Human Rights Defenders: End the Harassment of Families of the Deceased in Iranian Prisons

Four human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have issued a joint statement urging Iranian authorities to end the "campaign of harassment and intimidation against the families of individuals who have died under suspicious circumstances in prisons." The organizations, which include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, and Justice for Iran, released the statement on March 14. Human rights defenders have called on Iranian authorities to allow the UN Special Rapporteur to visit Iran and to permit the establishment of an independent investigative commission. The four organizations state that since January, at least five cases of death during detention have occurred; Sina Qanbari, Vahid Heydari, and Kavous Seyed-Emami are among these five individuals whom Iranian judicial authorities claim committed suicide. Despite the statements from judicial officials, relatives and human rights organizations have rejected these claims. Saro Ghahramani and Mohammad Raji are two other individuals mentioned in the statement. Mr. Ghahramani lost his life during widespread protests in January, and Iranian judicial authorities have claimed he was killed in "clashes." Mr. Raji was a member of the Gonabadi Dervishes who died following clashes between security forces and dervishes in Tehran, along with widespread arrests related to that. The Tehran prosecutor has denied the death of Mohammad Raji during interrogation, but his daughter told Radio Farda that officials spoke of her father's death after announcing the coma of one of the detainees "due to inflicted blows." However, the deaths and suicides that human rights organizations have described as "suspicious" have also had repercussions for the relatives of the deceased. In a recent case, regarding the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami, Tehran airport officials prevented his wife from leaving Iran to go to Canada, the second country of which the Seyed-Emami family holds citizenship. The four human rights organizations state that in all five cases of "suspicious deaths during detention," Iranian judicial and security officials have "threatened the families of the deceased." Human rights organizations have also accused Iranian judicial and security officials of engaging in "a series of coordinated and organized actions to conceal evidence of torture, mistreatment, and death, and to defame the deceased." Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, and Justice for Iran have also referred to other instances of "harassment and intimidation" in their joint statement; according to them, in addition to threatening families, even before announcing the news of their relatives' deaths, lawyers have also been threatened or arrested, and there is a "campaign to defame" them underway. Human rights organizations claim that Iranian authorities have taken steps to conceal evidence of torture and suspicious deaths during detention and have failed to conduct independent and transparent investigations. Iranian judicial officials have not yet responded to the statement from these four organizations. Iranian authorities have, in other cases, not only rejected criticisms but have also accused human rights defenders and even the UN Secretary-General of lying and making "false" statements. Previously, Human Rights Watch had reminded that Iran has not allowed UN experts to visit the country since 2005.