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Today (Nov 1) marks two years since the arrest of Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan in his parents’ home in Tehran.

Index on Censorship has joined with ARTICLE 19, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and PEN Canada to express dismay at the sentence of 19 and a half years handed down to blogger Hossein Derakhshan.  Although the prosecutor’s call for the death penalty was not approved, the sentence against Hossein Derakhshan represents a serious violation of Iranian obligations under international law.   It is clear that Derakhshan, charged with cooperating with hostile countries, spreading propaganda and insulting religious figures, was sentenced for merely enjoying the right to freedom of expression.

Reports from former cellmates indicate that Derakhshan has been tortured while in prison and subjected to harsh interrogations.  Index on Censorship, ARTICLE 19, CJFE, CPJ and PEN Canada believe that Derakhshan remains at risk for as long as he is in prison, and that the extreme length of the sentence adds to the danger that he faces. Derakhshan has been held in Evin prison for almost two years, but his case only went to trial last summer.

The 19 and a half year prison sentence was announced on the conservative website Mashreghnews.ir this morning.  The sentence also includes several fines – €30,750, US $2,900, and £200.

The free speech groups call on the Iranian government to release Derakhshan immediately and meet its commitment to protect basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.  The groups also ask the international community to continue to hold Iran to its obligations and to support Iranian bloggers, journalists and writers to do their work without fear of imprisonment or reprisal.

Prison is no place for Hossein Derakhshan or for the dozens of other writers, journalists, academics and bloggers who continue to languish in Iran’s jails.

Sign a petition to free the blogfather

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READ LETTER IN FARSI HERE

Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur Street
Vali Asr Avenue
Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran
Iran

5 October 2010

Your Excellency
We are writing to express our dismay at the sentence of 19 and a half years handed down to blogger Hossein Derakhshan, and our concerns about serious violations of Iran’s obligations under international and domestic law to protect and promote human rights, including the right to freedom of expression.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s domestic laws recognise the right to freedom of expression. Iran was in fact one of the first countries in the world to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1975, which guarantees all individuals the ‘freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media’.

We believe that Hossein Derakhshan was exercising that very right to freedom of expression. We therefore ask you to do everything in your authority to allow for his release and thereby honour Iran’s commitment to protect basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Hossein Derakhshan has already spent two years in prison awaiting trial and we have received worrying reports that he may have been tortured. We therefore ask you to ensure that he is accorded the rights due to all prisoners under international law for the duration of his time in detention.

As leading free speech groups that defend the rights of individuals around the world to freedom of expression, we are deeply concerned at the deteriorating conditions facing writers, journalists, academics and bloggers in the Islamic Republic. We ask you to undertake within your responsibility all measures to enable them to work without fear of imprisonment or reprisal. Prison is no place for Hossein Derakhshan or for the dozens of other individuals who have been jailed for exercising their right to free speech.

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Following reports this week that the prosecution is seeking a death sentence for Hossein Derakhshan, the “blogfather”,  his friend Sandrine Murcia considers why he decided to return to Iran

“I’m so happy with my work. I learnt so much in the past year;  it opened up for me so many new ways of thinking. I can’t wait to use all this in my writing.”

This is what a busy, excited Hossein Derakhshan told me in September 2008 about his MA in Media Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. During his time at SOAS, Hossein started to reconsider his role as a blogger, and began thinking about what to do next. Hossein loves blogging as much as he loves discussions and debates, but he could not see himself just blogging for the rest of his life. It had certainly been a valuable tool in engaging with others and sharing thoughts, but it was the purpose, not the act of blogging in itself, that most interested him.

Hossein was also eager to go back to Iran. He disliked being away from his family and from his native Tehran — the city he loves so much — and said he did not want to be “disconnected” from the real life of the Iranian people. He wanted to enjoy Nooroz (Iranian New Year) at home; he wanted to be in Tehran for the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution; he wanted to be in Iran for the 2010 presidential elections.

