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Iranian Physicist and Human Rights Activist Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison

June 7, 2016

Narges Mohammadi, a prominent activist, has spoken out against the use of the death penalty in Iran. She has also advocated for the rights of women. For these, she has now been sentenced to 16 years in Evin Prison in Iran.

CCS has written requesting her immediate release and that she be given adequate medical care for seriously deteriorating medical issues.

Embed from Getty Images

June 6, 2016

Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Leader of the Islamic Republic
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Your Excellency:

The Committee of Concerned Scientists is an independent organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for colleagues all over the world.

We have written to you in the past and write again out of concern for Narges Mohammadi, a 43-year old Iranian physicist, engineer and human rights advocate. On May 17, her lawyer learned that she had been sentenced to a 16-year prison term on charges that are based exclusively on her peaceful human rights work. In October 2015 we wrote to President Rouhani expressing our dismay at her arrest and incarceration, and we write to you now to convey our profound disappointment at this verdict and to urge you to intervene for the sake of justice and Narges’ dramatically declining physical health.

Narges Mohammadi is an advocate of women’s rights, abolition of the death penalty, and other human rights causes, all work that is protected by her rights to free expression, association and peaceful assembly as guaranteed by the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran ratified in 1975.

Ten years of this new 16 year sentence are based on anti-death penalty activities for which she was convicted of “founding an illegal group,” despite her right to free association and assembly.

An additional 5 years were imposed on Narges Mohammadi for “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security” the evidence for which included her meeting in 2014 with Catherine Ashton, then the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. This sentence also violates her basic right to free association.

Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to one more year for “spreading propaganda against the system,” as a result of interviews she has given to international media, and clearly a violation of her right for free expression.

Narges Mohammadi has been held at Evin Prison in Tehran for over a year, and under Iran’s penal code, she will be required to serve at least 10 more years in prison (the duration of the lengthiest sentence imposed). She has become seriously ill, suffering lung problems from a pulmonary embolism and muscular paralysis from a neurological disorder. She has been hospitalized three times since May 2015 and her medical situation is deteriorating – resulting in slurred words, difficulty speaking, seizures – all exacerbated by stress and the current situation in which she finds herself, which includes the fact that she has been denied access to her children.

Narges Mohammadi requires significant medical care, yet while in the hospital prison authorities have disrupted her treatment. Her complaints about that have resulted in yet another criminal charge – “insulting officers while being transferred to a hospital.”

Narges Mohammadi has been jailed, and now convicted and sentenced, for her peaceful human rights activities, and her imprisonment has been marked by degrading treatment and an interference with medical care that may amount to torture. We urge you to see to it that Narges Mohammadi is immediately and unconditionally released and her conviction and sentences quashed. It is also urgent that she be granted adequate and unimpeded medical care. In addition, we believe you must see to it that she is allowed regular access to her lawyer and her family, including her children.

We appreciate your immediate attention to this important matter and look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Copies To:

Hassan Rouhani
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Presidency
Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani
Head of the Judiciary
c/o Public Relations Office
Number 4, Deadend of 1 Azizi
Above Pasteur Intersection
Vali Asr Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
622 Third Avenue
34th Floor
New York, NY 10017

Related articles
  • Leading Iranian Human Rights Activist to Serve Ten Years in Prison (iranhumanrights.org)
  • Narges Mohammadi Archive (concernedscientists.org)

Filed Under: Iran Tagged With: Ali Khamenei, Human Rights Activists, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Narges Mohammadi, Scientists, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

Myles Axton, Chief Editor, Genetics and Genomics Next

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Giorgio Parisi, Roma I University La Sapienza

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs*

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Former Honorary Board Members

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deseased) Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser (deceased), Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

Louis Nirenberg (deceased), New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Myriam Sarachick (deceased), City College of New York

Harold Scheraga (deceased), Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Steven Weinberg (deceased), University of Texas, Austin*

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

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