Background
The political stalemate of the previous year continued until the election of a
new president in June. Over 1,000 presidential candidates were excluded from
the election by the Council of Guardians, which reviews laws and policies to
ensure that they uphold Islamic tenets and the Constitution. All 89 women
candidates were excluded on the basis of their gender under discriminatory
selection procedures known as gozinesh. There
were reports of arrests of people demonstrating against the elections. Up to 10
people were killed in separate pre-election bomb attacks in Ahvaz
and Tehran,
and six others were killed in a bomb attack in Ahvaz
in October. The authorities faced armed opposition from Kurdish and other
groups.
The election as President of former Revolutionary Guard Special Forces member
Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who
took office in August, completed the marginalization of pro-reform supporters
from the political process and led to a concentration of power in the Office of
the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei. In October, the Supreme Leader delegated some of
his supervisory powers over the government to the Expediency Council, headed by
defeated presidential candidate Hojjatoleslam AliAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Relations with the international community remained strained over human rights
and Iran’s
nuclear programme, particularly after Iran
announced in August that it was resuming uranium enrichment for civilian
purposes. Iran
accused foreign governments, particularly those of the USA
and UK,
of instigating unrest in border areas; the UK
accused Iran
of aiding anti-UK insurgency activities in Iraq.
The European Union-Iran human rights dialogue was suspended because of
diplomatic tensions.
In December, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the human
rights situation
in Iran.
Repression of minorities
Discriminatory laws and practices remained a source of social and political
unrest and of human rights violations, particularly against Iran’s
ethnic and religious minorities. In July the UN Special Rapporteur on the right
to adequate housing visited Iran.
He found discrimination in the distribution of resources, and in access to and
quality of housing, water and sanitation in areas populated by minorities.
Arabs
In April, at least 31 Arabs were killed and hundreds
injured during clashes with the police following demonstrations in Ahvaz
and elsewhere in Khuzestan province. Hundreds of other people were detained.
The demonstrators were protesting against a letter allegedly written by a
presidential adviser, who denied its authenticity, which set out policies for
the reduction of the Arab population of Khuzestan. Waves of arrests continued
throughout the year, particularly following bomb explosions in Ahvaz
in June and October and attacks on oil installations in September and October.
At least 81 people were
arrested in November while attending an Arab cultural gathering called Mahabis. Those arrested included Zahra Nasser-Torfi, director of the Ahwaz al-Amjad cultural centre, who was
reportedly tortured in detention, including with beatings and threats of
execution, rape and other sexual abuse, before being released on bail to
await trial.
Azeris
At the end of June, scores of ethnic Azeris
participating in an annual cultural gathering at Babek Castle
in Kalayber were arrested. At least 21 were later
sentenced to prison terms of between three months and one year, some of which
were suspended. Some were also banned from entering Kalayber
for 10 years.
Abbas Lisani,
an Azeri butcher, was arrested during the Babek Castle event. He was released on bail in July and was sentenced in August
to one year’s imprisonment to be spent in internal exile after conviction
of “spreading propaganda” and “disturbing public opinion”. He was believed
to have appealed against his sentence.
Kurds
In June, clashes between security forces and Kurds
celebrating events in Iraq
led to injuries to police officers and the arrest of dozens of demonstrators.
In July, after Iranian security forces shot dead a Kurdish opposition activist,
Showaneh Qaderi, and
reportedly dragged his body through the streets behind a jeep, thousands of
Kurds took to the streets to protest. Security forces reportedly killed up to
21 people, injured scores more and arrested at least 190. In further clashes in
October and November, at least one person, Shoresh Amiri, was killed, several people were injured and others
were arrested.
Dr Roya Toloui,
a women’s rights activist, and two journalists, Ajlal
Qavami and Sa’id Sa’edi, were among the Kurds arrested in August. All
were released on bail in October and were reported to be facing political
charges that can carry the death penalty.
Religious minorities
Members of Iran’s religious minorities were detained solely in connection with
their faith.
Hamid Pourmand, who had
converted to Christianity from Islam over 25 years previously, was
sentenced in February by a military court to three years’ imprisonment on
charges of deceiving the Iranian armed forces about his religion and “acts
against national security”. In May he was acquitted of apostasy.
At least 66 Baha’is were
detained and two remained held at the end of the year. Mehran
Kawsari and Bahram Mashhadi were sentenced to three years and one year in
prison respectively in connection with an open letter sent to President Khatami in November 2004.
