  2003 Annual Report |
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Asia |
| Europe |
| Mid-East/Africa |
| Americas |
We appealed on behalf of Dariush Zahedi, an Iranian-American lecturer in Political Science at UC Berkeley who traveled to Iran in June and was arrested while attending a meeting in Teheran. Initially cleared of the charges of espionage brought against him by the Ministry of Intelligence, he was then transferred to solitary confinement in a part of the Evin prison controlled by the judiciary. He was denied a lawyer, and no further information about his case was forthcoming until he was suddenly freed on $250,000 bail on Sunday, November 9, 2003.
In another case, Iranian professor of history Hashem Aghajari was sentenced to death for apostasy last August in connection with his condemnation of clerics who insist on being followed "blindly." He appealed the verdict, and happily in February of this year the Supreme Court lifted his death sentence. But the case is far from over; the judge stated that the court will soon issue a new sentence.
Turkey
Dr. Alp Ayan, a psychiatrist and member of the Izmir Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, a part of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, has over the years been convicted several times for having "insulted the Ministry of Justice" under article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code. After his third hearing in connection with this apparently spurious charge, Dr. Ayan was charged yet again in April 2003 in connection with his peaceful participation in a protest meeting in February, in which he criticized both the harsh conditions of Turkish prisons and police brutality; this brought the further charge of having "insulted the Turkish Armed Forces." We appealed to the Turkish authorities to dismiss the charges against Dr. Ayan, on the grounds that his actions were fully in accordance with his internationally-recognized human rights to assembly and expression. His trial is still in progress.
Sudan
We appealed on behalf of the teachers Hayder Tamboor and Nasr Eldin Tamboor who, along with six others, were arrested this past August and were being held incommunicado. We received reports that Nasr Eldin Tamboor was hospitalized after a beating by security officers. It was alleged that these men supported the Sudan Liberation Army, but neither was charged with an offense. We wrote again in November with over 850 signatures on the letter.
Algeria
We requested a fair and open retrial, based on valid criminal charges, for Salaheddine Sidhoum, 54, a medical doctor and human rights activist, who turned himself in to the police this past September 29. In 1997, Dr. Sidhoum had been convicted in absentia of "terrorism or subversion" and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He spent the years since his conviction in hiding, working to document such human rights abuses as torture and summary executions. Held in Serkadji prison in Algiers in an isolation cell without bed or mattress, he conducted a hunger strike in protest at the physical conditions and in order to receive the status of political prisoner. In his October retrial, Dr. Sidhoum was acquitted on all charges.
Israel
We wrote regarding the difficult situation facing students and faculty at the universities of Birzeit and al-Quds, especially the reports that a fence may be built across the campus of Al-Quds University in Abu Dis that may interfere with the functioning of that university's activities. On October 8, IDF forces closed the Surda checkpoint on the Ramallah-Birzeit road even to pedestrians, preventing students and faculty who live in Ramallah from reaching Birzeit University and thus effectively closing the campus.
We inquired about a report of an incident in which IDF soldiers allegedly shot at unarmed and peaceful students at Birzeit University, wounding two. We urged that an investigation be initiated immediately.
Egypt
In 2003, we wrote several times on behalf of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, sociology professor and pro-democracy activist arrested on spurious charges in retaliation for his activities as founder and head of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, which monitors human rights as well as the conduct of elections.
Last year, his two-and-a-half year ordeal drew to a happy close. In early December 2003 the Court of Cassation annulled a seven-year sentence meted out twice by a lower State Security Court, and in February 2003 it heard the case against Ibrahim and four co-defendants. The final verdict was announced this past March, acquitting Ibrahim in particular of the charges of having tarnished Egypt's image abroad. Ibrahim's co-defendants were also released. Pressure from international human-rights groups, including our Committee, as well as the threat of losing a 130-million-dollar aid package from the United States, appear to have spurred the re-investigation of Ibrahim's case.
In July and August we wrote on behalf of Ashraf Ibrahim, an engineer imprisoned since April 2003 without trial, reportedly under conditions that violate his internationally-recognized rights. He is held in a cell together with criminal convicts, his lawyers have been denied access to some of the interrogation transcripts, and no formal charges have been filed. We urged the Egyptian government to ensure that his basic legal rights were upheld. His trial began on December 6, but no news has reached us of its outcome.
