نامه محمد مصطفایی به دادستان تهران
ایران سکولار / محمد مصطفایی
31-Jul-2010 (13 comments)

قصد رفتن به زندان اوین را داشتم ولی طاقت اینقدر بی قانونی و نقض حقوق اولیه ای را که یک انسان می تواند داشته باشد، نداشته و ترجیح دادم علیرغم بازداشت عزیزترین گوهر زندگی ام هرگز در مرجع قضایی که بازپرسان آن پایبند به هیچ یک  از اصول اولیه ی قانونی از جمله اصل شخصی بودن جرایم و مجازاتها، اصل برائت، اصل قانونی بودن جرایم ” گروگان گیری به هیچ عنوان قانونی نیست” اصل برخورداری افراد از دادرسی عادلانه، اصل بی طرفی قضات و صدها اصل دیگر نیستند شرکت نکنم

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David ET

Letter of Iranian Human Rights Attorney, Mostafaei

by David ET on

In the Name of God
Mr Jafari Dolat Abadi, General and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Tehran,

Greetings,

Since Saturday, the interrogator for the 2nd branch of Shahid Moghadas, has unjustly captured my kind, innocent and tormented wife along with her brother. This is against the principal of ‘crimes and punishments have to be personal’. Taking my two loved ones hostage is abuse of his powers and based on his personal whim.

Mr. Jafari Dolat-Abadi,

On Wednesday a legal summon came to my office which asked me to appear at the 2nd branch of the interrogators office for a few explanations. On that day I went to Evin prison at 9 am. A soldier named Mohammad-Khani took me inside. I waited for a long time and then I was called for interrogations. The interrogator read out a few pages of the complaints against me and asked questions regarding the help I was giving to adolescents condemned to execution. Although I was not prepared for those questions, I responded to him with whatever came to my mind and cleared all his questions. After a few hours without any charges laid out against me, he called Soldier Mohammad-Khani and ordered my release. The solider helped me pass through many security obstacles at Evin prison and using someone’s phone outside the prison I called my wife and told her not to worry and that everything has been resolved. After than since I did not have my mobile phone with me, I was not able to call my wife again. (The interrogator of the 2nd branch has announced that he has my phone and that I have escaped prison!). This is an absolute falsification. I never ran away. I have my mobile phone with me. You can review the tapes of closed circuit televisions at the prison. At 5 p.m. I went to my office and my secretary told me that my wife had called. I called her and she said that the 2nd branch of the interrogators office had called her summoning me again. Since it was after hours, I decided to go there the next day. The special agent at the interrogators office had asked one of my colleagues to not reveal anything about the summon and he had obliged. My colleague told me that a few plain clothes agents wanted to see me. I went outside a few times and I did not see any agents. I then attended a meeting and time passed.
At 11 p.m. I called my wife but there was not answer. I got worried and called her father. He told me that they had come to his office to pick up my wife’s car. The car that my wife uses belongs to her father. Her father uses it all day to attend to some land for expert analysis. But since I had not taken my car, I let my father-in-law use it. (The expert at his work is willing to testify to this. He is a witness that my wife is completely innocent because he has witnessed that my wife was with her father all along). I called again a few minutes later and her father told me that his children have been arrested and transferred to Evin prison.

Mr. Jafari Dolat Abadi,
After hearing this news I was very upset and wanted to go to Evin prison but I could not stand so much lawlessness and violations of basic human rights. Despite the arrest of the person I love most in my life, I decided not to ever set foot in a judicial office where the interrogators do not abide by any basic laws: These include “crimes and punishments have to be personal”, formal charges, charges have to have legal basis: “hostage taking is never legal”, just prosecutions, principal of being neutral, and hundreds of other principals which are violated. I decided not to appear unless the against for the interrogator’s office try hard enough to come and arrest me in my silo that I have built for myself.

Mr. Jafari Dolat Abadi,
You know full well that issuing arrest warrants require certain preconditions. My case is excluded from those conditions because my occupation, place of living and my work are all public. Also in all cases of prosecution, first the accused is summoned and if he or she does not appear then arrest warrants are issued. Arrest warrants are never issued without summons. This was the case when I was first summoned and I did appear at Evin prison. If needed the interrogator could have issued another summon for more questioning or he could have summoned me by phone and I would have appeared again. Have done any research to find out under what law my arrest warrant has been issued? I am sure that the interrogator who works for you has not even bothered to read the judicial laws even once. This is why my wife and her brother have been illegally taken hostage. That’s unless we believe that there are people who consider themselves above the law and do whatever they wish.

