesperson of the provisional government right after the Revolution, and was then a political prisoner for 32 years. Two years ago, due to illness, authorities allowed him to go home periodically and return to prison. He feels that this case has been forgotten by the human rights community, so he wanted to recall it. Mr. Intizam is 78-years-old.

The second case is Mr. Goutan Dawlati, who is in charge of the student section of the National Front. He was arrested around December of 2012 for activities against national security and for being a member of the National Front. He had been on hunger strike for 22 days as of the time of this interview. He is very ill; he has a heart ailment and must take pills five times per day. At the beginning, the prison said they would not pay for his stay at a hospital because it was too expensive; his family then offered to pay but that was refused. Amnesty International issued an urgent appeal on this case last week (December 2013).

This third case is of Abul Fazl Abedini, a member of the pan-Iranist party and a journalist. He was arrested in 1388 (2009 - 2010) and spent three years at Evin Prison. He was beaten badly, which was documented. He has now been exiled to Karoun prison in Ahwaz for the past year. He is also in bad medical condition, but has not been permitted to access necessary medical care.

Ms. “Yazdani” has been a lawyer for more than ten years. She has worked on dozens of cases in the Revolutionary Courts.

The Bill of Formal Attorneyship was amended under President Ahmadinejad to strip independence of the Bar by the judiciary, according to Ms. Yazdani. However, the Government responded that it could not be amended.

But the bill remained in the Parliament and is now back with the judiciary. She is worried that the same issue may arise.

She would also like to discuss the election for the President of the Bar Association. All candidates must be vetted and approved by the high Disciplinary Court for judges. In 2011, 28 out of 118 candidates were disqualified. In 2009, 36 of 79 were disqualified. This year, there are 116 candidates, and many lawyers are worried that the same thing will happen. The reason she is highlighting this case is because the recent EU delegation in Iran met with the current President of the Bar Association, but that person is not independent; it is very important that independent voices be heard.

The major issue for lawyers in Iran is their general lack of immunity. A number of lawyers are sentenced to imprisonment or to a cash fine each year for insulting the judge or disrupting order in the court.

There is never a member of the bar association permitted to examine whether such charges are based on reality or due to the judge’s personal enmity with the lawyer.

In addition to all of this, the judges “have too much power in Iran,” and lawyers are always denigrated in the court. This is worse for women; the hijab is a way to humiliate female lawyers.” When women lawyers raise an objection, sometimes judges will counter that the hijab is not sitting properly, in front of everyone, in order to humiliate them. Authorities also check lawyers at the entrance of the court room for “proper hijab.”

In political cases she represented (at the Revolutionary Courts), the following are issues which restrained her ability to present a full / proper defense:

Lawyers are restricted in terms of reading dossiers and presenting proper defenses. Lawyers are sometimes threatened that they may themselves receive political charges. In one case, when she tried to defend her client, the judge told her to save her defense of her “own case,” and accused her of defending the MEK. In the case of students who were attacked in their dorms in 2009, when she requested a writ from the investigative agent (which is legal), he told the court guards to refuse her entrance, which they did.

Her clients are sometimes coerced to admit to charges, with methods not related to judicial process.

After the 2009 elections, lawyers were not permitted to enter the courtrooms in many cases.

Lawyers and clients are often forced to wait for long periods.

Lawyers are also not able to visit their clients before the trial, or sometimes after the trial.

Lawyers often do not receive the written rulings, so that they can appeal if necessary.

Another issue is the expulsion of law professors. Since the election of President Rouhani, the situation of universities for current professors is better. However, the original expelled lawyers, including Dr. Mohammed Sharif and Dr. Mohammadi Ghorbani, have not been reinstated.

In all types’ of cases, political and civil, torture exists, and the right of defense of the client is not respected, although due process provisions are in the Criminal Code of Procedure.

In the case of drug offenders, they are deprived of “any humane treatment whatsoever.” They are brought to the court in 10s and 20s in a bus, all in handcuffs and shackled together. They are forced to sit in the corridor in the Revolutionary Courts in a very difficult position. They do not have any chance to clean themselves in detention; the Revolutionary Courts always smell because of it. Their trials never last more than a few minutes and their cases are not examined by the courts but by the court secretary. Sentences are always heavy. “Seeing them always reminds me of the times of slavery.”

In the case of women who have been raped: according to Iranian law, women who complain may be accused of having illicit relations if they cannot prove their charges. The process for examining cases is very wrong and denigrating, especially with regard to the tests that are carried out, including virginity tests. The victim has to explain in minute detail everything that has happened to her, in front of five male judges in the court, a prosecutor, lawyer, and relatives of the victim. The accused is in court and must explain to everyone in public what happened.

Those who are convicted and actually executed for rape are mostly gangs who rape. For example, a gang called the “Black Vultures” were arrested after having raped 50 people. In practice, singular instances of rape are not prosecuted successfully. In cases where a woman goes to court accusing others of rape, if she cannot prove it, she can then be tried for adultery.

