According to an FCN report, Nazak Afshar, former employee of the cultural department of the French Embassy in Iran, was detained at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran in late March of last year and remains imprisoned.
She had a history of detention following the controversial June 2009 elections in Iran and had been residing in France in recent years. The charges or allegations against Ms. Afshar have not been announced yet, but reports indicate that she has been transferred to the women’s section of Evin Prison.
However, Nazak Afshar was not alone in being detained and imprisoned after Hassan Rouhani’s government came to power and upon returning to Iran. Mostafa Azizi, Serajalddin Mirdamadi, Hossein Nourani-Nejad, Sajdeh Arab-Sorkheh, Abdolhossein Herati, Bahman Dar-al-Shafa’i, Hamid Babaei, Massoumeh Gholi-Zadeh, and Kazem Borjeste are among other citizens who have been imprisoned during the past two years after returning to Iran.
This comes as Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, in the initial months of his eleventh government’s tenure, requested the formation of a committee by the intelligence and foreign affairs ministries to facilitate the return of Iranians residing abroad.
Nazak Afshar was not alone in being detained and imprisoned after Hassan Rouhani’s government came to power and upon returning to Iran. Mostafa Azizi, Serajalddin Mirdamadi, Hossein Nourani-Nejad, Sajdeh Arab-Sorkheh, Abdolhossein Herati, Bahman Dar-al-Shafa’i, Hamid Babaei, Massoumeh Gholi-Zadeh, and Kazem Borjeste are among other citizens who have been imprisoned during the past two years after returning to Iran
On July 16, 2013, Mr. Rouhani said in a public ceremony that we should “facilitate the return of those who are ready to come back.” He also emphasized on October 1, 2013, in a press conference: “All Iranians living abroad should be able to easily travel to and from their country, and we both suffer and they suffer from them not traveling.” On November 26, 2013, the president, calling the country’s atmosphere secure for the return of Iranian expatriates, stressed: “We have very significant human capital abroad. I hope they all return and do not withhold their assistance from us.”
However, the invitation to Iranians abroad to return to Iran was not limited to these statements. Based on reports published in the media, a committee was formed by the intelligence and foreign affairs ministries titled “Committee for the Return of Iranians Abroad,” and Mahmoud Alavi, Iran’s intelligence minister, announced that “we guarantee that anyone who has no violations will have no problems.”
Hassan Qashqai, deputy for consular, legal and parliamentary affairs of the Foreign Ministry, also reported in an interview with Shargh newspaper about launching an email for Iranians abroad. He described Iranians’ fear of returning to their country as unrealistic and stemming from opposition propaganda, saying: “In Iran, there is absolutely no fear regarding the entry of emigrant Iranians into the country, and there is no provision in the penal code called ‘prohibited from entry.'”
Mansour Haqiqatpour, vice-chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, went further, saying in an interview with the Fararu website that Iranians cannot be prevented from traveling to their country merely for signing a statement or making political comments.
However, after more than two and a half years since Hassan Rouhani’s government came to power, not only has there been no use of the email that was titled as a “problem-solving email” to address publicized concerns and was supposed to allow Iranians living abroad to inquire about their legal and judicial status in Iran through this email, nor any news of the committee that was formed by the government to pave the way for Iranian expatriates to return to their country, but a group of civil and political activists and journalists who had returned to Iran following this invitation have been detained and imprisoned.
Serajalddin Mirdamadi, a reformist political activist and journalist residing in France, was among the first to return to Iran after Hassan Rouhani’s election in the June 2013 presidential election. According to his family, he was interrogated several times and was detained in April 2014, charged with propaganda against the system and conspiracy against the country’s internal security, and sentenced to 6 years in prison. Mr. Mirdamadi is a war veteran of the Iran-Iraq War and a nephew of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, who remained imprisoned until March 15, 2015, and was finally released on probation from Evin Prison.
