I Do Not Accept This Political Sentence

Attorney Mohammad Seyfzadeh, who was sentenced to 9 years of prison and barred from practicing his profession for 10 years last week, told Rooz in an exclusive interview that the sentence against him was completely political and a political-judicial statement of one political faction against independent attorneys. He said he does not accept the sentence.

As a founding member of the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights, Seyfzadeh believes that by issuing the sentence against him, the judge had disreputed the Islamic Republic of Iran and its judiciary, and that it was an indication of the treatment that independent attorneys were going to face in future.

Seyfzadeh was sentenced last Saturday on charges of establishing the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights. Another charge against him was his closeness to Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner who is a well known international human rights activist.

In speaking with Rooz about this, Ebadi said, “The question for the pseudo-interrogator of the case is this: which article of the law says that closeness to Ebadi is a crime and if this is not a crime then why is it mentioned in the judgment.”

Ebadi said that the sentence indicated the non-independent nature of Iran’s judiciary, and added, “Unfortunately judges who oversee political and ideological trials have turned into agents of the security apparatus.”

Following Seyfzadeh’s sentence, Ebadi also wrote a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights asking him to take measures to remind the Islamic Republic of Iran of its international human rights obligations while at the same time calling for the immediate release of Seyfzadeh, Ms. Sotudeh and Mr. Olyaifard. The latter two are also attorneys who are under arrest in prison.

Seyfzadeh: This is a Political Sentence
In speaking with Rooz, Seyfzadeh said that he will not accept the sentence, adding, “The presiding judge disregarded my defense and his behavior indicated that he completely lacks any knowledge of the law. If he is aware of the law, then he was completely violating it. I categorically say that these gentlemen have dishonored the reputation of the regime and the judiciary.”

“I shall not accept any sentence and I shall continue to protest as long as I live. I shall sand against a sentence issued by an unqualified judge who lacks legal education, unless the case is retried in an independent court, not one of those courts that uphold original sentences. I request that Mr. Avai, the head of the judiciary, who is fortunately a jurist, to send the case to an independent court,” Seyfzadeh added.

It should be noted that Seyfzadeh has been the hired defense attorney for many political, media and civil activists. He said that the sentence against him did not surprise him. “When they send a case to a court that is known to be affiliated to a party or a political faction I knew not expect a sentence that would be based on legal and judicial foundations.”

Shirin Ebadi: The Charges Were Dictated by Security Agents
In speaking with Rooz, Shirin Ebadi said, “any student of law who read the sentence would notice that it was dictated by security agents and that a person labeled a judge had merely signed it.”

In speaking about Seyfzadeh’s record and past, she said that before the 1979 revolution, he was a well known judge and defended the Islamic revolution and strived for the independence of the judiciary, as is attested by all his colleagues. When after the revolution he noticed that the judiciary did not have the ability to execute justice, he resigned from his judgeship and for a while did not practice until he reapplied for his bar permit and began defending the deprived and victims of human rights violations. “When I was arrested in connection with the horrific events of Tehran University dormitory he took up my defense which laid the foundation for our greater cooperation in future until we both co-founded the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights. He was the supervisor of attorneys who defended political and ideological suspects pro bono,” she said.

Ebadi also talked about other attorney prisoners, namely Nasrin Sotudeh and Mohammad Olyai. She reminded the Iranian Bar association members that it was their duty to defend attorneys who had been unjustly imprisoned and sentenced. “Enough of silence. If we do not rise against the legal violations today, tomorrow even the managers of the board will be subjected to the same faith that has befallen on Ms. Sotudeh and Mr. Seyfzadeh,” she warned.

Another prominent Iranian attorney, Abdol-Karim Lahiji, the president of the Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran told Rooz, “The only forum that can deny an attorney his permit is the disciplinary board of attorneys. This issue is in no way in the jurisdiction of the revolutionary court.”

Seyfzadeh too had made the same point, adding, “the presiding judge seemed not to know even this basic principle.” He then pointed out that the last paragraph of the sentence said that his 9 year sentence would take into account the days that he had been under arrest, whereas in fact he had never been under arrest, “indicating that he had not even read the file.”

Seyfzadeh listed the various parts of the sentence against him which included the establishment of the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights, which undertook the defense of opposition groups, teachers, students, etc. Giving talks outside Iran to opposition groups and accepting the defense of such individuals, are also mentioned in the sentence. “Contacts with the US and other Western countries are also part of the charges against me,” Seyfzadeh said, adding, “the sentence mentions that the president of the United States and the European Union issued statements of condemnation when the offices of the Center were shut down.”

The sentence mentions articles 498 and 500 of the Islamic Penal Code including article 47 and Seyfzadeh is charged with acting against national state security. Seyfzadeh concluded that all the human rights activities of the Center are viewed as crimes by the Islamic Republic. “The beginning of the Center goes back to 1997 when Ms. Mehrangiz Kar and I talked about it. She was then imprisoned and then developed an illness after which I spoke with Ms. Ebadi. And since we were the first group to work to implement the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Iran, we knew that we would be confronted by officials.”