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Human Rights Timeline

On June 22, 2010, in commemoration of the anniversary of the fraudulent June 12, 2009 elections, United Against Nuclear Iran joined the “Responsibility to Prevent” Coalition, and signed the international petition entitled “The Danger of a Nuclear, Genocidal and Rights-Violating Iran: The Responsibility to Prevent Petition.”

The petition is endorsed by international law scholars, human rights defenders, experts in genocide, and a distinguished group of Iranian scholars, and the objective of the coalition and the petition is to hold Ahmadinejad’s Iran to account for its brutal and illegal actions.

Timeline of Human Rights Abuses in Iran - One Year After the June 12, 2009 Elections

Iran’s June 12, 2009 elections, which gave incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory amid allegations of fraud, were met with the most widespread displays of public discontent seen in Iran since the 1979 Revolution. The protest movement has been violently repressed by the Iranian regime, which has become an enthusiastic violator of its citizen’s human rights. Press censorship and legal injustice have never been worse in the 31-year history of the Islamic Republic, and the one-year anniversary of the disputed elections offers a welcome opportunity to reflect on the regime’s recent pattern of abuses.

Election Aftermath - By The Numbers:

Notable Rankings

 

June 14, 2009:

  • In an effort to crack down on protestors following the June 12 elections, government forces raid dormitories of universities across Iran.
  • 100 students are arrested and at least one is killed.
  • At least 34 demonstrators are killed by government forces over the following month.

Source: The Guardian, “Unrest in Iran spreads to provinces as students clash with security forces,” 06/16/2009

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “Death Toll Apparently Far Exceeds Government Claims,” 07/15/2009


June 20, 2009:

  • Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman, is shot dead by a member of the government-sponsored Basij militia while attending a peaceful protest.
  • She becomes a symbol of the opposition and is named a Time Magazine 2009 “Person Who Mattered.”
  • Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami alleges in a speech to the nation that Neda’s death was staged by protestors.

Source: BBC, “Death video woman 'targeted by militia',’” 06/22/2009

Source: The Boston Globe, “Iranian cleric says protesters wage war against God,” 06/27/2009


July 31, 2009:

  • Three American hikers are detained and charged with espionage after accidentally crossing into Iran from Iraq. The Iranian government attempts to leverage the hikers in an exchange for Iranian arms dealers held in the United States, recalling memories of the Iranian Hostage Crisis during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
  • In May 2010, the hikers’ parents are allowed to travel to Iran to meet their children for the first time.

Source: Bloomberg/Businessweek, “U.S. Detainees Reunited With Their Mothers in Tehran,” 05/20/2010


August 2009:

  • The Iranian government brings protestors, journalists, and other supporters of the opposition to court in what are widely ridiculed as show-trials using forced confessions.
  • Nearly 100 protestors are tried.

Source: CNN, “Iran resumes mass trial of reformists,” 08/25/2009


August 10-26, 2009:

  • Reformist leader Mehdi Karroubi writes a public letter to former President Ayatollah Rafsanjani, alleging that detained protestors were subjected to widespread torture and sexual abuse. A parliamentary committee is set up to investigate these charges, and officially rules that the charges were baseless.
  • An anonymous member of the committee later leaks that proof was found of rape with batons and bottles.

Source: Amnesty International, “Iran - Election Contested, Repression Compounded,” 12/2009


Mehdi Karroubi

October 2009:

  • Iranian security forces confiscate the passports of three prominent journalists: Badrolsadat Mofidi, Farzaneh Roostai, and Zahra Ebrahimi.
  • Iran has detained more than 100 journalists and bloggers in the aftermath of the election protests.

Source: Human Rights Watch, “Iran - Events of 2009,” 2010

Badrolsadat Mofidi

December 2009:

  • Iran sentences 20-year-old student protestor Mohammad Amin Valian to death for “enmity against God.” He is denied legal counsel, family visitation, and the right to appeal his case.
  • There are currently eight other election protestors awaiting execution. Iran executes more people than any country in the world except China.

Source: Human Rights Watch, “Remembering Iran's Rights Abuses,” 05/10/2010

Mohammad Valian

December 21, 2009:

  • The funeral of the reformist Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri becomes a catalyst for massive new protests.
  • Government forces attack opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s motorcade as he attempts to leave the funeral.

Source: The New York Times, “Cleric's Funeral Becomes Protest of Iran Leaders,” 12/21/2009

December 27, 2009:

  • Government security forces crackdown on protests occurring on the Ashura religious holiday.
  • Eight are killed and 300 arrested. Among the dead is Seyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. The Iranian government confiscates his corpse.

Source: The Times, “Hardliners seize Mousavi corpse as Iran regime hits back,” 12/29/2009

February 11, 2010:

  • Government forces issue a crackdown on protests marking the 31st anniversary of the foundation of the Islamic Republic.
  • Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi is attacked en route to the protests.
  • Ahmadinejad uses the opportunity to announce that Iran is now a nuclear state.

Source: MSNBC, “Iran marks revolution with protest crackdown,” 02/11/2010

May 9, 2010:

  • Five political prisoners are executed in Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. One of those executed, teacher and social worker Farzad Kamangar, is found guilty of “enmity against God” (moharabeh) during a seven minute-long trial. Moharabeh has become a catch-all charge to justify the execution of political prisoners.
  • On the same day, Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison, after being jailed for four months on espionage chargers.

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “Political Executions Indication of Government's Insecurity,” 05/09/2010

Source: Newsweek, “Justice, Iranian Style,” 05/10/2010

Farzad Kamangar

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