Regarding the Islamic Penal Code: Moharebeh and efsed fil-arz (corruption on earth) remain tools of repression. She would like to refer also to Article 220 of the New Code, which states that where the law is silent, the judge can consult Shari’a-based text. This provision also exists in the Constitution. Before the New Penal Code, the Supreme Court would often say that this provision concerns only civil cases and the Criminal Procedure Code, so they would throw out cases where the judge did not have a different reason. Now they can no longer do that.

Articles 120 and 121 of the New Penal Code state that in cases of “doubt,” judges should not issue guilty sentences. But, there are exceptions for Moharebeh and efsed fil-arz.

Another change -- to the detriment of defendants -- in the New Penal Code is that previously defendants could receive suspended sentences, but now all security-related (and some other) cases may not receive suspended sentences and do not enjoy a statute of limitations.

She does note that under the previous code, if anyone committed any sort of Moharebeh and efsed fil-arz, they would be sentenced to death. Now, there is a new category of the Penal Code which only provides for a death sentence if the accused carried a weapon and used it. In the past, membership in an organization was enough. But then all defendants who were previously sentenced to death, including members of the MEK or Peyjak, should now be able to ask for a retrial. But despite the efforts of their lawyers, the courts have not permitted retrials. The Kurdish man who was executed in September along with the Baluchis, for example, was sentenced to death based only on a photo of him with a weapon.

Ms. Jailani was arrested in 1998 during the events at the University of Tehran. She was arrested with Ms. Ebadi, Mehrengiz Kar, Mr. Lahiji, and others. She was tortured in the presence of these people. She has brought documents and newspaper clippings about this mistreatment, which was widely reported on, because she had been in France for a long time as a PhD student and sociologist. She went back to Iran in 1998 only at the invitation of an activist.

She brought some notes from her trial. She was in prison for 4.5 years. She was kept in solitary confinement in a cell that was 1x1.5 meters. She was subject to “white torture 24” hours per day (with constant intrusive or insulting music, for example).

Today, economic problems in Iran have destroyed the social fabric. Drug use by women is common, whereas this was not the case in the past. There are husbands who push their wives into prostitution. When she was in prison, she was with a 21-year-old woman who told her that her husband was bringing other men to the house in order to force her into prostitution, and that she became pregnant by another man, at which point the husband accused her of adultery. When she was in Iran, she recalls a place called Bahar where the Government would bring street children. It was supposed to be an educational center for them, but there was very little supervision, and the children often fled. She claims that some of the girls taken to prostitution or e even sold by Government officials or their own fathers to Gulf Arab men.

Both she and her husband have been active for Kurdish parties and in prison. Her husband was in prison for 3.5 years. Due to having been in prison, they were cut off from social opportunities in Iran, and her husband had to work as a freelancer.

Both of them were put in prison in 1365 (1986). Her husband, Mr. Farahman Sadegh Vaziri, who was detained at the Sanandaj Intelligence Detention Center, had been released after the executions of 1988. He had actually been sentenced to death, but at the time, there was the possibility of buying a commutation to a life-sentence.

They both thought that life would get better after release, but even after he was released, he had to report to authorities once per week. Moreover, they had children, and those children were subject to pressure. For example, at school, if her son was at the top of the class, he would never be officially at the top of the class, as he would be excluded from the list. The same happened to her daughter.

In 2003, they decided to leave the country due to this pressure. They made it to Oroumiyeh, but there they were arrested by authorities. They were taken away in a two-car convoy. There was a Revolutionary Guard in the front of the car, and she was trying to explain that they had just come for a summer picnic. He replied: “If it were up to me I would just let you go right now, but the guys in the front car are in charge.”

They were taken to the Sarmaz Intelligence police center. Her son was 16 and her daughter was eight-years-old at the time. Officials told them not to worry; that there was a simple “price” for “what they wanted to do across the border”: 30 million tumans. Then they took her husband away, and left her and her son handcuffed to chairs (her daughter was able to walk around).

However, the next morning, when her husband was brought out and she tried to approach him, the guards restrained her. She could tell that something was wrong. All of a sudden, the bribe offer was off of the table, and they were taken to court and then to the public prison at Sarmaz (for common criminals). She was worried about her son since this province was known for heroin; she assumed that there would also be drugs in the prison. Everyone was being interrogated every day. What she “didn’t know was that [her]” husband had been subjected to harsh torture and was being brought back in front of her son every day.

When she saw her husband for days later, he was unrecognizable and did not respond to her calls in the courtyard. He was being dragged along and his shoulders and arms were slumped. She began to scream and asked the guards what they had done to her; they denied having anything to do with it and said that that’s “how he is.”

The next day, they were taken for fingerprinting. She had been involved in political activity before, so it was no problem for her, but she was upset when they tried to fingerprint her daughter. They told her that they finger-printed her husband and son as well. This “put her over the edge”; she did not understand why children should be put into the system as “criminals” when they just obeyed their parents and came with them for a ride.

It had only been seven days when authorities told her that her husband had died.

