Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DUBAI2757
2006-05-15 14:06:00
SECRET
Consulate Dubai
Cable title:  

IRANIAN STUDENT ACTIVIST CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON

Tags:  PREL PGOV IR PHUM 
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VZCZCXRO4667
PP RUEHBC RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHDE #2757/01 1351406
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P R 151406Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL DUBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0476
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI 3433
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBAI 002757 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/15/2026
TAGS: PREL PGOV IR PHUM
SUBJECT: IRANIAN STUDENT ACTIVIST CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON
IRAN'S HUMAN RIGHTS

DUBAI 00002757 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Jason L Davis, Consul General, Dubai, UAE.
REASON: 1.4 (d)
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBAI 002757

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/15/2026
TAGS: PREL PGOV IR PHUM
SUBJECT: IRANIAN STUDENT ACTIVIST CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON
IRAN'S HUMAN RIGHTS

DUBAI 00002757 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Jason L Davis, Consul General, Dubai, UAE.
REASON: 1.4 (d)
1.(S) Summary: Amir Abbas Fakhravar (please protect),an
Iranian student activist and political prisoner on the run since
he skipped out while on prison leave June 2005, discussed with
PolEconChief his views for helping the human rights situation in
Iran. End summary

2.(S) Amir Abbas Fakhravar (please protect),an Iranian student
activist and former political prisoner, met with PolEconChief
Dubai May 8 and 9 while applying for a US visa. His views on
the political situation in Iran are reported septel.

View of International Role on Human Rights
--------------

3.(S) Fakhravar is an advocate of sustained international
spotlighting of human rights cases in Iran, and says he
personally experienced the benefits of the international
pressure while in prison. For instance, when the human rights
organization PEN publicized his case, he suddenly got better
treatment. He said the only reason he and others get temporary
leave from prison is because of the international pressure on
Iran. He added that when the US in particular raises a case, it
helps the prisoner very much. Despite the Iranian government's
bluster, he maintains, Iran is frightened of the US.

4.(S) When asked about the recent arrest in Iran of Ramin
Jahanbegloo, Fakhravar focused on his objection to the purported
wishes of Jahanbegloo's family to keep his arrest low profile.
In his opinion, a prisoner's family should not direct how vocal
foreign governments are about a case, because, he says, it is
not a "private" matter. For instance, he said Akbar Ganji, who
he calls a friend, was on a hunger strike until his last day in
prison, down to 46 kilos or half his weight when he entered
prison. He told his wife to announce to the world he was
continuing his hunger strike, but members of the reformist
Mosharekat party convinced her not to. After Ganji left prison,
he was very upset with her, and told her his case was a national
matter, not a personal one. Regarding his own case, Fakhravar
said he had wanted the world to know about his situation, and

his family was wrong to oppose this.

Experience in Prison
--------------

5.(S) Fakhravar says he has been arrested 18 times, and was once
beaten in court so badly that his knee sustained permanent
damage. He spent 222 days in solitary confinement at one
stretch, as well as other shorter stints. He said he reached
the point of preferring abuse to complete isolation and said he
was really in "bad shape" when he was released, not wanting even
his family close by.

6.(S) When UN Special Rapporteur Ambeyi Ligabo visited his
prison (Evin Prison),the prison officials sent him, along with
jailed human rights lawyer Nasser Zarafshan - both considered
"outspoken" - to court for a "hearing," despite the fact their
sentences had already been passed. After a few hours with no
hearing, they were returned to prison, where they heard the UN
team had come and gone. On the other hand, Fakhravar said he
was able to bribe a guard to let him smuggle a cell phone into
prison, which allowed him to maintain outside contacts.

7.(S) Fakhravar said he left prison in June 2005 on a five day
leave to take exams and did not go back. For the past 10
months, friends helped him, hid him in cellars, and then - a few
days ago - bribed airport officials not to enter his name into
computers, which enabled him to leave the country. His cousin
had posted a deed to property as bail; there is now an arrest
warrant out against the cousin. After Fakhravar absconded, his
sister was told there was a "shoot to kill" order against him.
He said his sister's husband, Mehrdad Heidar Pour, is also a
political prisoner in Evin prison, and has a few months left of
his three year sentence. Heidar Pour and his wife were arrested
in 2003 for helping organize the 2003 student demonstrations.
His sister was given two years probation instead of prison
because she was nursing a baby at the time.

Other Political Prisoners
--------------

8.(S) Asked for updates of other political prisoners, Fakhravar
gave the following information (see the 2005 Iran human rights
reports for details of their cases):

- Akbar Ganji - Fakhravar said that since his release, his
network is trying to get him out of the country.

- Naser Zarafshan - recently got a two month leave.


DUBAI 00002757 002.2 OF 002


- Siamak Pourzand - on medical leave, under house arrest.
Fakhravar said he had seen him two weeks earlier, he is very
sick, and doubts he would not survive a return to prison.

- Mojtab Saminejad and Massoud Bastani - in prison in Arak.

- Abbas Amir-Entezam - on medical leave for two years.

- Abbas Deldar and Mehrdad Lohrasbi - in prison, arrested in the
1999 student demonstrations. Were picked up in random arrests,
were street vendors, not students. Lohrasbi is very sick,
suffering from mental problems and obesity.

- Manuchehr and Akbar Mohammadi - Manuchehr was recently
returned to prison; Akbar is on leave.

- Ahmad Batebi - death sentence recently upheld, "to scare
others," said Fakhravar. (Death sentence commuted to 15 years,
according to press reports.)

- Amir Heshmat Saran - in prison.

- Hussein Qazian - on leave.

- Arjang Davoudi - in prison in Bandar Abbas, sentenced to 15
years. One of the founders of the student movement. With
Fakhravar, founded Jonbesh-e Azadi-ye Iranian (JAI or Iranian
Movement of Liberation) in 2002. Has partial loss of sight and
hearing because of torture. Is held with dangerous prisoners.

- Peyman Piran - freed April 10.

- Bina Darabzand - in Evin prison.

- Abdol Fattah Soltani - recently released on a very expensive
bail.

- Arash Sigarchi - now on leave, but supposed to go back to
prison.

- Heshmatollah Tabarzadi - original sentence of 14 years was
recently reduced to nine years, of which he has served six.

9.(S) Regarding the 2006 case of a young woman, Elham Afrotan
and other journalists from the provincial weekly "Tamadone
Hormozgan," arrested January 29 for insulting the supreme
leader, Fakhravar said Afrotan was sentenced to two years in
Evin prison. He said press reports that initially said she died
in detention were incorrect; she may have attempted suicide.
Another journalist from the publication, Mohsen Dorostkar, was
also sentenced. Fakhravar noted there is no special ward for
female political prisoners. They are held with regular female
prisoners, something he called "culturally very difficult."

10.(S) Fakhravar volunteered to continue to provide updates on
Iranian human rights cases.
DAVIS