29.10.2007 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Prominent reformist cleric Hadi Ghabel was released from jail on the 29th October, after being imprisoned for more than a month on security-related charges ("Prominent Iranian Cleric Released From Jail") [ID 21815]

Document(s): Open document

03.07.2007 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Iranian and international rights groups have expressed concern over reports suggesting that a possible death sentence was handed down against a controversial Iranian cleric and some of his followers despite subsequent denials among semiofficial media ("Iran: Reports Of Death Sentence Spark Concern Over Ayatollah's Fate") [ID 21443]

Document(s): Open document

07.2007 - Source: Amnesty International

Shi’a cleric Ayatollah Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi and 17 of his supporters reportedly appeared before the Special Court for the Clergy (SCC) on 10 June; according to reports he was sentenced to death; he has been charged with 30 offences ("Shi’a cleric may face death sentence") [ID 21448]

Document(s): Open document

06.03.2007 - Source: US Department of State

House arrest against Shia religious leaders ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2006") [ID 19541]

"In recent years the government has used house arrest to restrict the movements and ability to communicate of senior Shi'a religious leaders whose views regarding political and governance issues were at variance with the ruling orthodoxy; however, there were no new instances of this practice publicly reported during the year."

Document(s): Open document

06.03.2007 - Source: US Department of State

Dissident cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi, urging the separation of religion from politics, arrested ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2006") [ID 20034]

"On October 8, police arrested dissident cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi at his home, after dispersing hundreds of his followers who had gathered there. Boroujerdi reportedly came under increased pressure from the government for urging separation of religion from politics. According to press reports, over 70 of his supporters were arrested in late September and early October.

Boroujerdi has reportedly been arrested and imprisoned several times since 1992 and has claimed that he was tortured and threatened with execution (see section 2.c.).At year's end there was no update on this case."

Document(s): Open document

15.09.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Monitoring of senior Shia religious leaders ("International Religious Freedom Report 2006") [ID 17776]

"The government carefully monitors the statements and views of the country's senior Shi'a religious leaders. Several Shi'a religious leaders have been under house arrest for years, including Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was released after five years of house arrest in 2003.

The Special Clerical Court (SCC) system, established in 1987 to investigate offenses and crimes committed by clerics and which the Supreme Leader oversees directly, is not provided for in the constitution and operates outside the domain of the judiciary. In particular, critics alleged that the clerical courts were used to prosecute certain clerics for expressing controversial ideas and for participating in activities outside the area of religion, including journalism.

On February 6, 2005, the special clerical court agreed to the conditional release (parole) of prominent dissident cleric Hojatoleslam Hassan Yussefi Eshkevari; he had served two thirds of his seven-year sentence and was therefore eligible for parole under the law. The cleric had been arrested in 2000, charged with the capital crimes of apostasy and "corruption on earth," in conjunction with speeches he had made at a 2000 conference on reform in Berlin."

Document(s): Open document

08.03.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Use of house arrests to restrict movements and communication of Shia religious leaders ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005") [#46058],  [ID 18485]

"In 2003 the government released Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, formerly the designated successor of the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, amid reports of health problems after five years of house arrest. In recent years the government has used house arrest to restrict the movements and ability to communicate of senior Shi'a religious leaders whose views regarding political and governance issues were at variance with the ruling orthodoxy; however, there was no information on this practice during the year."

Document(s): Open document

08.03.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Cleric, who attended conference on Islam in Berlin in 2000, sentenced to 4 years in prison for saying that dress codes for women are unnecessary in Islam ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005") [#46058],  [ID 18594]

"On February 6, according to domestic media, Hojatoleslam Hassan Yussefi-Eshkevari was released from jail. The cleric was arrested in August 2000 and sentenced to four years for saying that dress codes for women are unnecessary in Islam, one year for participating in the 2000 conference in Berlin about reform in the country, and two years for disseminating allegedly false information."

Document(s): Open document

08.03.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Lotfi arrested for publishing biographic book about Ayatollah Montazeri ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005") [#46058],  [ID 18681]

"The government continued to harass senior Shi'a religious and political leaders and their followers who dissented from the ruling conservative establishment. In May 2004 the special court for the clergy in Qom arrested Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Lotfi, an aide to Ayatollah Montazeri, for publishing a book that detailed the ayatollah's five years under house arrest. The court confiscated all copies of the book [...]"