Human rights defenders
The registration process for independent
non-governmental organizations remained a barrier to their effective operation,
and individual human rights defenders remained at risk of reprisal for their
work.
In July, Abdolfattah
Soltani, a lawyer and co-founder of the Centre
for Defenders of Human Rights, was detained. He was reportedly accused of
releasing “secret and classified national intelligence” in connection with
his work defending an espionage case. He remained in detention at the end
of the year with limited access to his family and no access to his lawyer.
Prisoner of conscience Akbar Ganji, an
investigative reporter who uncovered the involvement of government officials
in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s, continued to
serve a six-year prison sentence imposed after he was convicted of vaguely
worded charges including “acting against national security”. Following a
hunger strike in protest at being denied independent medical treatment
outside prison, accompanied by considerable domestic and international
protests, he was temporarily released for medical treatment in July. He
was returned to prison in September and placed in solitary confinement for
over six weeks. His wife said he had been beaten by security forces in
hospital.
Torture
and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments
Torture continued to be routine in many prisons and detention centres. At least
five people died in custody. In several cases, torture or ill-treatment may
have been a factor. Denial of medical treatment to put pressure on political
prisoners emerged as an increasingly common practice.
In July a report by the judiciary detailed human rights violations, including
torture, of prisoners and detainees. It stated that measures had been taken to
address the problems, but gave no details.
In September, Arezoo Siabi Shahrivar, a photographer, was arrested along with up
to 14 other women, at a ceremony commemorating the 1988 “prison massacre”
in Evin prison, Tehran, in which thousands of political prisoners were executed. In
detention she was suspended from the ceiling, beaten with a wire cable and
sexually abused.
A man from Shiraz sentenced to 100 lashes in
2004 for homosexual activities alleged that he had been tortured and
threatened with death by security forces.
At least three amputations were carried out. It remained common for courts
to hand down sentences of flogging.
Update: Zahra Kazemi
In November the Appeals
Court upheld the acquittal of an
Intelligence Ministry official accused of killing Canadian-Iranian
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in custody in July 2003.
A new investigation into the killing was announced.
Death penalty
At least 94 people were executed in 2005, including at least eight aged under
18 at the time of the crime. Scores more were reported to have been sentenced
to death, including at least 11 who were under 18 at the time of the offence.
The true figures were probably much higher. Death sentences continued to be
imposed for vaguely worded offences such as “corruption on earth”.
In October, a woman was
reportedly sentenced to death by stoning, despite a moratorium on the use
of this punishment introduced in 2002.
In January, the UN Committee on
the Rights of the Child urged Iran
to suspend immediately the execution of people aged under
18 at the time of the crime, and to abolish the death penalty for people who
commit crimes before they are 18. Despite Iran’s
statement that there was a moratorium on the use of the death penalty against
juvenile offenders, Iman Farrokhi
was executed on the very day that Iran’s
report was considered by the Committee. He was 17 when he allegedly killed a
soldier in a fight.
Following domestic and international protests, the death sentences of some
women and of men aged under 18 at the time of their
alleged offence were suspended or lifted.
Freedom of expression and association
Freedom of expression and association remained severely curtailed. Journalists
and webloggers were detained and imprisoned and some
newspapers were closed down. Relatives of detainees or those sought by the
authorities remained at risk of harassment or intimidation.
Press Courts were reintroduced in October comprising a panel of three judges and
a jury selected by the judiciary. Some journalists’ organizations criticized
the composition of the juries.
Mohammad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, a student
campaigner for human rights and a newspaper editor, was sentenced in
January to six months’ imprisonment and a fine for “insulting the
country’s leader and making anti-government propaganda”. He was released
in August. His pregnant wife, Najameh Oumidparvar, was detained in March for 24 days after
posting a message on her weblog that her husband
apparently wrote before his arrest.
Women’s rights
The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women visited Iran
in January and February. She criticized the arbitrary arrest, torture and
ill-treatment of women, including women human rights defenders, and called on Iran
to adopt a national action plan to promote and protect human rights that would
eliminate violence against women. She also expressed particular concern at
discriminatory laws and failures in the administration of justice which result
in impunity for perpetrators and perpetuate discrimination and violence against
women.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing noted discrimination
against women in relation to housing and a lack of safe houses for women who
are victims of violence.