So, as the end of his time at SOAS approached, Hossein decided to go back to Iran for a year or so. He knew he was going to be questioned by the police; he knew he would probably be arrested because of his writings and his trips to Israel. But he believed the period running up to the election would be a time of greater exchange and discussion across Iran. He thought that officials might be less inclined to treat him unfairly, and that if he were detained, he would at least have the opportunity to publicly explain himself, his writings and his actions.

Hossein Derakhshan returned to Tehran on 17 October 2008. Two weeks later,  he was arrested at his parents’  house and has been detained in Evin prison ever since.

All his rationales about the trip were proved wrong. Not only was he arrested, he was then given no chance to explain himself. Hossein never thought he could be detained for so long.

Meanwhile, his family and friends were given strictly no news about his whereabouts and whether he was still alive.  After two months in the dark, an official press communication in December 2008 confirmed Hossein’s arrest and detention in Evin prison. For another eight months, the Derakhshan family was denied further information. They were told in July 2009 that Hossein was finally out of solitary confinement awaiting trial. There were no indications about what charges he would face, and the family were not given any access to him.

Hossein was finally brought to court for trial earlier this year. After three sessions, which his family were not allowed to attend, Hossein is still waiting for the judgment to be passed.

Two years after his initial arrest, we are now waiting for the judge’s final verdict.

To support Hossein Derakhshan:

Sign the petition Release Hossein ‘Hoder’ Derakhshan from Evin Prison

Contact the Canadian Embassy in Iran via teran@international.gc.ca to push for action

Join Free Hossein Derakhshan // Libérez Hossein Derakhshan on Facebook

For further information go to   www.freetheblogfather.com

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After 21 months being in jail, controversial blogger Hossein Derakhshan, (aka Hoder) finally faced trial on 23 June, writes Hamid Tehrani

Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars [Farsi] claims the charges against Derakhshan are working with “hostile” states, propaganda against the Islamic regime, propaganda in favor of anti-revolutionary groups, insulting religious sanctities, and launching and managing “obscene” websites.

Abolqasem Salavati has been identified as the presiding judge. Salavati oversaw some of the major post-election trials of 2009. In those cases, Salavati got a chance to sit in judgment over some of Iran’s most prominent political figures, including former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former deputy speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, and a number of other former government officials.

Fars does not provide specific information about the trial except that the prosecutor’s representative read out a long list of charges in the presence of Hossein’s family, his lawyer and the judge.

Conservative Jahan News [Farsi], published the same information as Fars, but also quoted some of Derakhshan’s blog posts to demonstrate his support for reformists and his hostility to some of Iranian leaders including Ayatholah Khamenei, Ayatholah Mesbah Yazdi and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Jahan News adds that it cannot publish the insults regarding religious figures. But what the site calls “insults” are a few points of view and critiques. Jahan omits to mention that for more than a year before traveling back to Iran Hossein was a supporter of Ahmadinejad.

Cyrus Farivar, a German-based journalist who has followed the case closely, managed to get this quote via email from a source close to Derakhshan’s family:

“One trial session was held and although no family members were allowed in, but the family remains optimistic that no serious issues exist in his case. Plus, considering the fact that he has already served a long time in prison, most of which has been in solitary confinement, the family doesn’t expect a longer jail sentence. There are more court sessions to be held before the final verdict is out.”

The reasons for Hoder’s initial arrest remain unclear, but some speculate that his two (highly publicised) trips to Israel were behind it.

Iranian Blogger Z8tun summed up the situation 21 months ago: “other Iranians have been caught visiting Israel, but were released after a few hours of interrogation. Some speculate that Derakhshan, who in recent years became a supporter of President Ahmadinejad’s government, was arrested because he insulted some religious leaders in the country. He has himself argued in Western media, despite multiple testimonies of jailed bloggers, that nobody goes to jail in Iran because of the content of their blog.”

The Islamic Republic has cracked down on the blogosphere in recent years, and there are several other bloggers in jail in Iran including human rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari. On 18 March 2009 Omid Reza Mir Sayafi became the first blogger to die in suspicious circumstances in an Iranian prison.

Campaign for Derakhshan’s release through the Free Hoder Facebook page

Hamid Tehrani, Iran Editor of Global Voices

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