Saeed Razavi Faghih, a journalist and political activist who was released from Evin Prison on April 9, simultaneously with the visit last week of Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, to Iran, published a letter addressed to her in which he wrote: “Do not sacrifice human rights at the altar of your commercial interests.” Razavi Faghih also stated in this letter: “The Iranian government has demonstrated over the past two decades that it has not been a threat to any nation except the Iranian people. The massive presence of prisoners in the country’s prisons—representatives of various professions, beliefs, and political and social groups—reflects the gap and breach that has emerged between the government and people and has deepened day by day.”
In his letter, he referenced many political prisoners and wrote: “I do not ask you to demand compensation for unjustly spilled blood, nor even to insist on lifting the house arrest of the unfortunate and beloved leaders of the Green Movement, or at least to challenge the media blackout of Iran’s most distinguished president in history. I do not even ask you to point out to your esteemed Iranian counterpart that, contrary to their claims, we also have imprisoned journalists in Iran, examples being such dignified and illustrious men as Isa Sahrkhiz, Ehsan Mazandarani, or Saman Safarzaei.” Razavi Faghih described the reason for this letter as “merely reminding about human rights violations and even the trampling of the Islamic Republic’s constitution and laws in Iran” and wrote: “The government is making serious and concentrated efforts to strengthen repressive and anti-riot forces, organizing special hired plainclothes forces, establishing parallel intelligence and security agencies, and transforming the judiciary into a bureaucratic tool of political police to justify and legalize oppression.”
In this letter to Mogherini, he proposed: “Stay one day longer in Tehran and visit one of the capital’s multiple prisons, particularly the Black Detention Center or the ordinary women’s prison in Varamin and the ‘women’s ward of Evin Prison,’ where a collection of Iran’s most distinguished women and girls are imprisoned; and get up close to what is happening beneath the surface of the Islamic Republic, which appears to be returning to the international system.”
Saeed Razavi Faghih, a journalist and former member of the central council of the Office for Strengthening Unity, collaborated with several reformist newspapers including “Sobh-e Emruz,” “Bahar,” “Yas-e No,” “Vaqaye Ettafaqieh,” and “Nowruz.” On March 6, 2014, he was arrested in Karaj for what the Fars News Agency described as a “structure-breaking” speech among reformists in Hamadan, and was sentenced to one year of imprisonment on charges of assembly and conspiracy to undermine national security.
This prisoner was supposed to be released from Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on March 1, 2015, at the end of his one-year sentence, but by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court under Judge Solevati, he was again sentenced to three and a half more years of imprisonment on charges of insulting the leader, insulting the Assembly of Experts, and propaganda against the system convicted.
Mr. Razavi Faghih was also transferred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in November 2014 due to acute heart disease and underwent heart surgery. After he was returned to prison before complete recovery and despite doctors’ objections, 96 civil activists signed a letter to Iranian judicial authorities demanding his release.
The full text of Saeed Razavi Faghih’s letter to Federica Mogherini is as follows:
In the name of God
An open letter addressed to Mrs. Federica Mogherini, Head of the European Union’s Foreign Policy Commission; through the delegation of the rotating presidency of the European Union (Kingdom of the Netherlands) in Tehran
Mrs. Federica Mogherini, esteemed head of the European Union’s Foreign Commission;
With greetings and respect, I first of all, based on ancient Iranian traditions of hospitality and good Islamic ethics and morals, welcome your upcoming visit to my country and wish you a pleasant stay in Iran and good memories of this land and its noble people.
Although I know that the tightness of your schedules and political and economic missions will not provide an opportunity to experience a meeting with Iran’s noble people, and your stay will mostly be spent in continuous and intensive diplomatic negotiations with government officials, I still find it appropriate, as someone who spent more than two years as a political prisoner in Rajai Shahr and Evin prisons and has been free from prison for only ten days, having witnessed firsthand what I will say, to take advantage of this opportunity and convey several points. Even though, given the activities of Iranian political and civil activists over many years and the follow-up by international human rights organizations, you may well be more aware of the details of what I wish to say than I am.
Mrs. Mogherini,
Even as I write these lines to you, more than twenty days have passed since my brave, steadfast, and dear fellow prisoner Hossein Ronaghi Maleki began his hunger strike, while for the past several days, the mother and father of this young freedom-loving civil activist have also begun their own hunger strike in solidarity with their son and in support of his ideals. This brave young man has spent more than seven years in prison since he was twenty-three years old, during the best years of his life, and this is aside from the illegal process of torture-accompanied interrogations and unconventional house searches and continuous pressure on his family.
Hossein Ronaghi is just one example. Before him, many prisoners have protested unjust sentences issued by sham and non-independent courts, or have protested unlawful and inhuman interrogation, detention, and prison conditions by resorting to hunger strikes, and they will continue to do so.
