ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

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Mr. Serrafi is a well-respected scholar, a veteran of the national movement of Southern Azerbaijan, a towering vanguard of the mother language of Azerbaijan but today a victim of arbitrary acts of the Iranian authorities ended up as a prisoner of conscience in the Iranian dungeon known as the notorious Evin prison. This relentless scholar has never violated any law but the reason for his ongoing ordeal is evident from the licence by Iranian authorities authorising their agents for arbitrary acts in the following terms (see Table 2):

No: 508/2008
Date: 19 Sept 2008

The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva

Please circulate this to Working Group on arbitrary detention; it is also of relevance to:
• Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges
• Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
• Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance
• The Independent Expert on Minority Issues, and

CC: Mr Dyke and Mrs. Harrison, Amnesty International, London
Also: Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Server

Dear sir/madam,

COMMUNICATION 1: CAMPAIGNING FOR THE REINSTATEMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF MR. ELIRZA SERRAFI

Please find enclosed Communication 1 for safeguarding human rights of Mr. Elirza Serrafi, a Southern Azerbaijani journalist and activist, who has been deprived of his liberty by Iranian authorities. Included is the following*:
Table 1 The Communication form for the Working Group on arbitrary detention, using confirmed and published information;
Table 2 Presents a translation of the report by ASMEK on the raid of Iranian authorities to his house;
Table 3 The Translation of Mr. Serrafi’s CV reflecting the scale of his tireless activities to overcome massive pressures exerted against Southern Azerbaijanis by Iranian authorities;
Table 4 Reproduces a Communiqué compiled by Mr. Serrafi and his fellows for the preservation of our mother language, the Azerbaijani Turkic language (see our report Ref: 444/2007 on 20 February 2007).

Mr. Serrafi is a well-respected scholar, a veteran of the national movement of Southern Azerbaijan, a towering vanguard of the mother language of Azerbaijan but today a victim of arbitrary acts of the Iranian authorities ended up as a prisoner of conscience in the Iranian dungeon known as the notorious Evin prison. This relentless scholar has never violated any law but the reason for his ongoing ordeal is evident from the licence by Iranian authorities authorising their agents for arbitrary acts in the following terms (see Table 2):

“for confrontation with pan-Turkist and pro-identity individuals, permission has been granted to make forced entries, arrest and eliminate physical obstacles.”

We say no more, as the the Iranian authorities have told everything above. Mr. Serrafi was one of 19 individuals arrested while attending a traditional gathering related to Ramadan on 10 September, nine of whom were summarily detained. We aim to provide you a full report on the backdrop of the Iranian onslaught to suppress the protests to education in the alien Farsi language in the commencement of the academic year in Iran on 21 September 2008.

We would like to stress that in compiling this Communication, we have not consulted with Mr. Serrafi, his family or his lawyer. This statement is necessary to manage the risk of reprisal by the Iranian authorities.

Mr. Serrafi is only one of Southern Azerbaijani activists suffering from an ongoing wave of repression. The reinstatement of his human rights is only possible through your campaign. Thank you in advance for your care.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Eli Tashkent
The Committee for the Defence of the Rights of World Azerbaijanis

For details please clikc her: [1] Case