center with Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has been sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence that is effectively a warning to Ebadi not to return to the Islamic Republic ever again.
Mohammad Seifzadeh was convicted of “acting against national security” by being one of the co-founders of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, an organization that Ebadi funded with the cash she received along with her Nobel medal.
Ebadi left Iran the day before the June 2009 elections for a speaking tour. By the time the tour was finished, it was clear she would be in danger if she returned. She frequently said she would go back to Iran after the UN human rights resolution was voted on last December. But instead she has settled into life in London.
There were two other co-founders of the human rights group—Abdol-Fattah Soltani and Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah are both lawyers and are being prosecuted on the same charge Seifzadeh was just convicted of.
In addition to the nine-year prison term, Seifzadeh was also banned from practicing law for a decade after his release.
The charge of “acting against national security” is a generic offense often used against dissidents. It has often been criticized by international legal scholars for its vagueness and the fact that it can easily be bent to cover whatever prosecutors wish it to cover when a law ought actually to be clear and specific about what is and what is not legal conduct.
The regime’s main complaint about the Center for Human Rights Defenders is that it lacked a license. Ebadi has often said that the center applied for a license many years ago and the government failed to act on the application.
In an interview with Radio Farda this week, Seifzadeh said the Khatami Administration agreed to issue a license for the center but, when the Ahmadi-nejad team took power, no action was taken.
“The ministry and the government, which are against anyone who does not share their way of thinking, did not give us the license,” Seifzadeh told Radio Farda. “Therefore, the Interior Ministry should be prosecuted, not me.”
When Ebadi was informed of the sentence issued to Seifzadeh, she said it was proof that “the Iranian Judiciary’s independence is vanishing with each passing day.”