Five Legal and Human Rights Organizations Protest the Conviction of Mohammad Seifzadeh

Five legal and human rights organizations condemned the judiciary's action in summoning 76-year-old human rights lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh to serve a one-year prison sentence in a joint letter to Amin-Hossein Rahimi, the Minister of Justice in the government of Mohsen Mehdi Kian. The Iran Human Rights Campaign, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Lawyers for Lawyers organization, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and the International Association of Lawyers for Human Rights called for the immediate release of Mohammad Seifzadeh and an end to the systematic harassment of human rights defenders in Iran. The letter emphasized that 'Mohammad Seifzadeh, who has been imprisoned 13 times over the past three decades, suffers from physical ailments and multiple diseases due to the inhumane conditions of prison.' It stated that this experienced lawyer has faced continuous security pressures and harassment, including arbitrary detention and prosecution, solely for fulfilling his professional commitments and defending fundamental rights and freedoms. The signatories also urged Iranian authorities to drop all charges against Mohammad Seifzadeh and ensure that he is not subjected to further security and judicial pressures. They called on the leaders of the Islamic Republic to immediately release all lawyers imprisoned for defending political prisoners. Mohammad Seifzadeh was sentenced to one year in prison on May 14, 2023, by Branch 29 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran on charges of 'propaganda against the regime' and 'spreading falsehoods.' He was summoned to Evin Prison on August 13 of this year to serve his sentence. Human rights lawyer Saeed Dehghan stated at the time that the reason for this imprisonment was writing a letter to the UN Secretary-General and protesting against the wave of executions and the repression of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement. Mohammad Seifzadeh is a veteran lawyer and one of the founders of the Human Rights Defenders Center, who, according to Saeed Dehghan, has brought two Nobel Peace Prizes to Iran for Shirin Ebadi and Narges Mohammadi. This 76-year-old lawyer, in February 2018, emphasized the 'irreformability' of the Islamic Republic and called for a referendum under the supervision of the United Nations for a 'peaceful transition' from the current government to a 'secular parliamentary democracy.'