28 Lawyers Request Head of Judiciary to Review Case of Gonabadi Dervishes

A group of bar association lawyers has issued a statement regarding imprisoned dervishes in Iran. The signatories have described the “freedom of dervishes held in captivity and exile” as “the most appropriate solution for the justice system in healing bitter grievances and creating national unity.”

In a statement issued by 28 lawyers of the bar association in Iran regarding the case of the dervishes, it is stated: “Deprivation of social rights and prevention from exercising all or part of legal rights and denial of the right to defense is an unwritten policy and law that has long gripped the Gonabadi Nematollahi dervishes.”

The signatories, referring to the values emphasized by Noor Ali Tabandeh, the spiritual leader of the dervishes, including “rule of law” which was “his advice” to “his disciples even in conditions of restrictions and deprivations,” write: “It would have been more appropriate if, with tolerance and forbearance of unpleasantness by all parties involved, social challenges and disputes, especially the bitter incident called ‘Golestan Seventh,’ had never occurred.”

The 28 bar association lawyers who issued this statement, “in the course of defending the rights of imprisoned dervishes and bringing justice to Iran’s judicial system,” have considered “the restorative justice approach, peaceful and conciliatory methods and utilization of legal capacities as the most appropriate solution for the justice system in healing bitter grievances” and described “the creation of national unity as the freedom of dervishes held in captivity and exile.”

The signatories have requested from the head of the judiciary: “Issue an order to review and re-examine the case of the imprisoned dervishes so that at this time when the dervish community grieves the loss of their leader in sorrow and sadness, provisions can be made for the liberation of the dervishes and their families from the double suffering of imprisonment and exile.”

Noor Ali Tabandeh, the spiritual leader of the Gonabadi dervishes, passed away on Wednesday, December 24, 2020, at the age of 92 in a hospital in Tehran.

Among the 28 lawyers signing this statement, one can mention the names of Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Abdolfattah Soltani, Amir Raisan, Hossein Taj, and Arash Keykhosravi.

The Gonabadi dervishes gathered on February 19, 2018, on Haftom Pasdaran Street in Tehran in protest of the siege of Noor Ali Tabandeh’s house and the unfavorable conditions that, according to them, had been created for their leader. This gathering was turned into a riot with the intervention of police forces and plainclothes officers.

That night and the following morning, according to the dervishes, hundreds of dervishes were arrested and many were transferred to four hospitals due to beatings after arrest. All of them, after outpatient treatment and other detainees, were transferred to Evin and Fashafuyeh prisons, and women were sent to Qarchak prison.

Dozens of those arrested on those days were women dervishes. Shokufeh Yadollahi, Sima Entesari, and Sepideh Moradi were three Gonabadi dervishes who were released from prison on February 9 after enduring nearly two years of imprisonment.