The intelligence ministry sends 3 lawyers to prison

International Campaign for Human Rights,

Following prison sentences for three lawyers representing the Gonabadi dervishes, the pressure mounts on lawyers representing human rights cases. The three lawyers, Mostafa Daneshjoo, Farshid yadollahi, and Amir Eslami, have been found guilty of “propagating lies and creating public anxiety,” while their clients have been acquitted of the charge of “acting against national security.” The plaintiff in the case of Yadollahi and Eslami was the Kish Island Intelligence Office. The two men were sentenced to six months in prison. Morteza Daneshjoo was also sentenced by a Mazandaran appeals court to seven months in prison during his defense of two Gonabadi dervishes from Neka.

In the court rulings for the three lawyers, copies of which the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has received, the three lawyers’ dissemination of information about violations of security organizations, such as the Intelligence Ministry, comprise the basis of the charges made against them. Despite their defense and without proof of mal-intention in their actions, Mr. Daneshjoo was sentenced to seven months and the other lawyers each to six months in prison.

“After security forces went to his client, Mr. Razazi’s home without presenting an identification card or a warrant, and began to search his home without regard for legal or Islamic requirements, and took away several cultural and spiritual items without a warrant, Mr. Daneshjoo’s clients filed a complaint with the Neka General and Revolutionary Court…Mr. Razazi’s complaint was forwarded [from the Prosecutor's office] to the Police Intelligence Unit for identifying the suspects and sketching their likeness, and they were ordered emphatically to identify the individuals who had entered the private domain of individuals without permission from judicial authorities. This shows that at the time the complaint was filed, neither the Prosecutor nor the investigative staff were aware of any warrants for entering the plaintiff’s homes, or else no such orders would have been issued,” a source close to the case of Mostafa Daneshjoo told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The said source told the Campaign that though the story has been verified by judicial authorities, they would not admit that illegal actions had taken place, and instead of insisting on the accountability of those responsible, the lawyer was accused by the Intelligence Office. Hence, Mostafa Daneshjoo, a young lawyer, was sentenced to seven months in prison and flogging. His flogging sentence was later eliminated, but his prison sentence stands as final.