Mohammad Mostafaei, who has spent his career defending juveniles and the underprivileged, including many who were sentenced to execution, has been missing since July 24, 2010, when he was questioned by the authorities and then released.

Wife and brother-in-law arrested
Later in the day, security officials went to his office with a warrant to arrest him, several Persian-language media reported. Unable to find him, security forces arrested Mostafaei’s wife, Fereshteh Halimi, and his brother-in-law, Farhad Halimi, in the vicinity of Mostafaei’s office. Both remain in detention but have not been charged.

“The authorities have provided no reason for the arrests of Fereshteh and Farhad Halimi,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The burden is squarely on the Iranian government to explain why these arrests do not essentially amount to state-sanctioned hostage-taking.”

On July 24, Mostafaei wrote in his online blog, Modafe’, that the public prosecutor’s office in Evin Prison had summoned him for questioning. He wrote that most of the questions were about the source of financial assistance to clients who had been sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed when they were juveniles.

During the past year, Mostafaei helped set up a fund for his juvenile clients to help them pay diyeh, or blood money, to families of victims so they would forgive the alleged offenders and spare them from execution.

A few hours after this post, Mostafaei sent another: “Today after being interrogated by Branch 2 of the prosecutor’s office they contacted me again and I was summoned for a second time.” Mostafaei continued, “I don’t know what the problem is this time, but in any case I have to go to the prosecutor’s office at Evin again tomorrow. They may even arrest me today. I don’t know.” He has not posted any other messages since.

The Iranian Judiciary has not said why it issued the arrest warrant for Mostafaei.

Mostafaei in Turkey
According to UNHCR the human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei on 4 August, 2010 was in Turkey. According to some reports Mohammad Mostafaei might be applying for asylum.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights, said: “We are happy that Mr. Mostafaei is out of Iran, and hope that a European country will offer him asylum soon, since he will not be safe in Turkey”.

Amiry-Moghaddam added: “We regret that the lawyer who has been defending minors on the death row and women sentenced to death by stoning in so many years, is subjected to the regime’s persecution. This is indicative of the seriousness of the human rights situation in Iran today.

Mostafaei apparently surfaced in Turkey and was detained because of a passport problem after entering the country, Turkey’s Radikal newspaper said Wednesday. It gave no source for the report and there was no information on when he was detained or where he was being held. Iranian nationals do not require visas to enter Turkey.

“We are monitoring developments concerning the case,” said Metin Corabatir, a UNHCR spokesman in Turkey. “The channels are open for him to apply for asylum.”

A European diplomat in Ankara said Turkish authorities had contacted several Western embassies to see if they were willing to offer the lawyer asylum. The diplomat asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the case.

Turkey’s Interior Ministry, in charge of police and asylum cases, declined to comment.”

Lawyer’s activity
Mostafaei is one of the most prominent human rights lawyers in Iran. In recent years, he has handled numerous high-profile cases, including that of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43 year-old mother of two whom a court sentenced to death by stoning earlier this month after convicting her of adultery.

After international pressure and outrage, Iran’s Judiciary announced that she would not be executed by stoning, but it has not quashed her death sentence.

Mostafaei also has handled numerous cases of juvenile offenders sentenced to death for crimes involving murder and rape, and is a leading advocate in Iran of ending the death penalty for those who committed crimes as minors.

Over the past few years, Mostafaei has provided important information and gripping accounts exposing the dire situation of juvenile offenders on death row.

In 2009, he described Delara Darabi’s last moments to Human Rights Watch. Prison authorities secretly executed her in Rasht Prison for a killing she was alleged to have committed when she was 17. Darabi was one of at least four juveniles executed by the Iranian government in 2009.

Not the first arrest
This is not the first time that Mostafaei and other prominent rights lawyers have been harassed or arrested by Iranian security forces and the judiciary

Human Rights Watch has documented a persistent pattern of harassment and intimidation by the Iranian government against high-profile human rights lawyers and their families, including the Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, whose sister and husband have been repeatedly harassed and interrogated during the past several years.

Government authorities shut down Ebadi’s Human Rights Defenders Center (HRDC) in December 2008.

Since the disputed presidential election on June 12, 2009, authorities have either arrested or harassed numerous human rights lawyers, such as Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, bdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Hadi Esmaielzadeh, Manijeh Mohammadi, Kambiz Noroozi, Shadi Sadr, and Mohammad Olyaeifard.

The judiciary convicted Olyaeifard of “propaganda against the regime” and sentenced him to a year in prison in February, after he spoke to foreign media about his client, Behnoud Shojaii, a juvenile who was executed by prison authorities on October 12, 2009. Olyaeifard is serving his prison sentence. Authorities also detained Mosatafaei after the disputed June 12 elections, but released him shortly after his arrest.

“It has become increasingly clear that the Iranian government targets rights lawyers not only as retaliation, but to cut off the outside world from vital information.” Whitson said. “The international community needs to stand behind lawyers such as Mostafaei, and support their right to continue their important work free from state intimidation and interference.”

HRH London, based on Human Rights Watch and Iran Human Rights articles. See original articles here and here.

Related links:

Iran: imminent execution of political prisoner feared

Iran: one year after elections – importance of internet and small media