-I have received a summons from a revolutionary court, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2003 Shirin Ebadi informed her international contacts yesterday. The summons only says I will have to report before the court within three days. If not, I will be arrested. It does not say why I have to appear, but in any case, I will not do so until the very last minute, i.e. on Sunday. (14-JAN-05)
 
The information provided in this article has been drawn from the Norwegian daily Klassekampen’s publication of a press release from the Norwegian News Agency / Norsk TelegrambyrÃ¥ (NTB). It has been edited for republication here.

Kari Vogt, Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, Iran expert and friend of Ebadi, says that the summons is to be understood as a warning to the entire opposition, but particularly to human rights defenders and reform-friendly intellectuals. -The irony of this development; that Ebadi herself spoke in favour of increasing the pressure on authorities worldwide to strengthen the protection for human rights defenders at HRH’s conference ‘Activists under Attack. Defending the Right to be a Human Rights Defender’ only emphasises the message coming out of the conference, that such protection is very much in demand, comments Project Manager Niels Jacob Harbitz of HRH. 

– That don?t impress me much
-I don’t know why this is happening now, says Ebadi. -All my activities are perfectly legal. Vogt, however, sees Ebadi’s summons in the context of the Iranian authorities’ campaign over the last seven or eight months to silence the opposition. Several high-profile journalists and intellectuals have been arrested, the majority without even being told why. This campaign, in turn, is part of the build-up to the Presidential elections this coming summer. Two or three journalists arrested last autumn are now taking the nation’s leadership to court claiming they were tortured. -It is difficult to say, though, adds Vogt, -if Ebadi’s summons is the beginning of a court trial set up to put her behind bars. Ebadi has been imprisoned for her peaceful human rights advocacy before. Now, it seems as if Iranian authorities will not let the fact that she has become a world famous Nobel Laureate affect the way they handle her.  

Case may be tried internationally
The court system in Iran is controlled by the very conservative clergy, with whom Ebadi has been in more or less permanent conflict for many years for taking on unpopular cases. One case in point now, could be her proceedings on behalf of the family of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was killed by prison staff in 2003. Ebadi has accused Iranian authorities of covering their own servants against the authorities’ better knowledge. She has also threatened to take this particular case to an international court.

-A Nobel Peace Prize is not enough
Another among Ebadi’s cases is the one regarding the journalist Akbar Ganji, who was arrested in 2000 for having claimed that several Iranian leaders could be linked with a series of murders. Ebadi’s group of lawyers has also defended the 73 year old dissident Ebrahim Yazdi, who leads a human rights based NGO. Yazdi’s organisation stands accused of attempting to overthrow the current regime. Finally, Ebadi has suggested openly that all political prisoners must be released. The regime, though, refuses to admit that there are political prisoners in Iran. Ebadi has also demanded that the regime brings to an immediate end the practice of using the death penalty also against people under 18 of age. While the authorities claim that this is not happening, Ebadi has received several death threats for suggesting otherwise. -Winning a Nobel Prize is obviously no guarantee that from then on, you’re safe, says Harbitz of HRH. -All the more reason, therefore, to continue to pay particular attention to the plight of human rights defenders.