Document(s): Open document

24.08.2005 - Source: Amnesty International

Muslim cleric reportedly arrested on 5 August and is believed to be held in prison in Tabriz, where he may be at risk of torture or ill-treatment; there are concerns that he may be held solely on account of non-violent expression of his ethnic and cultural identity ("Iran - UA 219/05") [#35913],  [ID 9440]

Document(s): Open document
Open document

28.02.2005 - Source: US Department of State

Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2004 ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2004") [#29525],  [ID 9441]

"[...]In January 2003, the Government released Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, amid reports of health problems after 5 years of house arrest. Montazeri was formerly the designated successor of the late Spiritual Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, who subsequently became an outspoken critic of the Supreme Leader (see Section 2.a.). In recent years, the Government has used the practice of house arrest to restrict the movements and ability to communicate of senior Shi'a religious leaders whose views regarding political and governance issues were at variance with the ruling orthodoxy; however, there was no information on current practice. [...]
In November 2003, security agents briefly arrested two sons of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the dissident cleric released from house arrest in January (see Section 1.d. above). The arrests reportedly were in response to the sons' attempts to refurbish a building purchased by the family for use as a teaching facility. The Qom mosque and Koranic school at which Montazeri formerly taught has remained closed since 1997, when comments by the cleric questioning the authority of the Supreme Leader sparked attacks on the school and his home by Ansar-e Hezbollah mobs. [...]"

Document(s): Open document

28.02.2005 - Source: US Department of State

Continuing harassment of religious and political leaders; arrest of an aid to Ayatollah Montazeri ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2004") [#29525],  [ID 9442]

"[...]The Government continued to harass senior Shi'a religious and political leaders and their followers who dissent from the ruling conservative establishment. In May, the Special Court for the Clergy in Qom arrested Hojatoleslam Mujtaba Lotfi, an aide to Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri-Najafabadi, for publishing a book that detailed the ayatollah's 5 years under house arrest. The book also covered the attacks on Montazeri's home and theological school and described the various charges and accusations against Ayatollah Montazeri. The court confiscated all copies of the book. More generally, there were reports that the Government maintained a broad network of student informants in Qom's major seminaries, who reported teachings that are counter to official government positions.[...]"

Document(s): Open document

07.02.2005 - Source: BBC News

Leading dissident cleric released after more than 4 years of imprisonment; originally he faced charges including heresy which is punishable under Iranian law by the death sentence ("Iran releases dissident cleric") [#28853],  [ID 9443]

Document(s): Open document

16.01.2002 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri ("Report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, prepared by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Maurice Danby Copithorne, pursuant to Commission resolution 2001/17 (E/CN.4/2002/42)") [#5732],  [ID 9444]

"45. One of the most awkward groups of dissidents for the Government to handle are
members of the ulema, that is Islamic clerics. The treatment of one of the most visible of these,
Hassan Yousefi-Eshkevari, was covered in the Special Representative’s interim report to the
General Assembly (A/56/278, para. 51). He is apparently still in prison.
46. The most eminent of the dissenters, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, was very
much present, in spirit at least, throughout the year. Despite being under house arrest, he
managed to make public his memoirs in December 2000, which confirmed important details of
some of the blackest events in the history of the Islamic Republic, such as the mass executions of
political prisoners. Shortly after their publication, Mortazeri’s eldest son was detained and as of
July, while no charges had been laid he was still in custody.
47. In an interview with a foreign journal in July, Montazeri reiterated his opposition to the
present form of government. “The concentration of powers in the hands of a single person is not
acceptable and must not be accepted. If the leadership does not change its behaviour radically,
there is no future for the religious Government.” Shortly after that, Montazeri’s son-in-law and
three of his associates were picked up by agents of the Special Clerical Court and, according to a
member of the family, the following day agents welded shut the doors of Montazeri’s office.
There continue to be public calls for his rehabilitation.
48. Clearly, there is little appetite to recognize freedom of expression when the subject
matter is the nature of government in the Islamic Republic, and the critics are clerics."

Document(s): sr-irn-0102.pdf
Open document

11.2001 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

00.11.2001 – ACCORD: Serious and widespread human rights violations against Shi'a clerics opposed to the current Iranian political system, their supporters and families ("7th European Country of Origin Information Seminar Berlin, 11 - 12 June 2001: Final Report - Iran") [#7661],  [ID 9445]

"Given that the traditional opposition to the current Islamic regime is practically nonexistent in Iran, the true opposition nowadays comes from within the system. There are reports that the majority of those who are currently detained and considered political prisoners are clerics.

