Amnesty International's Call for "Urgent Action"; Four Months Have Passed Since Ebrahim Babaei's "Enforced Disappearance"

Amnesty International has called for urgent action against political activist Ebrahim Babaei, who has been subjected to "enforced disappearance" by authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this appeal, published on Tuesday, May 3, Amnesty International referred to the disappearance of Ebrahim Babaei on December 20, 2017, who "was forcibly disappeared while trying to leave Iran and escape unjust punishments of imprisonment and flogging."

This international human rights organization emphasized: "The fate and whereabouts of Ebrahim Babaei have been kept secret from his family, and he is at risk of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."

More than four months have passed since the enforced disappearance of Ebrahim Babaei, a 56-year-old political activist, while trying to cross the Iranian border into Turkey to seek asylum.

In this appeal, Amnesty International called on Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of the Iranian judiciary, to “immediately clarify the fate and whereabouts of Ebrahim Babaei” and ensure that “he is transferred to an official and recognized detention center, is safe from enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, has regular contact with his family and a lawyer of his own choosing, and has access to adequate medical care.”

Shima Babaei, a human rights activist living in Belgium, previously told VOA that the Islamic Republic, in a scenario to lure her to a village on the Iran-Turkey border and detain her, tried to convince her that her father, Ibrahim Babaei, had died near the Turkish city of Van.

According to Amnesty International, Ebrahim Babaei has a history of multiple illnesses, including heart disease, chronic leg injuries, and mental health problems, and requires medical care and medication.

This is not the first time that the Islamic Republic has attempted to kidnap its opposition activists abroad. The Islamic Republic's security agencies have repeatedly arrested dual-national Iranians and foreign citizens on trumped-up charges, and in some cases have used them as leverage and a tool of "blackmail" in negotiations with Western countries.

Source: Voice of America