The Foundation for Democracy has written to the Government of Iran, requesting information on the reported arrest of at least 18 followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali Shirazi, including his second son, Seyed Morteza Shirazi, arrested in Qom on November 21, 1995.
According to reports from Amnesty International, ten followers of Grand Ayatollah Shirazi were arrested without warrants at their homes in Tehran and Qom on the night of November 11, 1995, and are being held incommunicado as prisoners of conscience, solely because of their connection to Grand Ayatollah Shirazi.
The following day, November 12, the security forces reportedly raided the Imam Hussein religious school in Qom, arresting 120 students. Most were released several hours later, but seven remain detained in unknown locations. On the 21st, Seyed Morteza Shirazi was arrested in Qom. His whereabouts are unknown.
The Foundation has written to the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamene'i, President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the Ministries of Justice, Interior, and Foreign Affairs, and has sent an inquiry to Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, to express concern and request clarification about this case.
The Foundation is concerned that these latest arrests are part of a pattern by the authorities of the Islamic Republic to harass religious figures in Iran who oppose government policies. In 1994, a number of followers of Grand Ayatollah Shirazi were arrested. In October 1994, followers of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri were arrested, following publication of an open letter criticizing the authorities. As the Foundation reported previously (Action Memorandum dated 9/21/95) the 26-year old son of Grand Ayatollah Sadegh Rouhani was arrested in July 1995, along with at least 25 followers. Family sources reported that the authorities sentenced him in September to one year in prison for offenses which included the distribution of illegal leaflets and having contacts with opposition groups.
The Foundation welcomes the recent invitation by the Iranian authorities to the UN Commission on Human Rights and to Human Rights Watch, to come to Iran to discuss human rights conditions in Iran, on condition that a full accounting of these and other cases of concern is provided by the authorities.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director (exec@iran.org). FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org/.