Isa Sahrkhiz, who was recently on prolonged hunger strikes twice and suffered serious physical damage, Ehsan Mazandarani, Siamak Namazi, Mahmoud Beheshti, Rasoul Bada’i, and many others, and most poignantly Hoda Saber, whose hunger strike led to a heroic and painful death.
For me, who knows the seriousness of the aforementioned individuals and the extent of their commitment to social responsibilities and their steadfastness in the path of civil resistance and peaceful struggle and hunger strikes—whether wet or dry—as the only means of defending prisoners’ rights, this is deeply concerning, and I think with sorrow and worry about the dangerous and irreparable consequences that could happen at any moment.
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki’s crime, like many other political and ideological prisoners, is merely fighting media censorship and trying to allow the free flow of information or expressing opinions in cyberspace. These actions are certainly considered security crimes in a country where top officials base their security and authority on intimidation and fear or the silence and ignorance of the people, and this is while the drafting and adoption of a law on political crimes after 38 years has deliberately remained silent, so that the implementation of Article 168 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution regarding thousands of prisoners who have either been released after years or still patiently serve their sentences in Iranian prisons is not applied.
On this wrong basis, it is false for officials to claim, through this trick and deception, that there are no prisoners of conscience in Iran, including ideological and political prisoners, or imprisoned journalists and lawyers, and that no one is tried and punished merely for their beliefs or for expressing opinions, just as they claim that no one is tortured—red or white—for a confession to an uncommitted crime, but only receives discipline.
Mrs. Commissioner,
Alongside the name of Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, whose memories of the recent months of my imprisonment in Evin are connected to his calm and reassuring presence, I can list a long list of unfortunate young people whose mere thought of their faces and sentences and harsh prison conditions fills my weak heart with a rock of sorrow.
Zaniar and Loughman Moradi, Hamza Savari, Igan Shahidi, Navid Khanjani, Peyman Arefi, Vahid Khaloosi, Rasoul Hardani, Farhang and Shahram Mansoori, Saeed Masuri, Saeed Pourheydar, Saeed Shirzad, Mithaq Yazdani, Shahin Zoghti Tabar, and Jafar Aqdami, and others in the catastrophic Rajai Shahr Prison, whose daily incidents resemble some medieval fables, and also Masoud Ghassem Khani, Mohammad Saeed Hosseinzadeh, Masoud Aboitalbi, Mohammad Hossein Aziz, Fariborz Gerami, Farid Akrami, Mahmoud Beheshti, Omid Koohbakhi, Mohammad Sadegh Kaboudvand, and Rasoul Bada’i and others in Evin Prison’s seven ward, which I recently had the honor of interviewing, a prison that bears the heavy scar of dark and shameful memories of decades from 1970 onwards, like an eternal atonement on its forehead, and alongside the above names, wise and illustrious men who mortgaged their youth to improve the situation of the next generation. A generation that unfortunately still does not see a bright horizon before it, and their uncertain fate is tied to the stupidity or power-seeking and wealth-hoarding of a small minority who have unjustly monopolized resources of wealth and power.
Dr. Hossein Rafiee, Mr. Abdi, and Mostafa Tajzadeh, as representatives of Iran’s free teachers and journalists, still remain imprisoned, but those who have repeatedly faced the people’s big “no” swallow their large share of the power cake with insatiable greed and say “is there more.”
Alongside all freedom-seeking activists, it is appropriate to mention here the symbols and frank speakers of the alive and vibrant Green social and political movement, namely Mrs. Rahnavarad and Messrs. Mousavi and Karoubi, who for more than five years have been living under difficult conditions without trial and arbitrarily and illegally under house arrest, and alongside their loyal supporters, pay the price of truth-telling, law-abiding, and peaceful freedom-seeking to those thirsty for wealth and enamored with boundless power.
Let us pass over the unjustly spilled blood on the streets of Tehran and the pure bodies asleep in the cold dark soil of Behesht-e Zahra or Khavaran, which itself is another detailed and sorrowful story.
Esteemed Commissioner of Foreign Affairs of the European Union;
What I mentioned was merely to remind about human rights violations and even the trampling of the Islamic Republic’s constitution and laws in Iran, and nothing more. But what I wish to say, contrary to your and others’ expectations, is not that like a grand savior angel, you should descend from the sky to Tehran for Iran’s enduring, wise, and noble people and miraculously restore the lost rights of Iran’s freedom-loving youth from an expansionist and authoritarian government and return them to the rightful owners as charity or alms.
