HARANA News Agency – A group of civil and political activists in a statement called for the release of Said Shirzad, a children’s rights activist who was arrested 38 days ago.
The following is the full text of the statement, a copy of which has been submitted to HRANA:
“It is more than 20 days after the arrest of Said Shirzad children’s rights in his workplace in Tabriz Petrochemical CO. by Iranian intelligence service agents. He has been denied of access to his principle rights including communication with his family and access a lawyer. Therefore, there is no information about his physical and mental condition as well as the reason of arrest.
In the past, Said Shirzad has been very active in the field of children’s rights and vulnerable people and has been collaborating with a number of licensed NGOs in Tehran. This social activist was also arrested in September 2012 while working around relief activities after Eastern Azarbaijan’s earthquake and sentenced to 1 year suspended imprisonment by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. However, his recent arrest in the workplace (Tabriz Petrochemical CO.) and outside his civil activities field increases our concerns about the charges against Said Shirzad and his current situation.
We strongly believe Said Shirzad’s unlawful arrest by the intelligence service agents and President Rouhani’s and government organizations lack of attention to defend the basic rights of Iranians (such as civil rights) is in agreement and continuation of many years of suppression of freedom lovers and civil rights activists.
These arrests indicate that what we heard during the last year presidential campaign was just political slogans, and that the will of politicians to hold on to the power has priority to the will of the people.
We the signatories of this Declaration reaffirm the illegal and inhumane detention of Said Shirzad, calling for an immediate investigation regarding his legal status including his rights to access an attorney, meeting his family and immediate release.
Bashir Ehsani, Abdol-torab Ahmadi, Behzad Ahmadi Nia, Mansour Osanloo, Reza Asdabadyan, Morteza Ismaeil Poor, Maryam Eshraqi, Maryam Afshari, Mohammad Amirany, Amir Amirgholy, Mehdi Aminizadh, Vandad Oladadzimy, Masoud Iravani, Amir Abbas Azrmvand, Ahmad Batebi, Ahad Bagherdaei, Pouyan Barzegar, Seyed Ali Banijamali, Mohammad Behboudi, Hassan Behgar, Azar Bayan, Hami Parham, Nazi Peyghambarian, Amir Tahasson, Mehdi Toupchi, Mohsen Saghafi, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, Ali Jazayeri, Hamid Jafari, Reza Jafarian, Pouya Jahandar, Robab Jozagh, Behieh Jilani, Amir Chamani, Masoud Chenasy, Arash Choopani, Shahram Haji Hosseini, Mitra Hesami Amjad Hossein Panahi, Seyed Reza Hosseini, Jamal Husseini, Mohammad Hamidi, Khosro Khajenuri, Reza Dargahi, Masoumeh Dehghan, Ali Doostkam, Fariba Rad, Amir Rahimi, Saeed Rezaei, Emad Raziey, Simin Rouzgard, Javad Riahi, Mehdi Zamani, Behrang Zandi, Mehdi Samea, Fattah Sobhani, Fatemeh Sadat, Asghar Saeidpour, Razi Saidi, Kambiz S0ltanian, Mehrsima Simayee, Bahram Shojaei, Susan Shahbazi, Banou Saberi, Samira Sadeghi, Saghi Salehi, Majd Pouya Sabouri, Houman Taheri, Robab Abdolrahimi, Ali Ajami, Gholam Askari, Borhan Azimi, Mahvash Alasvandy, Javad Alikhani, Shadiar Omrani, Narges Ghaffari, Farshid Faryab, Farhan Farid, Reza Fallahi, Shahab Feyzi, Shima Carami, Ali Kalayi, Nahid Gorgi, Ahmad Lotfi, Saghi Laghayee, Masoud Lavasani, Mustafa Maliki, Daniel Mohammadzade, Hassan Mahmoodi, Saam Mahmoudi Sarabi, Farhad Moradi, Kumars Marzban, Fariba Marzban, Abdul Hamid Masoumi Tehrani, Pouyan Makari, Zhila Makvandi, Ammar Maleki, Saeed Mansouri, Ehsan Mansouri, Ibrahim Mehtari, Homayoun Mehmanesh, Mohsen Naderi, Babak Nejati, Sheyda Nasirzadeh, Shahin Nassiri, Saeed Nematipour, Reza Negahdari, Mohsen Nourbahr, Nasrin Hezarehmoghadam, Elham Houminfar, Hamid Reza Vasheghani Farahani, Vaheed Valizadeh, Hussein Yaghoubi, Alireza Yaghoubi, Campaign for the Defense of Political Prisoners and Civil Rights
