Summoning of Mohammad Hosein Sepahri and Replacement of Administrative Violation Committees with Courts
Mohammad Hosein Sepahri, a 44-year-old teacher and physics instructor in Mashhad schools who has been summoned to the Mashhad Administrative Violations Hearing Committee due to his participation in teachers’ occupational protests and expression of opinion on social networks, told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the reasons and accusations raised by this committee have no legal basis, since protest and strike are the rights of teachers, and some of the accusations have a security character and are considered crimes, and jurisdiction to investigate them does not fall within the authority of the administrative violations committee.
Based on the summons issued by the Administrative Violations Hearing Committee for the employees of the Education Department of Razavi Khorasan on the 10th of Bahman, Mr. Sepahri has been accused of participating in an illegal sit-in, abandoning service during mandatory work hours, conduct contrary to professional conduct, and insulting the position of the supreme leader. Mr. Sepahri told the Campaign on the 20th of Bahman that the summons from the violations committee has no legal basis and was issued for activities that are the right of every teacher and citizen: “This summons is either evidence of the low legal literacy level of the violations committee members or they have taken instructions from somewhere outside the Education Department, because the matters mentioned in the summons as accusations, including participation in the nationwide sit-in, are among the rights of teachers. Other matters such as insulting the position of the supreme leader are the result of my personal expression of opinion outside the workplace and have nothing to do with my job as a teacher or with the education department. Moreover, an accusation like insulting the leadership has a criminal description and must be proven as a crime in a competent court.”
The accusation of insulting the supreme leader is the subject of Article 514 of the Islamic Penal Code, according to which anyone who insults the founder of the Islamic Republic and the position of supreme leader will be sentenced to six months to two years in prison, and the determining authority for insulting is also the Islamic Revolutionary Courts. Mohammad Hosein Sepahri in one of the videos published on the internet described the judiciary as the appointee of Mr. Khamenei and said that the result of forty years of Islamic Republic governance has been nothing but destruction and ruin. Statements that are also included in the summons of the Education Department’s Administrative Violations Committee. Mr. Sepahri told the Campaign that his critical statements about Mr. Khamenei’s performance do not mean insulting him: “I expressed my opinion about his performance as someone in charge of leading this system, and criticism is different from insult and profanity. If criticism is to be considered as insulting, then nobody can talk to anyone else, let alone that in this summons they considered the crime of insulting the leader proven without any court or trial, which is within the jurisdiction of the court.”
Another accusation against this Mashhad teacher is abandoning service and refusing to appear in classes on the 22nd and 23rd of Aban and coinciding with the nationwide sit-in of teachers. During the 22nd and 23rd of Aban, teachers in most schools and cities of Iran refrained from appearing in classes as a protest against educational policies and security treatment of teachers. In the summons of the Education Department’s violations committee, in addition to abandoning service, participation in the teachers’ sit-in is also mentioned as a separate accusation. Mohammad Hosein Sepahri said about this to the Campaign: “Participation in a sit-in for rights is the right of every citizen, including teachers. The accusation of abandoning service is related to the same nationwide sit-in. Thousands of teachers in almost all schools in the country did not appear in class as a protest, although teachers were present in schools and offices and no abandonment of service occurred. But if we assume it is true, thousands of teachers should have been accused of administrative violations.”
The fourth accusation mentioned in the summons of the Razavi Khorasan Education Department’s Administrative Violations Committee is conduct and behavior contrary to professional conduct based on the publication of false information, which is based on the video statements of Mohammad Hosein Sepahri about the Islamic Republic system that took place outside the workplace. This accusation is also consistent with Article 698 of the Islamic Penal Code and spreading falsehoods, which, if proven in court, can result in two months to two years imprisonment and or 74 lashes.
Security treatment of teachers in the Islamic Republic is not new, and over the past years many protesting teachers have been arrested, dismissed, or exiled, and security treatment of teachers’ occupational activities has always been one of the matters referred to in teachers’ protests. After two rounds of nationwide sit-ins by teachers in Aban and Mehr of 1397, news was published of widespread summons of teachers to security institutions and the education department’s security office. Contrary to previous summons, administrative violations committees this time have summoned teachers due to activities and accusations that are the responsibility of the judiciary to investigate, and considering them as administrative violations also opens the door for state institutions to violate teachers’ rights.
Source: Human Rights