A case in point is a comprehensive June 1997 report by Amnesty International on the persecution against clerics called ”Iran: Human Rights Violations against Shi’a Religious Leaders and their followers”. It indicates serious and widespread human rights violations against Shi’a religious leaders opposed to fundamental tenets of the Iranian political system such as the concept of velayat-e-faghih. The AI report notes ”that since 1995 dozens if not hundreds of followers of religious leaders have reportedly been arrested often in an attempt to pressurize the leaders to change their views or stop their opposition. At least three senior religious leaders have also reportedly been placed under house arrest. Some of those detained are said to have been subjected to numerous methods of torture or ill-treatment including beatings, severe burns, electric
shocks, sleep deprivation, confinement in very small spaces, threatened executions and threats to relatives. A few have been sentenced to prison terms, sometimes accompanied by flogging, after apparently unfair trials and the fate of some is unknown.”

Last year, the daughter of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who has been under house arrest for seven years and been been released yet, wrote a public letter stating that she had been visiting prisons since childhood for one or another member of her family but that the treatment she had recently experienced was far worse than that she remembered when visiting prisons in the time of the Shah. Her husband (Montazeri’s son-in-law) Hadi Hashemi, was arrested in June as part of a crackdown on supporters of Ayatollah Montazeri in the Central province of Isfahan. At least 15 people were reportedly arrested after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a harsh warning to Montazeri supporters in May 1998, accusing them of plotting against the regime. Clerics are prosecuted by the Special Court for the Clergy, that was originally established in order to ensure that the clergy could not be considered to be above the law and that it could also be prosecuted if some of its members acted contrary to the Law. Unfortunately, the Special Court for the Clergy (SCC) has become one of the most repressive and conservative organs within the Iranian establishment. Recently Hojatoleslam Eshkevari, a highly respected liberal-minded mullah, was arrested and sentenced to death by the SCC upon his return from the Berlin Conference of April 2000. The death sentence was overturned by an Appelate Court in May 2001 and
Eshkevari is waiting for his case to be heard again by a Special Court for the Clergy.

Generally, the extent to which persecution of clerical opposition takes place to the regime is little known outside of Iran. It is important to be alert to the possibility that supporters of particular opposition clerics might face persecution themselves. For instance, currently there is an asylum applicant in the UK, claiming persecution because of his affiliation with Montazeri. In addition, Montazeri’s website, before it was
shut down for a copyright violation (it was based on a server in Australia), featured a long list with the names of members of his family who were murdered."

Document(s): cois2001-irn.pdf

11.2001 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

00.11.2001 – ACCORD: Special restrictions on freedom of expression for theologians ("7th European Country of Origin Information Seminar Berlin, 11 - 12 June 2001: Final Report - Iran") [#7661],  [ID 9446]

"Vaguely worded articles in the Theologians’ Law have resulted in the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of theologians for the mere expression of their views, whether in print or public discourse. According to Art. 18 of this law, ”acts which customarily cause insult to the dignity of Islamic theology (clergy) and the Islamic Revolution are construed as an offence for theologians.” Such unspecified ‘acts’ have resulted in unfair trials, notably of alleged press violations being tried in the Special Court for the Clergy (SCC) and the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience.

For example, Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari, director of Ali Shariati Research Centre and contributing editor of Iran-e Farda, which was closed in April 2000, was charged under this law in connection with his presentation at the Berlin conference. He was arrested upon return from Germany in August 2000 and in October 2000 sentenced after an unfair trial before the Special Court for the Clergy (SCC) to a prison term, the length of which has not been made public. The trial reportedly was a
consequence of his discussion of changes in Islamic laws concerning dress code and judicial punishments and organized religion’s connection to state power. The charges brought against him are all punishable by death and included defamation, heresy, being at war with God and corrupt on earth as well as charges related to national security.
The decision was not made known. However, in May 2001 it was made public that the death sentence had been overturned by an Appellate Court.

Another prominent case involves reformist cleric Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Mohsen Kadivar, who was arrested on 27 February 1999, and sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment by the SCC on 21 April 1999. The charges brought against him reportedly included "propaganda against the sacred system of the Islamic Republic", "publishing lies" and "confusing public opinion". These charges are believed to relate to an article published in the newspaper Khordad on 14 February 1999 in which he appeared to question the role of the clergy in the government of Iran and expressed concerns over controls on freedom of expression."

Document(s): cois2001-irn.pdf