No.: 503/2008
Date: 10 August 2008

The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva,

Please circulate this Communication to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, also this is of interest to:
• Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers
• The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
• 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 related intolerance
• The Independent Expert on Minority Issues

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

Dear Sir/Madam;

UPDATE 5: ARBITRARY SENTENCE AGAINST MR. SALEH KAMRANI

Further to our Update 4 (Ref: 419/2006; Date: 4 December 2006), please find enclosed Update 5 to safeguard human rights of Mr. Saleh Kamrani, a prominent Southern Azerbaijani human rights lawyers, whose human rights were violated by the Iranian authorities. The following documents are presented*:
Table 1: presents a chronology of arbitrary treatments suffered by Mr. Kamrani by Iranian authorities
Table 2: presents a log of our past campaigns for him.

As outlined in Table 1, the Iranian authorities have conspired with two arbitrary cases against Mr. Kamrani but we have no knowledge if both cases are one and the same or their vendetta dictates these two cases. Table 2 shows our campaign for Court Case 1 (arrested on 14 June 2006 and released on 18 September 2008) and then to our knowledge Iranian authorities never responded to his appeal.

Regarding Court Case 2, the particulars of this arbitrary case against Mr. Kamrani include:
• Detained on 18 August 2007, and released on 22 December 2007 on bail for a surety of approximately 150 million Tumen, approximately $150,000;
• Tried in a closed court on 11 May 2008 in Branch 115 of the Revolutionary Court, Tehran, and the sentence was passed on 10 June 2008 ([1] haqqimiz1.blogfa.com/post-22.aspx);
• The arbitrary sentence determined one year of punitive sentence for “publicity against the Islamic Republic.” The sentence was suspended for five years, effectively gagging Mr. Kamrani.

We would like to stress that the compilation and submission of this Update is due to our initiative and we have not consulted with him, his family members or anyone representing their interests. We have to state this to manage reprisal risks against the victims by the Iranian authorities.

Once again we appeal to your kind attention to this case, requesting your campaign against the gagging order of Iranian authorities against Southern Azerbaijani activists and Mr. Kamrani. We hope you will make a strong representation to the Iranian authorities against their futile attempt to undermine national and human rights of the nation of Azerbaijan in Southern Azerbaijan. Thank you in advance for your care.

Yours faithfully;
Eli Tashkent
The Committee for the Defence of the Rights of World Azerbaijanis

* For details please [2] click here

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