Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s closure of the Tehran-based Human Rights Defenders Centre by some 20 plain-clothes police. Headed by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and launched in 2002, the centre provided free legal aid to journalists and human rights activists.

“We urge the international community and human rights activists to press for the reopening of the centre,” Reporters Without Borders said. “After the imprisonment of six journalists and intimidatory measures against those who express their views online, this is a new attempt by the regime to silence its critics. We fear further arrests. The circle must be able to continue to defend those who use their right to free speech and those who defend that right. We call for it to be allowed to reopen.”

The police raided and closed the centre as Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2003, was about to preside a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Run by lawyers and human rights activists, the centre defends free speech and human rights. The government has regarded its activities as “illegal” since 2006.

Ebadi told Reporters Without Borders today that “a request for a permit was submitted to the interior ministry as soon as the circle was created, but it was always turned down.” She added that the circle intended to challenge the closure. “We will exhaust all legal channels in an attempt to affirm our rights,” she said.

Reporters Without Borders has meanwhile learned that intelligence officials arrested blogger Esmail Jafari (http://www.poutin.blogfa.com) on 18 December. Jafari was sentenced to five months in prison on 6 December in the southwestern city of Bushehr for covering a demonstration in April by about 20 workers protesting against their dismissal. It is not known where he is held.

Officials have confirmed that blogger and women’s rights activist Shahnaz Gholami (http://azarwomen.blogfa.com) has been transferred to a prison in the northwestern city of Tabriz, where she had been held with common criminals since 9 November. Neither her lawyer nor her daughter has been able to see her.

Iran is one of the world’s most repressive countries towards journalists and bloggers, who are punished severely if they criticise the government. Three cyber-dissidents and six journalists are currently in prison.

Reporters Without Borders calls on the judicial authorities to overturn the jail terms that were passed on blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi (http://rooznegaar.blogfa.com) on 15 December, coinciding with a European Union appeal to Iran to respect the rights of its detainees. A Tehran revolutionary court sentenced Mirsayafi to two years in prison for “insulting” the Islamic Republic’s leaders and six months in prison for “publicity against the government.”

“These sentences are much too severe for a blogger whose only crime was to express his views online,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The offending blog entries were satirical comments about Iran. They may seem excessive but they cannot be regarded as ‘insulting’ and certainly do not deserve a prison sentence.”

Arrested on 22 April, Mirsayafi was released after 41 days in detention on payment of 100 million toman (72,000 euros) in bail. When he appeared in court on 22 November he was charged under article 514 of the criminal code, which says “insulting Supreme Guide Khomeiny, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the country’s leaders, is punishable by six months to two years in prison,” and under article 500, which says “propaganda against the state is punishable by three months to one year in prison.”

Most of what Mirsayafi posted on his blog, Rooznegar, which can no longer be accessed, was about traditional Persian music and culture. He told Reporters Without Borders: “I am a cultural blogger, not a political one. Of all the entries I posted online, only two or three were satirical. I did not intend to insult anyone.”

Mirsayafi’s lawyer told Reporters Without Borders that, “in the opinion of the court’s experts, this blog did not have enough visitors to be regarded as a ‘publication’.” Mirsayafi is meanwhile still facing separate charges of “insulting the prophet of Islam” and “attacking the sacredness of Iran” before a Tehran assizes court.

Iran is one of the world’s most repressive countries towards outspoken bloggers and often imposes disproportionate sentences. The government is currently considering a bill that would extend the death penalty to crimes committed online. On 18 december, the UN general assembly passed a resolution urging Iran to put a stop to death sentences and executions.

NCRI – A prisoner indentified as 35-year-old Mohammad Ali Sadeqi was arrested by anti-narcotics division of Isfahan's Dastgerd prison in central Iran last week.

Upon his arrival at the facility, he was badly beaten by his jail keepers. According to the family, both of his kidneys malfunctioned because of the tortures. Despite the repeated requests by the prisoner for medical attention, he was kept in a quarantine cell for a few days with no attention.

On Saturday, Sadeqi died of kidney malefaction and his body was handed over to his family.

Murdering prisoners while in custody has been long practiced by the mullahs' regime in Iran. 

One shocking example was when 18 women inmates were locked in a metal mobile container during the scorching summer heat last August since there was no women ward in Kahrizak prison in southern suburbs of Tehran.
 
They died of dehydration and respiration problems and prison authorities paid no attention to their problems. Other prisoners found out about the tragedy by the odor of decomposing corpses spread in the prison complex. The regime made no attempt to transfer the corpses and left them in the metal cells to create more fear among other prisoners. The prison authorities tried to cover up their crime by claiming that the prisoners died of heart failure or committed suicide.

According to eye witnesses, in October 2007, ten other prisoners died under torture in this prison. During that period 80 children who were staying with their mothers in the same prison were kept in inhumane conditions in a warehouse.