Mehran Raoof, a British-Iranian national and a labor rights activist, is being arbitrarily detained in Tehran’s Evin prison. Revolutionary Guards agents arrested him on 16 October 2020. He is being held in prolonged solitary confinement, in violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be immediately and unconditionally released.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Head of judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi
c/o H.E. Majid Takht Ravanchi
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran
622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212 687-2020 I Fax: 212 867 7086
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Iran_UN
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Mr Raisi,
I am writing to express serious concern at the continued arbitrary detention of labor rights activist Mehran Raoof, 64, in Section 2A of Evin prison since his arrest on 16 October 2020. Agents from the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards raided his home in Tehran, searched it and confiscated personal items including his computer. He was subjected to incommunicado detention for a month following his arrest, after which he was allowed to make a brief telephone call to a distant relative in Iran. He has been denied calls with his immediate family, all of whom live outside Iran, and the right to access legal counsel, even from the judiciary-approved lawyers that his family have retained on his behalf. He has been held in prolonged solitary confinement for months. Amnesty International fears that he is at serious risk of further torture and other human rights violations.
Mehran Raoof is a dual British and Iranian national and lives between Iran and the UK. Amnesty International understands that his friends have tried to retain an independent lawyer of his choice on his behalf, but the authorities have refused to grant the lawyer access to his case file until trial. Mehran Raoof was detained around the same time as several other labor rights activists across the country in October 2020 in a coordinated crackdown to quash advocacy on workers’ rights. One of those arrested has since been sentenced to 16 years in prison on spurious national security charges, leading to fears of long sentences against them all. Mehran Raoof is among dozens of dual nationals arrested and detained in Iran in recent years. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran has expressed concern at the continued arbitrary detention of dual nationals and has said that the authorities have subjected them to “sham trials”, convicted them based on “fabricated evidence or…no evidence at all” and “attempted to use them as diplomatic leverage.”
I ask you to immediately and unconditionally release Mehran Raoof, as he is a prisoner of conscience detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights through his labor rights activism. Pending his release, I ask you to ensure that he has regular access to his family outside Iran, a lawyer of his choosing and any health care he needs.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
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