Ghoncheh Ghavami’s brother pleads with Iranian president to free sister

The brother of a British-Iranian woman who has been imprisoned in Iran for nearly three months for trying to attend a volleyball game has issued an emotional appeal to the authorities to release her.

In an interview with the Guardian, Iman Ghavami said his sister, Ghoncheh, 25, was told for the first time on Tuesday that she had been formally charged with “propaganda against the regime” – a charge that carries a possible prison term of several years.

Iman, 28, who lives in London, said his desperate parents were growing increasingly concerned for their daughter when prison officials cancelled a visit without explanation after it emerged that her case would be heard by Tehran’s notorious revolutionary court.

“My parents are devastated. My mum is restless, she is breaking down emotionally all the time,” he said, adding that his father, a surgeon, had been unable to work for three months because of the strain.

Ghoncheh, a law graduate of SOAS, University of London, was arrested on 20 June after trying to watch a men’s volleyball match at the Azadi stadium in Tehran – in breach of the Islamic republic’s ban on women attending big sporting events. She spent nearly 50 days in solitary confinement in Evin prison, Tehran, and has been allowed only minimal contact with her family.

On Tuesday, Iman flew to New York in a desperate attempt to raise his sister’s case with the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, who is due to speak at the UN general assembly. A petition started by Iman on the site Change.org has amassed more than 223,000 signatories.

Iman said: “My relationship with my sister is the same as before, maybe we’ve become even closer because of the distance. It is tough. I try to focus on doing everything I can to get her released, including coming to New York, but in a way that distracts me from the emotional side of things.”

Asked how his sister was coping with being imprisoned and the prospect of a trial on propaganda charges, he said: “It’s the state of uncertainty – she feels she’s going to be there [in prison] for a long time. She’s not broken, she’s tough.” But he added that she remained “quite distressed”.

Ghoncheh was questioned for four hours after being arrested for trying to enter the Azadi stadium. She was released but was rearrested days later while attending a police station to collect her belongings when police discovered that she was a dual British-Iranian citizen.

“I think they found out about her dual citizenship and there was a change of attitude. I don’t think they would keep her in that prison for three months in solitary just for attending a volleyball match,” Iman said.

“It’s been 86 days and they never announced a charge and then just out of the blue there is this charge of propaganda – it’s a bit ambiguous – what does it mean? She wanted to watch the match, that’s all.”

Iman said his parents grew more concerned on Tuesday when a visit to the prison was cancelled without explanation. “They did go to the prison but the visit was cancelled [by the prison]. No reason was given. My parents are concerned because her meetings have never been cancelled.”

Iran’s judiciary has rejected what it described as media propaganda regarding Ghoncheh’s detention. “Contrary to the propaganda that has been disseminated about her, her case has nothing to do with sport even though she was arrested at a sports venue,” the judiciary’s spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, said on Monday, according to the semi-official news agency Isna. “Her case is under procedure and until the case has been dealt with she will remain in custody.”

Ghoncheh’s mother told local media in Iran on Tuesday that her daughter’s case had been transferred to the country’s notorious revolutionary court, which deals with sensitive national security cases. She said the authorities had told her that she had to obtain permission from the revolutionary court if she wanted to visit.

In a letter to the resident, 300 Iranian activists have called on Iran to release Ghavami. “We … find Ghoncheh Ghavami’s detainment in the security ward of the Evin prison, particularly her 41 days of solitary confinement, inappropriate and disproportional,” they wrote. “We hereby declare our deep concerns for her undetermined condition, and demand that her lawful and civil rights be respected. We also ask the government to engage in a serious attempt to provide the preliminary conditions for her freedom.”

The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, raised the case with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the UN in New York on Monday. “I raised the UK’s continuing concerns about Iran’s approach to human rights, in particular the treatment of a number of British-Iranian dual nationals detained in Iran, including Ghoncheh Ghavami,” he said in a statement.

The Guardian