Her son had known about this and a guard had apparently allowed him to call family, so already two days after she found out family from both sides had arrived. They told her to stay quiet or else they would not even give them the body. She was also concerned that she and her children would be released, so she complied. They were released on bail and told to report to the Intelligence Center in Sanandaj 40 days later. They gave them the body, and they went back to Sanandaj. The body bore marks of physical abuse, and a doctor who looked at the body said that it appeared that a chemical which speeds up decomposition was used.

They were warned not to publicize his death or hold a ceremony, but her husband was so well-known in the city that people lined the streets when they returned, despite the presence of Revolutionary Guards. Her husband was killed at the same at Ms. Zahra Kazemi, a famous case, but their case did not receive any attention, “perhaps because we are Kurds.” The death is still very much with them, especially with her son.

The sentence that had been handed down to them (for trying to exit the country illegally) was for all four family members, so she consulted a lawyer about the status of the sentence given the death of her husband, and she was informed that they could be brought back into detention at any time.

She decided to leave the country. For psychological reasons, she did not want to leave through the same border again, so they arranged for someone to pick them up and take them to Marivan, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

She believes that a local commander was excited to report the “capture of Kumaleh activists,” and that guards abused her husband.

Hassan (Jamal) Poorkarim

Journalist / Kurdish rights activist

In Iran, he worked at weekly publication called Nedayeh Jameh (Persian) / Deni Kumaliyeah (Kurdish); this was licensed under President Khatami. They also had a Kurdish linguistic center. After two years of publication, he was arrested and detained at an Intelligence Center for 45 days. He was released on 20 million tuman bail and fled with his wife to Iraqi Kurdistan. (The editor-in-chief is also now released, but the editor-in-chief of another publication with which they worked -- Payam E-Mardam -- is still in prison).

When they ran the language institute, more than 1,000 students enrolled to study, and the students themselves were also put under pressure. After Mr. Poorkarim was imprisoned, Mr. Abdullah Abbasi took over the school. He was run over with a van belonging to the Revolutionary Guards and killed.

Mr. Poorkarim would also like draw attention to the situation of pollution in the Kurdish provinces, which is increasingly becoming dangerous for the local population.

Finally he would like to raise the issue of the Kulbars, who are still being shot at by Iranian guards in large numbers, and of the land mines in the region, which have still not been cleared by the Government.

Ms. “Suha”

Association for Kurds living in France

Women in Iran face discrimination due to Islamic Sharia law in the country, but it is worse in Kurdistan because of local and tribal practices, and well as the lack of economic development in the region. There is a very high rate of self-immolation suicides of Kurdish women. Most girls in the rural areas do not go to school, and many girls are married off at very young ages.

Many other Kurdish women are themselves Kulbars. There is also a very high divorce rate among Kurds, and she would say that one of the reasons for this is the very bad social situation in Iran, including high rates of addiction to drugs.

There is also a high rate of prostitution in Kurdistan, even though it is against tradition of the region.

Women additionally face political repression, although this is partly the result of “positive “integration developments. It is true that there are now women in the Kurdish associations in the region, which is a sign of integration, but they in turn, face political repression as part of the general “denigration” of Kurds by the Iranian Government. There are a number of Kurdish political parties that have now taken up arms, which then means that female political prisoners are treated more harshly, even if they are merely affiliated with these organizations.

Mr. “Kazem”

Association for Kurds living in France

Mr. “Kazem” would like to draw attention to the “horrendous” condition of human rights for Kurds in Iran. Even those protections which are theoretically provided in the Constitution to others are not provided to Kurds. Kurds who are accused of combatting the regime through violent -- physical or civil -- activities are automatically sentenced to death.

He would also like to discuss the economic situation of the region. There are six members of Parliament representing the Kurdish regions who have recently resigned in protest over what they claim is a lack of sufficient budget allocation to the Kurdistan Province. For the past year, two percent of the budget was allocated to the Province; in the coming year, it will be 0.7%. The province of Kermanshah is also facing budget cuts.

The cultural rights of Kurds are suppressed since they are not permitted to published at all in Kurdish and must use Persian for all administrative affairs.

Finally, although the official unemployment rate in Kurdistan in listed as 20%, it is much higher in reality.

Mr. “Hassan”

Association of Kurds living in France

A UN delegation went to Iran in 2003, and prior to that visit there had been calls for the release of an activist (Sasson Arekan-An), but he was executed the day the delegation arrived.

The Government “plays with Kurdish political prisoners in Iran” like this.

Mr. Shirko Mo’aerfi was told he was going to be executed 10 times. He was transferred a number of times and underwent a mock execution before being executed in the autumn of 2013. Iraqi Kurdistan’s President Jalal Talabani intervened and his execution was suspended, but then reinstated and carried out.

“Authorities are still playing with Messrs. Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, for example.”

There was a Revolutionary Guard Colonel named Mr. Hiva Tab who was himself executed this year. This man had been known to have killed numerous Kurds, but there was no trial or official complaint being pursued against him so his execution is shrouded in mystery; they feel he may have actually been executed as the result of a private or tribal dispute.

There are 28 political prisoners on death row in Kurdistan at the moment.