Human Rights Defenders Monitoring Program: Arrest of Payam Darvishfar is Enforced Disappearance

The Human Rights Defenders Monitoring Program, in a statement expressing concern about the “enforced disappearance” of Payam Darvishfar and “continued judicial harassment” of him and Farokh Forouzan Kermani, writes: “This harassment is a punishment for their legitimate human rights activities.”

The Human Rights Defenders Monitoring Program, in a statement published on June 16 (June 27), expressed grave concern about the “enforced disappearance” of human rights lawyer Payam Darvishfar and called on Iranian officials to “immediately inform about his condition, the reason for his arrest, and the charges against him.”

The Human Rights Defenders Monitoring Program stated in this release that it has learned through the Human Rights Defenders Network in Iran about the enforced disappearance of human rights lawyer Payam Darvishfar and the continued judicial harassment of him and another human rights lawyer, Farokh Forouzan Kermani.

Based on this information, Payam Darvishfar was arrested on June 10 by unidentified individuals at his office in Tehran. According to Saeid Dehghan, the lawyer following Darvishfar’s case, there is no information available regarding his place of detention, the reason for his arrest, or the charges against him.

Saeid Dehghan, Payam Darvishfar’s defense lawyer, told the ILNA news agency on June 20, one day after Darvishfar’s arrest, that a new case file has been opened for him, but no details regarding the reason for his arrest have been provided to us. According to ILNA and citing Dehghan, the case is being handled at Branch 2 of the Evin Security Prosecutor’s Office.

Darvishfar’s defense lawyer also said in this interview: “Since my client’s previous sentence was suspended and the suspension is final, his arrest has no connection to the previous sentence. We are still waiting for the details of the reason for his arrest to be provided to us.”

The Monitoring Program, expressing “grave concern” about the “enforced disappearance” of Darvishfar and “continued judicial harassment” against him and Farokh Forouzan Kermani, writes: “It appears that this harassment is intended to punish their legitimate human rights activities.”

The program has called for “immediate and unconditional information about Payam Darvishfar’s condition and place of detention” and requested that “officials” of the Islamic Republic “end all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level, against him and Mr. Farokh Forouzan Kermani as well as all human rights defenders in Iran.”

Payam Darvishfar and Farokh Forouzan Kermani were convicted in February 2020 of “insulting the supreme leader” by the Karaj Islamic Revolution Court and sentenced to two years in prison and a two-year ban from practicing as lawyers.