Shadi Sadr

Front Line has received reports of the detention of Mr Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a prominent human rights lawyer and founding member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), and Ms Shadi Sadr, a human rights lawyer and prominent women’s rights defender.

Further Information

They were arrested on 6 and 17 July 2009 respectively and are currently in detention. The two lawyers are among many other human rights defenders who have been detained following protests related to the presidential election in Iran on 12 June 2009.

On 6 July 2009, security officers arrested Mohammad Ali Dadkhah at his office in Tehran. Dadkhah's arrest reportedly came as he and other lawyers met to review the new by-laws restricting the work of the Bar Association. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah is an outspoken critic of the human rights situation in Iran and has faced mounting pressure since December 2008 after his office was shut down in a police raid.

On 17 July 2009, Shadi Sadr was walking on Keshavarz Boulevard with several other female activists heading toward Tehran University for the Friday Prayers led by Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, when individuals in civilian clothes approached her and without identifying themselves or justifying their actions they forced her into a car and drove off.

Shadi Sadr subsequently called her husband and confirmed she had been arrested and was being detained in ward 209 of Teheran’s Evin prison. He stated that Shadi had asked him for the Personal Identification Number (PIN) code of her cell phone which could indicate that the authorities were forcing her to disclose information held on her phone. Her husband also reported that intelligence officers had searched his house and requested the keys to her law firm.

On 19 July, Security Guards called Shadi Sadr’s family and asked for the payment of bail, but after waiting outside Evin prison for five hours, Judge Rasekh told family members that Shadi Sadr was not going to be released. Shadi Sadr suffers from gland and bone problems, needs medication, and was scheduled to have a medical operation in a week. Shadi Sadr had previously been arrested for fifteen days in March 2007 just before the women's day demonstrations in Tehran.

Front Line issued a appeal on that occasion [[path!node/220|Shadi Sadr]]

In the days following Iran's presidential election on Friday 12 June, many thousands took part in marches and demonstrations across the country. At least 20 protesters have reportedly been killed.

Aiming at ending mass street protests, thousands of people have been arrested by the authorities in a nationwide crackdown, including more than a hundred political figures, journalists, academics, lawyers and human rights defenders. Most of the detainees have been held incommunicado without access to lawyers or family members, raising serious concerns about possible mistreatment and pressure to make false confessions

Front Line earlier reported that among the detained human rights defenders were Mr Abdolfattah Soltani, a leading human rights lawyer and a founding member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran (DHRC), arrested on 16 June 2009; Mr Alireza Tajik and Mr Kayvan Samimi, members of the Arbitrary Detentions Investigation Committee, both arrested on 15 June 2009; Ms Jila Baniyaghoob, a women rights activist, and her husband Mr Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee, a reformist, both arrested on 20 June 2009; and Ms Shiva Nazar Ahara, a blogger and human rights activist arrested on 14 June 2009.

Front Line is deeply concerned by the targeting of human rights defenders in Iran, and believes that the arrests of the aforementioned human rights defenders are directly related to their peaceful and legitimate activities in defense of human rights.