Wednesday, July 29, 2020 / After searching the house and confiscating the personal belongings of Ali Kazemi and his sister Maryam Kazemi, Behbahan intelligence agents arrested these two citizens living in this city and transferred them to an undisclosed location.
According to Human Rights in Iran, On the morning of Wednesday, July 29, 2020, following a raid by the intelligence agents on the residence of Ali Kazemi and Maryam Kazemi, two citizens of Behbahan and search of their home, their belongings were confiscated, they were arrested and transferred to an unknown location.
It is said that the arrest of Ali Kazemi and his sister Maryam Kazemi is related to the recent protests of the citizens in Bank-e Melli Square held on July 16th this year, but no no exact information is available on the charges against these people.
While citizens are dissatisfied with the dire economic situation and the widespread repression and violation of human rights in Iran, they held peaceful protest rallies in Bank-e Melli Square in Behbahan on July 16th 2020. Mohammad Azizi, the head of Behbahan Security Police, while calling these citizens as rioters, called their demands “norm-breaking slogans” and further claimed: “Opposition individuals and groups in the current sensitive situation intend to provoke the people and strike at the system.”
Also, video footage published in cyberspace about the presence of Iranian Police Special Units in the streets of different cities, including Tabriz, Urmia, Parand and Behbahan city. Several other cities also witnessed heavy military and security presence. Behbahan was one of the cities where protesters appeared at the streets. The exact number of possible detainees is not yet known.
During the formation of protest rallies in some cities of the country, security and military forces attempted to disperse the people and prevent protest rallies by attending the main squares of the cities. In Emamat Boulevard of Mashhad and some streets of Tehran, Tabriz, Urmia and Shiraz, the presence of a large number of military forces and a severe security atmosphere were reported, and this security condition continued on Friday, in these cities and some other cities.
The protest rally in Behbahan city was held while the protesting citizens gathered in Bank-e Melli Square of this city, which was already a place of intense clashes between security forces and citizens during the November 2019 protests, applauding and chanting protest slogans such as “cannon tank rocket, the mullahs must get lost” or “neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life sacrifice for Iran”, they organized these protest rallies and showed their dissatisfaction with the current situation in the country.
Arrest of persons without arraigning their charges at the time of arrest and impossibility of access to a lawyer for the accused are among the violations of international human rights instruments, Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted on December 16,1966.
Also enjoying the right to a fair trial by an impartial tribunal in the presence of a jury and by preserving the right of the accused to appoint his or her lawyer in a trial, is one of the issues accentuated in International Instrument of Human Rights, including Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 14 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted on December 16, 1966.
In most cases, the extrajudicial and arbitrary detention of citizens and civil activists with vague and trumped-up accusations is in the line of suppression of Freedom of Expression and opinion, which in International Instrument of Human Rights, in Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as in Article 19 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted on December 16th 1966, there is emphasis on not suppressing of the individuals because of Freedom of Expression and opinion. Regarding the principle of freedom of expression, every individual has the right to express his/her opinions and viewpoints in any way possible, without considering border restrictions.
Article 5 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that the accused shall be informed of the charges and provided access to a lawyer as soon as possible. Other defensive rights are mentioned in law, but extrajudicial actions taken by the security services violate the laws that they themselves drafted and claim to be enforced.
Hoghoghebashar.iran 