Both you and I know well that the European Union and its bodies, including the Commission under your leadership, are not representatives of European public opinion and reflections of progressive values emerging from the intellectual, social, and political developments of the past centuries of Europe as universal and human values. Rather, they are representatives of the interests of European states, most of whom are primarily concerned with protecting the interests of capitalists seeking more profits at any price and under any circumstances.
Therefore, I do not ask you to use the values of the new world that European nations have created—many of which have human and universal aspects and are considered precious treasures for all peoples of other lands—in negotiations with Iranian officials, instead of representing the interests and wishes of the member states of the European Union you represent, to fight for the vindication of the lost rights of intellectuals, journalists, students, professors, freedom-loving youth, equality-seeking women, religious and national minorities, civil activists, and human rights lawyers. Although, by the force of reason, as an aware person with free will, you have a duty to do so.
I do not ask you, as a free woman and one who enjoys equal rights with men, to defend freedom-loving and equality-seeking Iranian women who proudly serve long prison sentences in the “women’s ward of Evin Prison” for innocent crimes, and to demand their freedom; women whose obvious truth testifies unequivocally to their innocence, and only and solely because of their freedom and rights-seeking and defense of Iranian women’s rights, the sweet and meaningful sound of their eloquent words has been silenced behind the windowless walls of Evin. Although it is expected that as a free woman you would do so.
I do not ask you to demand compensation for unjustly spilled blood, nor to insist on lifting the house arrest of the unfortunate and beloved leaders of the Green Movement, nor at least to challenge the media blackout of Iran’s most distinguished president in history. I do not even ask you to point out to your esteemed Iranian counterpart that, contrary to their claims, we also have imprisoned journalists in Iran, and examples of such dignified and illustrious men are Isa Sahrkhiz, Ehsan Mazandarani, or Saman Safarzaei. I do not ask you to remind them that a noble politician is one who changes harsh reality, and a refined politician is one who, if he cannot change harsh reality, at least explains or justifies it, rather than denying it outright. Although, as a politician educated in the lap of the culture and values of the new world, you are duty-bound to do so. But I seriously and especially urge you that when you enter into negotiations with senior Iranian officials in various departments and levels, do not make the blood of my young compatriots and the list of young and old prisoners in this great prison’s small prisons and reports of their suffering and afflictions a bargaining chip for raising the volume of profitable commercial contracts and major transactions. I earnestly ask you, if you do not wish to defend the rights of my suffering women compatriots, especially activists in the women’s rights movement, and demand their swift freedom, and if you do not strive to convince the Islamic Republic to unconditionally adhere to the principles of human rights and its constitution and ordinary laws regarding the rights of people and political, ideological, and professional prisoners, at least do not use such arbitrariness and injustices as a club to tame and appease Iranian officials in economic and political negotiations.
Mrs. Commissioner,
The Iranian government has demonstrated over the past two decades at least that it has not been a threat to any nation except the Iranian people. The massive presence of prisoners in the country’s prisons—representatives of various professions, beliefs, and political and social groups—reflects the gap and breach that has emerged between the government and people and has deepened day by day. This is why the government is making serious and concentrated efforts to strengthen repressive and anti-riot forces, organizing special hired plainclothes forces, establishing parallel intelligence and security agencies, and transforming the judiciary into a bureaucratic tool of political police to justify and legalize oppression. In fact, the Iranian government is only and exclusively a threat to its own subjugated people within Iran’s borders. Therefore, I ask you not to use negotiations over the quantity and quality of missile tests and nuclear facilities and their dangers to regional security and world peace as a tool to raise the volume of profitable investments in Iran, and worse, do not use the concepts of human rights, democracy, and peace as a means of commercial profit and obtaining economic concessions, and if you do not wish to represent the intellectuals of European nations in seriously and selflessly demanding democracy, human rights, and legal freedoms in Iran, at least do not make the suffering of our honorable, proud, and unassuming friends a free bargaining chip for profitable contracts for member states of the European Union and harmful for the Iranian nation. Otherwise, be assured that this unforgivable sin will not be erased from the historical memory of the Iranian people, and when the Iranian people become masters of their material and spiritual capitals within and beyond their borders, they will give an appropriate response to these double-dealing behaviors.
Finally, with apologies for the lengthy discourse, I once again wish you and your accompanying delegation a pleasant stay in Iran and good memories of this trip, but I suggest you stay one day longer in Tehran and visit one of the capital’s multiple prisons, particularly the Black Detention Center or the ordinary women’s prison in Varamin and the “women’s ward of Evin Prison,” where a collection of Iran’s most distinguished women and girls are imprisoned; and get up close to what is happening beneath the surface of the Islamic Republic, which appears to be returning to the international system.
With renewed respect
Saeed Razavi Faghih
01/28/1395
04/16/2016
*Copy: His Excellency Dr. Hassan Rouhani, esteemed President of the Islamic Republic of Iran for information
Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
