Emadeddin Baghi

Emadeddin Baghi
Nationality	Iranian
Occupation	Human rights activist
Website
http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/

Emadeddin Baghi is a prominent Iranian human rights activist, prisoners' rights advocate, investigative journalist, philosopher and writer. He is the founder and head of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights and the Society of Right to Life Guardians in Iran, and the author of twenty books, six of which have been banned in Iran. Baghi was imprisoned in connection with his writings on the Chain murders of Iran, which occurred in Autumn 1998,^[1] and imprisoned again in late 2007 for another year on charges of "acting against national security." According to his family and lawyers, Baghi has been summoned to court 23 times since his release in 2003.^[1] He has also had his passport confiscated, his newspaper closed, and suspended prison sentences passed against his wife and daughter.^[2] Baghi was rearrested on 28 December 2009 on charges related to an interview with Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri. Baghi was released and then again rearrested on 5 December 2010.

Contents 1 Political arrests 2 Organizations 3 Health problems 4 Awards and recognition 5 Works 6 References and notes 7 External links

Political arrests

Emadeddin Baghi's record as a political prisoner or defendant includes:

• A three-year prison term passed in 2000 by a Revolutionary Court on charges brought by the intelligence ministry and the conservative-run state television ^[3] of "endangering national security" for his writings about the serial murder of dissident intellectuals in Iran in the late 1990s. He served two years of that sentence, and one year was suspended.^[1]

• A one-year suspended term issued in 2003 by Judge Babayee of Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court for "endangering national security" and "printing lies" in his book, The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran.^[1]

• A one-year prison sentence for "acting against national security", issued on 15 October 2007, when he was summoned by Tehran's revolutionary court on the charges of "propaganda against the Islamic Republic" and "divulging state secret information". This imprisonment was condemned by Iranian lawyer, human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.^[4] Baghi had been protesting a wave of public hangings that was part of a campaign by the authorities to improve "societal security". A year before his arrest and trial, Baghi had written an open letter to the heads of the reformist parties, scolding them for their silence over the increased number of hangings.^[5]

• Baghi was among the numerous journalists and reformists detained by the government of Iran on 28 December 2009 in the wake of violent crackdowns on Ashura protests.^[6][7]

Organizations

Emadeddin Baghi founded two Iranian nongovernmental organizations — the Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights in 2003, and the Society of Right to Life Guardians in 2005. The two organizations produce reports on the situation of Iranian prisoners and gather data about death penalty cases in Iran.^[1]

Health problems

Baghi suffers from severe heart and kidney ailments. On August 7, 2008, a prison doctor recommended strongly that he be taken to a hospital to receive treatment for his illnesses. On the same day, the authorities transferred Baghi to solitary confinement in Section 209 of Evin Prison, where intelligence agents interrogated him for three weeks.^[8] As Baghi’s health deteriorated considerably, on September 16, 2008, the authorities released him for medical treatment.^[8]

Awards and recognition

• In 2004 he was awarded the Civil Courage Prize, sharing it with Zimbabwean opposition politician Lovemore Madhuku, but was prohibited from leaving Iran to accept it.^[9]
• In 2005 he was awarded the Human Rights Prize given by the French Government in recognition of his work campaigning against the death penalty.
• In April 2008, Baghi was named International Journalist of the Year by the British press, but was forbidden by the Iranian government to visit London to accept the award.
• In 2009, Baghi won the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. This award is given annually in Geneva by a coalition of 10 international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Front Line, to a leading defender of human rights who is currently in danger. Again Baghi was denied permission to attend the award ceremony by the government of Iran.^[10][11]
• Amnesty International has named him a prisoner of conscience.^[12]

Works

Among Baghi's published books are The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran and Clerics and Power. One of Baghi's more notable books is The Right to Life, in which he argues that there is no such absolute requirement for the death penalty within Sharia or the Qur'anic verses. Baghi has been interrogated and imprisoned several times for articles he wrote making the arguments collected in this book. The book has been banned in Iran, but has been translated into Arabic.^[13]

References and notes

External links

• emadbaghi.com
• Hope for Democracy in Iran by Emadeddin Baghi Washington Post, October 25, 2004

Civil Courage Prize laureates Annual winners Nataša Kandić (2000) · Paul Kamara (2001) · Shahnaz Bukhari (2002) · Vladimiro Roca Antúnez (2003) · Emadeddin Baghi; Lovemore Madhuku (2004) · Min Ko Naing; Anna Politkovskaya (2005) · Rafael Marques de Morais (2006) · Phillip Buck (2007) · Ali Salem (2008) · Aminatou Haidar (2009) · Andrew White (2010) · Lydia Cacho Ribeiro; Triveni Acharya (2011) Posthumous awards Munir Said Thalib · Abdul al-Latif al-Mayah · Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Giovanni Falcone · Rosemary Nelson · Neelan Tiruchelvam · Raoul Wallenberg

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Name	Baghi, Emadeddin
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