Middle East

Mohammad Mostafaie, a human rights defender and lawyer of Sakineh Ashtiani, the woman whose sentence to death by stoning in Iran in June received worldwide public attention, has been arrested and detained by Turkish authorities. On 24 July 2010, his wife, Fereshteh Halimi and brother in law, Farhad Halimi, were arrested and are now detained at the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. Prior to their arrest, Mostafaie was invited for interrogation and subsequently released by the police but was immediately ordered to be arrested again.

Since we issued our first update on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case last Friday July 9, the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women has received new information that she is still facing the imminent threat of being executed.  We also received the news that her young son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, who publicly expressed his concern on the plight of his mother has been summoned by the Iranian authorities for some questioning about his activities.

Please see here for more information on the case

أصدرت المحكمة الثورية في إيران حكما بالسجن لمدة عامين و نصف و بالجلد 30 جلدة علي الناشطة النسوية محبوبة عباس غوليزادة و ذلك بادعاء قيامها بأفعال ضد الأمن القومي و التآمر لزعزعة الأمن العام و إقلاق النظام العام و إزعاج موظفي الحكومة. يظهر هذا الحكم رغبة الحكومة الإيرانية في إسكات و قمع المدافعين عن حقوق الإنسان عامة و المدافعين عن حقوق المرأة خاصة 

UPDATE: Shiva Nazar's trial, due to take place on 23 May, has been postponed without a future date being set. In March 2010, Women’s human rights defender and WLUML council member, Shadi Sadr, took the extraordinary step of dedicating her International Women of Courage Award to Shiva Nazar Ahari, a young human rights activist and a member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), currently imprisoned in Iran for ‘acts against national security’. Sadr refrained from attending the award ceremony in the U.S. in the hope that her absence would draw the international community’s attention to Nazar Ahari’s dire situation, urging the audience in a speech recorded for the event that “any measures available to you [be taken] to help to free Shiva along with other human rights activists and journalists in Iranian prisons”. According to Nazar Ahari’s mother, she will be brought to trial at Revolutionary Court No. 26 on Sunday 23 May. The offences she is being accused of carry severe penalties. Please see attached our sample letter . You can follow this link (and scroll down) to watch a series of films in Farsi on Shiva by Iranian WHRD, filmmaker and WLUML ally, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh.