The family of jailed Iranian lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh is gravely concerned about his well being and claims no information is available on his judicial case.
The Campaign for Human Rights in Iran quotes Seifzadeh’s wife, Fatemeh Golzar, saying: “A month after the arrest of Mr. Seifzadeh in Orumiyeh [a city in northwestern Iran], he was transferred to Evin Prison. He has been held there for more than a month, and we are hoping that on Thursday we will be allowed to visit him in person.”
Golzar says her husband, one of the founders of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, was arrested on the charge of “leaving the country with the intent to act against national security.” She says her husband has denied the charges.
Seifzadeh was arrested in April by intelligence officials in Orumiyeh. Marzieh Nikara, his defence attorney, said last month that her client is under pressure to make a false confession and that his life was in danger.
Nikara added that she had not been allowed to read her client’s legal file, and no evidence of Mr. Seifzadeh’s alleged intent to leave the country had been presented in court.
Last November, Seifzadeh was sentenced to nine years in prison and a 10-year ban from practicing law for the charge of “collusion and assembly with the intent to disrupt national security, propaganda activities against the regime and establishment of the Human Rights Defenders Centre.” The sentence is now being appealed.
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace laureate who is also a founding member of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, has called on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran to pursue by any means the release of Seifzadeh and all other jailed Iranian lawyers.
