The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) Sunday called on the Iranian Judiciary and Intelligence Ministry to free human rights lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh.
He was jailed earlier this month of charges of trying to flee Iran while awaiting an appeals court action on other charges against him.
The campaign called Seifzadeh’s detention “baseless” and said he appeared to be in ill health. He has also been denied access to his attorney, and other internationally guaranteed due process rights.
“The arrest of Mohammad Seifzadeh is yet another illegal assault on Iran’s human rights defense community,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for ICHRI.
“Seifzadeh is being prosecuted because of his adherence to professional ethical standards, and his praiseworthy defense of those denied their human rights,” Ghaemi said.
A trial court last October sentenced Seifzadeh to nine years in prison and a 10-year ban on legal practice. His case is currently before an appeals court and he had been free while awaiting action by that court, the normal practice in Iran.
The charges on which he was convicted are “collusion and assembly with intent to disrupt internal security,” “propagation activities against the regime,” and “establishing the Center for Human Rights Defenders.”
In an interview with ICHRI, Marzieh Nikara, Seifzadeh’s lawyer, said he has now been in detention inside the Intelligence Office in Urumiyeh in northwestern Iran for the past two weeks on new charges of attempting to leave the country illegally. Nikara told ICHRI that Seifzadeh had gone to Urumiyeh on a research project.
Only his son has been allowed to see him for about two minutes and he said his father had lost a lot of weight and was limping, Nikara reported.
Since the disputed election of June 2009, Seifzadeh has been forbidden to take political cases. A number of former prisoners of conscience have told ICHRI that Judiciary officials denied their requests that he serve as their lawyer.
Asked how Seifzadeh’s presence in Urumiyeh could have been construed as exiting the country, she said: “This is exactly what our argument is, but the case’s investigative judge argues that Urumiyeh is a border city that has a border with Turkey. His whole argument is why didn’t Mr. Seifzadeh go to central cities for his research projects, and instead went to Urumiyeh.
“The important thing is that my client went to Urumiyeh for a research project and Urumiyeh is a part of Iran, and there are no limitations for any Iranian citizen to enter any city inside Iran,” said Nikara.