Mr. Jafari Dolat Abadi,
The interrogator who works for you or other agents who share your power have not only acted against the law but they have not even employed any moral conscious at all. They have taken away a beautiful six year old girl away from her parents and have stranded her. Through the illegal and immoral action taken by security agents my Parmida has lost both parents. I do not believe any Moslem can take a child away from her mother in this way and then they announce that until Mohammad Mostafai does not show up we won’t release the two. Mr. prosecutor, what part of our judicial code does this belong to? and more importantly I ask the interrogators who have a hand in my wife and her brother’s arrest: if you are a Moslem please tell me where in the holy Sharia laws does it say that an innocent mother whose only concern in life has been the raising of her children can be taken away so cruelly. I swear to God that this is not part of Islam.
Farhad Halimi, the borther of my wife had recently wedded and was trying to start a new life. He had studied hard for one year in order to participate in Thursday’s national university exams. But this illegal arrest wasted his whole year’s efforts causing him to miss the exam.

Mr. Prosecutor,
For the past few years all my thoughts have been towards saving people who did not deserve to die. I was so occupied with saving these people that I hardly got to see my dear wife and daughter. On this path I have been able to save 18 adolescents who were condemned to death, sometimes by raising funds for their bail. This is a service to my country. I have also saved many older people. Many many times I asked the former head of judiciary for pardons on cases of stoning and my requests have been accepted. My bigger goal was to convince the judicial judges not to step beyond the boundaries of the law. I am willing to show you hundreds of judicial cases where the deputy district attorney, interrogators and the judge have abused their powers issuing unjust sentences, just like my case. And for someone who has always worked towards justice and the interests of the Islamic Republic, is this the way I am paid back for my God loving and human loving actions?

Mr. Dolat Abadi,
As the highest ranking official at Tehran’s prosecutor office I am asking you to guide the interrogator to stop these actions and release my wife and brother from captivity and hostage taking. You should know that once the court and the prosecutor’s office puts forward a just case for my trial I will appear in court, even though I am completely innocent and I will accept and endure any verdict.
At the end I need to remind you that in the past year I have been summoned by phone by information ministry agents and I have answered their questions. If were to be summoned again, I would have undoubtedly appeared again. But now that these actions have taken place, I am forced to endure the separation from my dear wife and child and my respectable family in an effort to establish rule of law in our country.
I leave you and your interrogator are at the mercy of God, the creator. I hope that you won’t let my child cry for her mother, not eating food and wanting her mother back. She needs to hug her mother. If through this separation from her mother she gets hurt, it’s a sin that you have committed. If you believe in the judgment day free the two people who have not committed any sins. It’s unjust and against the our judicial laws to arrest them.

Mohammad Mostafai,
husband of Fereshteh Halimi



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Rosie.

ps Jahanshah,

by Rosie. on

Here are four letters Ifrom this year (January, March, April, and late May), which were posted as blogs--three on human rights. Clearly there is no clear policy, and David thought he was respecting the "rules".  

//iranian.com/main/blog/sayeh-hassan/letter-shirin-alam-hooli-prison-kurdish-prisoner-sentenced-death-iran //iranian.com/main/blog/faryarm/open-letter-iranians-banned-baha-i-students //iranian.com/main/blog/sayeh-hassan/open-letter-canadian-international-peace-project-peace-and-security-shirin-ebadi  -NOT BY EBADI,  //iranian.com/main/blog/niloufar-parsi/irans-letter-iaea 

Rosie.

Jahanshah,

by Rosie. on

I can understand why you didn't want this item to be a blog but there are certain things that need to be put into perpective.

First of all, every now and then there comes a human rights case in Iran of seismic dimensions, and Sakineh's  is one of them. So much so that it's actually become a significant geopolitical issue. Mostafaei is the person responsible for getting her story out to the public and he's also one of the most important human rights lawyers still standing in Iran especially now that Ebadi and Sadr have had to flee.This item is not a press release. It's a statement of grave importance and it's also something from this man's heart. Open letters from prominent people have appeared here as articles. The distinction's not clear.

In the letter, he shows himself to be a true hero. What would you do, what would most of us do, if our loved ones were incarcerated as hostages to make us go to the authorities on false charges. We would go. And that seems like the heroic thing to do but in Mostafaei's case, he's chosen not to go in order to make a larger point about the legal system in Iran being an ILlegal system. He's put his own family at risk for others, to challenge the legal system in Iran. I'm sure it was a much harder decision to make than the decision to appear. .

