Sunday, October 4, 2009

Who is Abdulfattah Soltani?


Behind the curtains of the Nuclear Circus, that the world is foolishly obsessed with, the IRI regime keeps violating human rights!


Again, they have disallowed a human right's activist and lawyer to attend and receive the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award in fall 2009. Abdufattah Soltani, 55, father of four, and a relentless justice seeker has seen the inside of Iran's prisons personally (jailed in 1981, 2002, 2005, 2009).

Why are they so afraid of Abdolfattah Soltani to

  1. have jailed him in June 2009, on charges of "doubting" the election results--while he had no participation either in election campaign or in the aftermath protests.
  2. have kept him locked up for 70 days without any charges, while enticing him to abandon cooperation with Nobel Laureate's (Shirin Ebadi) Human Right Law firm in exchange for freedom (and while jailing these important HR lawyers, like Soltani and Shadi Sadr, violating the HR in worst possible forms.)
  3. have violated Article 12.2 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to restrict his travels abroad to attend Human Right conferences or award ceremonies (since 2007).
  4. have jailed him for 8 months (Juy 2005-march 2006) almost immediately after Ahmadinejad's first election--which was contested by Karoubi and Hashemi rafsanjani as fraudulent, but because most Iranians had boycotted that election, it didn't provoke the same popular angry response it did this time.
  5. have kept him in solitary confinement from July 30-September 15, 2005, without even being able to contact his wife and mother?

His "crime" was only publicized in July 2006 sentencing: “non-respect of the confidentiality of the preliminary enquiry”! This means, he used evidence in defense of his clients that incriminated the IRI!! He was sentenced to a 5 years jail term, but he appealed the decision and was acquitted on 28 May 2007 of all charges pending against him since July 2005.

Who are the victims he has been representing??
  • slain Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi(beaten to death in prison)
  • jailed journalist Akbar Ganji (Ganji revealed the mafia operations of the IRI in chain murders)
  • slain Dr Zahra Bani Yaghub (beaten to death in prison)
  • Haaleh Esfandiari (elderly Iranian-American scholar, who even after enduring IRI prison and returning to the US, is still talking peace with Iran.)
  • The employees of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, charged with espionage
  • The teacher's union, whose members were jailed after a salary protest.
  • The bus driver's union, 50 members of which were fired after a salary protest.

Soltani's real crimes are these:
  • belief that Iranian authorities, who have been systematically violating the human rights in Iran since 1984, must be tried in international courts for crimes against humanity
  • efforts to familiarize average citizens with their basic constitutional rights (he has written a booklet called The Right of The Accused
  • courage to expose how the hallow charges of "foreign plot" have been immunizing the Mafia of perpetrators who have compromised the integrity of the judiciary according to the wished of the cult of Ahmadinejad
  • insisting on a civil suit he has launched against Tehran's prosecutor and the judge of his case for his unlawful detention.

It is the courage of this man that we must salut (and stop disgracing the Iranian Human Rights movement with lobbyists such as these!)

2 comments:

Tricia Neda Sutherland said...

Hi Naj, I am a 51 yr old woman who, before June 09, had very little interest in, and very little knowledge of, the Country of Iran. Since June I have become involved in the fight for human rights and freedom of your Country. I am in awe of the bravery and determination of the people living under this inhumane regime and am doing all I can to help them. I came across your blog about one month ago and follow it avidly. I share many of your blogs on my Facebook wall and agree entirely with your contention that human rights are the issue! Talk of nuclear weapons is, at most, a red herring and is diverting the World Leaders (why, oh why!!) from discussing, and condemning, the appalling human rights abuses! The cynic in me believes that this is more to do with business interests than to do with what is right! Thank you again for your blog, I find it very informative, and a great read. Kind regards, Tricia Neda

Naj said...

Tricia,

you're very welcome. Happy to hear my blog's useful.