Amir Entezam's open letter
"About Iran" has translated the following text which is
an open letter by Mr. Abbas Amir-Entezam, the longest held prisoner of
conscience under the Islamic Republic. The Farsi version of this letter
was given to "About Iran" by the Committee in Defense of Abbas
Amir-Entezam in New York.
Dear Compatriots, Freedom-Loving People of the World:
I am thankful to a virtuous God for once again, from his divine dispensations,
presenting the opportunity [for the world] to see the rising disgrace of
the Judiciary branch of the Islamic Republic for violating the legal and
human rights [in my case]. This adds another chapter to the past volumes
of [the Islamic Republic's] shameful acts.
As everyone is aware, it has been several months since the Judiciary
system has again imprisoned me on charges of libel for insulting Asadollah
Ladjevardi, the ex-warden and ex-prosecutor of Evin Prison. In this episode
[of my ordeal], all the regime's authorities have coordinated to prevent
me, my lawyers and defense witnesses from attending the court hearing.
Rather, in a closed court and a private gathering, they have tried me in
absentia, and once again, [they have decided to refer me to the revolutionary
tribunal, and in this way], they have relegated my fate to the revolutionary
tribunal. By these tactics, they believe they can induce fear and terror
within me and force me into silence.
Freedom Loving People of Iran and the World:
Such audacity in violating the principles of human rights is unprecedented
in the world. Yet, for one who has withstood 18 years of this regime's
atrocities, I raise my voice to ask the regime's authorities, if they are
not afraid of my presence in the court, to allow me to be tried by a jury
in an authentic court, one that is open to the people and to human rights
observers. [In such a court], I shall defend myself and I shall show that
what I have stated about the barbaric and anti-human actions of Asadollah
Lajdevardi, former prison prosecutor, and other authorities is neither
libelous nor slanderous, but rather factual. And this can be attested to
by thousands of those who suffered in prisons. However, I am well aware
that this time, like their stonewalling of my attempts [in the past 18
years] to redeem myself from my first tyrannical conviction to life in
prison by a revolutionary court, the atrocious and corrupt hands of the
Judiciary branch will not allow me to defend myself in an authentic court.
They will not allow it because they know that my [trial] revelations about
the [atrocities] that have been endured by the Iranian people in the past
20 years will further inform the world about the reality of our situation
under the tyrannical regime of the Vali-Faghih [i.e., the theocratic rule
of the supreme religious leader]. They are apprehensive of such revelations.
Once again, from my prison cell in Evin prison, I declare that I shall
continue, until my last breath, my relentless struggle to redeem my own
rights and those of millions of my compatriots who, at the outset of the
21st century, are imprisoned in the hands of the most terrifying and tyrannical
regime. I shall carry on this struggle for as long as my afflicted body,
which has been subjected to 18 years of suffering and hardship in prison,
will endure. I trust in God's kindness and the support of my freedom loving
compatriots and people of the world, and I bear this historical lesson
well in my mind: "A country survives blasphemy, but crumbles under
tyranny."
Abbas Amir-Entezam
Evin Prison [Tehran]
February 25, 1999
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