Yes it's news, but it's many other things as well. Don't you think this man deserved the courtesy of the person who posted his letter as a blog being told that it should be changed to a news submission? Or at least that it had been removed and needed reposting? Don't you think he deserved better than to have his letter vaporized? Lula wouldn't have made his offer if it weren't for Mostafaei. Don't you think David also deserved better, especially given his history of human rights activism and disappointments he's had here previously? Would it really have been so hard for you to have sent him a simple e-mail?

A couple of days before a frequent news submitter had questioned you about the issue of news versus blogs on Niloufar's news blog. You told him Niloufar's blog was an exception (and btw also mentioned David's news blogs in Persian--which I wasn't aware of--as exceptions). The following morning this person posted a single news item as a blog, obviously to challenge you. All you did was post on the thread that it belonged in the news, and you left the blog standing. You did it with Kamran recently too.

Where is the logic? David didn't do this as a challenge to you. He did it as an act of love for a man who's given his life and now even risked his family for love of Iran and the oppressed in Iran. For love of humanity. And his work is David's work. How would you feel if you were in David's shoes and you saw that that blog had simply vanished and you hadn't even been told? Just an e-mail.

Things like that hurt people. You should try harder not to do them. They're wrong. What on earth was going through your head when you deleted that blog? Anything?

And what about now?


Rea

Keep up the good work, David

by Rea on

People take info they consider relevant, they google, double check, then they post it in other countries' forums. So, word gets around.


MM

systematic hassle of attorneys not to persist & contact outside

by MM on

Thanks David for posting this.

As Shadi Sadr eluted to, those poor souls in Iranian jails who are forgotten (no representation / no one outside to root for them) get the worst treatment . 


yolanda

......

by yolanda on

By keeping this brave lawyer in the news and by updating his situation, IRI will less likely do harm to him.........

Thank you for writing about him........we want to do the right thing even though we are the minority!

I hope the lawyer is in a safe place....it is sad that he, his wife, and daughter are in 3 separate places.......his brother-in-law missed the college entrance exam.


Rosie.

very upset...

by Rosie. on

need to digest this before i even know what I want to say..or how to say it...will post again later...


David ET

misplaced priorities

by David ET on

I posted it as blog, being sure (based on history) that it wont make it as article.

 Even as blog was removed and no I was not contacted not that it makes difference.

I did this for Mohammad, anyway , it had its few hours on front page explaining the details of what happend.

Fatehi and Delara all over again...


Rea

More bad news from IRI

by Rea on


As for priorities, I suppose it's more important to know whether the Saudis love L. Forouhar.


Rosie.

I don't understand why...

by Rosie. on

When you say it was removed from the blogs, were you contacted about it?

And first you sent it as an article? When did you do that?

And also, I haven't seen anything from SCE for a while. What happened? They don't post here anymore?


David ET

I did not translate it

by David ET on

it was translated by Human Rights Reporters of Iran – Rahana

//iransecular.blog.com/archives/1140

unfortunately this info was not featured in front page and was even removed from blogs of Iranian.com, although I posted it there on behalf of Mostafaei and I had to post it in the news section which moved down the list very fast due to number of news coming in.

As experienced before from Nazanin Fathei to Delara etc, iranian.com still sometimes does not understand priorities often until its too late!

This selfless man's life is in danger


yolanda

.....

by yolanda on

Thank you for translating the letter and spreading the word.......I am glad that the world can hear the lawyer's side of story........IRI is shameful by taking his wife and brother-in-law hostages.....I hope his wife and brother-in-law can be released soon!


Rosie.

Thanks for translating the letter, David.

by Rosie. on

When I saw the article before I clicked on it, I was going to ask you for the gist of it, but then you already had the lengthy translation.

When I first heard about it I googled Mostafaei and I found the following website which I don't know if you're aware of, so I am linking it for you, but when you see it you will want to puke, guaranteed. They say they use IRI official sources and they update daily. I honestly did not expect to see amputations. It explains why the amputations weren't done in public...

//iranhr.net/

And this from Amnesty about human rights lawyers in Iran at the end of Mostafaei article:

There is a longstanding pattern of harassment and imprisonment of human rights lawyers in Iran. In 2002, Nasser Zarafshan was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, partly on trumped-up charges of possessing a firearm and alcohol offences.

Abdolfattah Soltani was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in 2005 for disclosing public documents and “propaganda against the system”. The sentence was overturned on appeal on 2007 but he was arrested again in 2009 and held for two months before being released on bail.

Other lawyers currently held for their human rights work include Mohammad Olyaeifard, who is serving a one-year prison sentence imposed for comments he made criticizing the judiciary after the execution of one of his clients, juvenile offender Behnoud Shojaee.

Other Iranian human rights lawyers such as Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and Shadi Sadr, recipient of various international human rights awards, now work outside of Iran, fearing to return.