Hossein Mirdamadi, Serajalddin’s father, announced after his son’s detention that they want to send a message to Iranians abroad not to return to Iran. A similar message was expressed by Hossein Nourani-Nejad’s family, a journalist and member of the Participation Front. He, who was residing in Australia, was detained in early April 2014, two months after returning to Iran, and was initially sentenced to 6 years and on appeal to one year in prison. Mr. Nourani-Nejad was released from prison after serving his sentence.
Mostafa Azizi, a writer and television producer residing in Canada, is another Iranian expatriate who was imprisoned after returning to Iran. He was detained on February 2, 2015, one month after returning to Iran, and was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the revolutionary court on charges such as assembly and conspiracy against the country’s security, acts against national security (through activity in cyberspace), and insulting the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. Mr. Azizi returned at the end of last year on conditional bail for a few days of Nowruz holiday and then returned to prison.
Sajdeh Arab-Sorkheh, a journalist and reformist political activist, also returned to Iran from France in September 2013 and was imprisoned three months later. Her father, Fayezullah Arab-Sorkheh, was a member of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization and one of the 2009 detainees, imprisoned for four years. Sajdeh Arab-Sorkheh was released from prison after serving her one-year sentence that was issued in absentia, while according to her family, she has another open case.
Similarly, Abdolhossein Herati, former advisor to the head of the Expediency Discernment Council and former director-general of the Islamic Azad University’s Documents and Records Department, was residing in Australia and returned to Iran after Hassan Rouhani’s government came to power. He was detained in June 2014 and his wife stated in an interview with the Roozaonline website that she did not expect such treatment given the government’s promises for the return of Iranian expatriates. He was released on bail in August of the same year. Propaganda against the system and insulting officials were cited as his charges. Charges that were based on Mr. Herati’s letter in 2010 to Mehdi Karroubi, one of the leaders of the Green Movement who is currently under house arrest.
After Hassan Rouhani’s government came to power, a committee was formed by the intelligence and foreign affairs ministries titled ‘Committee for the Return of Iranians Abroad,’ and Mahmoud Alavi, Iran’s intelligence minister, announced that ‘we guarantee that anyone who has no violations will have no problems.’
Kazem Borjeste, a member of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s headquarters in the 2009 presidential election, also returned to Iran on February 14, 2013, and was detained at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. He was sentenced in absentia to 5 years in prison for assembly and conspiracy against the country’s internal security through participation in gatherings. His prison sentence, however, was reduced on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr last year.
Bahman Dar-al-Shafa’i, journalist, translator, and blogger, was also detained on February 4, 2014. He had returned to Iran from London about 2 years prior and was working as a translator and editor. The author of the popular blog “Aqbahman,” months after returning to Iran, was called in and subjected to lengthy interrogations until finally being detained. However, this journalist has been released on bail since March 27, 2015.
Hamid Babaei, a doctoral student at the University of Liege in Belgium, and Massoumeh Gholi-Zadeh, a philosophy graduate from Allameh Tabatabai University and a student at Ankara University, were among other Iranians detained and imprisoned after Hassan Rouhani’s government came to power upon returning to Iran. Mr. Babaei was sentenced by the revolutionary court to 6 years imprisonment and 4 years suspended imprisonment, and his family stated that he had traveled to Iran to visit family and relatives, was summoned by the intelligence ministry, and was asked to cooperate with the ministry but refused and was charged with collaboration with hostile nations. Massoumeh Gholi-Zadeh was also sentenced to propaganda activity against the system and 10 months imprisonment.
To date, Hassan Rouhani’s government has not provided any explanation regarding the fate of the “Committee for the Return of Iranians Abroad,” but Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, simultaneously with Hassan Rouhani’s invitation to Iranian expatriates to return to Iran, said that “if a person commits a crime and leaves the country or commits a crime abroad, as soon as they return to the country, they will be prosecuted by the judicial system.”
He added: “Also, individuals who had a role in the events following the 2009 elections, if they return to the country, will be prosecuted immediately upon entry.”
Source: BBC Persian
