ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

Azeri Turkish lawyer Saleh Kamrani is feared to have been abducted by the security forces on 14 June, and to be in unacknowledged detention where he would be at risk of torture. He reportedly needs medication for a heart condition. He may be held solely

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/067/2006
16 June 2006

UA 171/06 Fear of “disappearance”/fear for safety/health
concern/possible prisoner of conscience

IRAN Saleh Kamrani (m), lawyer and human rights defender, aged about 34

Azeri Turkish lawyer Saleh Kamrani is feared to have been abducted by the
security forces on 14 June, and to be in unacknowledged detention where he
would be at risk of torture. He reportedly needs medication for a heart
condition. He may be held solely for his work as a lawyer and human rights
defender, in which case Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of
conscience.

He reportedly called his wife at their house in Tehran at around 3pm on 14 June
to say that he was on his way home. He should have arrived by 4.30 or 5pm, and
when he did not she tried to call him, but found his mobile phone switched off,
which was unusual for him. She called all the hospitals and police stations in
Tehran but did not find any trace of him. In the evening, she called Ministry
of Intelligence officials who have reportedly refused to confirm whether they
are holding her husband.

Saleh Kamrani has practised as a lawyer since 1999 and has defended a number of
Iranian Azeri Turks (who sometimes refer to themselves as Iranian Azerbaijanis)
who have been detained in connection with their political or cultural
activities. One of his clients, activist Saleh Malla Abbasi was arrested on 17
April (see UA 115/06, MDE 13/045/2006, 3 May 2006). Saleh Kamrani has also
defended members of other ethnic groups. He has reportedly suffered harassment
at the hands of the Iranian security forces, including phone calls threatening
him with arrest, and in 2005 was detained for three days with his brother in
the town of Oromieh. He has also reportedly written articles on human rights
and has helped to organise training in human rights for lawyers and students.
Saleh Kamrani’s brother, Maharam Kamrani, was arrested on 30 March, and
reportedly tortured during his 19 days in detention (see UA 86/06, MDE
13/039/2006, 12 April 2006).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In May 2006, massive demonstrations took place in towns and cities in
north-western Iran, where the majority of the population is Azeri Turkish, in
protest at a cartoon published on 12 May by the state-owned daily newspaper
Iran which many Azeri Turks found offensive. Hundreds were arrested during or
following the demonstrations (see UA 151/06, MDE 13/055/2006 and UA 163/06, MDE
13/063/2006). Some of those detained have allegedly been tortured, with some
requiring hospital treatment. Publication of the newspaper was suspended on 23
May and the editor-in-chief and the cartoonist were arrested. Azeri sources
have claimed that dozens were killed and hundreds injured by the security
forces. The security forces have generally denied that anyone was killed,
although on 29 May a police official acknowledged that four people had been
killed and 43 injured in the town of Naqada.

Iranian security forces frequently hold people, for days or weeks, sometimes in
secret detention centres, before acknowledging that they are in custody or
allowing them to contact their families. Student activist Abed Tavancheh was
thought to have “disappeared” when he did not contact his family for over a
week: on 5 June he was able to call them from Tehran’s Evin prison to say that
he had been arrested on 26 May (see UA 165/06,MDE 13/065/2006, 9 June 2006).

AI Index: MDE 13/067/2006 16 June 2006

[1] Print

• 27/06/2006 Iran: Further information on Fear of “disappearance”/fear for safety/health concern/possible prisoner of conscience: Saleh Kamrani (m), lawyer and human rights defender, aged about 34
• 23/08/2007 Saleh Kamrani (m), aged about 35, lawyer and human rights defender, Prisoner of Conscience/Fear of torture or ill-treatment/Medical concern
• 07/02/2007 IRAN Saleh Kamrani (m), lawyer and human rights defender, aged about 35
• 21/12/2006 APPEAL CASE, Saleh Kamrani, an Iranian Azerbaijani lawyer and human rights defender
• 21/08/2007 Saleh Kamrani is sent to Evin prison
• 20/11/2007 Continued detention of Saleh Kamrani and Said Metinpour for representing Azerbaijani community
• 15/06/2006 Mr. Saleh Kamrani has disappeared in his way home from office.
• 10/11/2006 3rd UA for: Incommunicado detention/ Fear of torture/ Medical concern/ Prisoner of conscience New concern: Fear of flogging
• 19/08/2006 UA 221/06 Incommunicado detention / fear of torture/ possible prisoner of conscience IRAN Mehdi Babaei
• 19/09/2006 Incommunicado detention/ Fear of torture/ Medical concern new concern: Prisoner of Conscience IRAN Abbas Lisani (or Leysani), (m) aged 38, activist

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.