Afhin Ellian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Afshin Ellian (born 1966 in Tehran) is an Iranian scholar and professor of International Law at the University of Leiden. He writes for the leading Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. Afshin Ellian is a strong advocate for human rights and democracy around the world.

[edit] Life

Afshin Ellian was born in 1966 in Tehran in Iran. He fled to Pakistan after being targetted for execution by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. He then migrated to Afghanistan where he studied medicine in Kabul. In 1989 the Islamic Regime of Iran attempted to extradite him back to Iran but Ellian along with seventy targetted intellectuals was granted asylum, with the aid of the United Nations, in Europe, where he continued his studies at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. He graduated in Criminal Law, Public Law (International Law) and Philosophy and later completed his Ph.D in 2003 at Tilburg, after which he joined the faculty of Law in the University of Leiden.