VZCZCXRO4667
PP RUEHBC RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHDE #2757/01 1351406
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P R 151406Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL DUBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0476
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI 3433
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBAI 002757 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  5/15/2026 
TAGS: PREL PGOV IR PHUM
SUBJECT: IRANIAN STUDENT ACTIVIST CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON 
IRAN'S HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
DUBAI 00002757  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Jason L Davis, Consul General, Dubai, UAE. 
REASON: 1.4 (d) 
1.(S) Summary:  Amir Abbas Fakhravar (please protect), an 
Iranian student activist and political prisoner on the run since 
he skipped out while on prison leave June 2005, discussed with 
PolEconChief his views for helping the human rights situation in 
Iran.  End summary 
 
2.(S) Amir Abbas Fakhravar (please protect), an Iranian student 
activist and former political prisoner, met with PolEconChief 
Dubai May 8 and 9 while applying for a US visa.  His views on 
the political situation in Iran are reported septel. 
 
View of International Role on Human Rights 
------------------------------------------ 
 
3.(S) Fakhravar is an advocate of sustained international 
spotlighting of human rights cases in Iran, and says he 
personally experienced the benefits of the international 
pressure while in prison.  For instance, when the human rights 
organization PEN publicized his case, he suddenly got better 
treatment.  He said the only reason he and others get temporary 
leave from prison is because of the international pressure on 
Iran.  He added that when the US in particular raises a case, it 
helps the prisoner very much.  Despite the Iranian government's 
bluster, he maintains, Iran is frightened of the US. 
 
4.(S) When asked about the recent arrest in Iran of Ramin 
Jahanbegloo, Fakhravar focused on his objection to the purported 
wishes of Jahanbegloo's family to keep his arrest low profile. 
In his opinion, a prisoner's family should not direct how vocal 
foreign governments are about a case, because, he says, it is 
not a "private" matter.  For instance, he said Akbar Ganji, who 
he calls a friend, was on a hunger strike until his last day in 
prison, down to 46 kilos or half his weight when he entered 
prison.  He told his wife to announce to the world he was 
continuing his hunger strike, but members of the reformist 
Mosharekat party convinced her not to.  After Ganji left prison, 
he was very upset with her, and told her his case was a national 
matter, not a personal one.  Regarding his own case, Fakhravar 
said he had wanted the world to know about his situation, and 
his family was wrong to oppose this. 
 
Experience in Prison 
-------------------- 
 
5.(S) Fakhravar says he has been arrested 18 times, and was once 
beaten in court so badly that his knee sustained permanent 
damage.  He spent 222 days in solitary confinement at one 
stretch, as well as other shorter stints.  He said he reached 
the point of preferring abuse to complete isolation and said he 
was really in "bad shape" when he was released, not wanting even 
his family close by. 
 
6.(S) When UN Special Rapporteur Ambeyi Ligabo visited his 
prison (Evin Prison), the prison officials sent him, along with 
jailed human rights lawyer Nasser Zarafshan - both considered 
"outspoken" - to court for a "hearing," despite the fact their 
sentences had already been passed.  After a few hours with no 
hearing, they were returned to prison, where they heard the UN 
team had come and gone.  On the other hand, Fakhravar said he 
was able to bribe a guard to let him smuggle a cell phone into 
prison, which allowed him to maintain outside contacts. 
 
7.(S) Fakhravar said he left prison in June 2005 on a five day 
leave to take exams and did not go back.  For the past 10 
months, friends helped him, hid him in cellars, and then - a few 
days ago - bribed airport officials not to enter his name into 
computers, which enabled him to leave the country.  His cousin 
had posted a deed to property as bail; there is now an arrest 
warrant out against the cousin.  After Fakhravar absconded, his 
sister was told there was a "shoot to kill" order against him. 
He said his sister's husband, Mehrdad Heidar Pour, is also a 
political prisoner in Evin prison, and has a few months left of 
his three year sentence.  Heidar Pour and his wife were arrested 
in 2003 for helping organize the 2003 student demonstrations. 
His sister was given two years probation instead of prison 
because she was nursing a baby at the time. 
 
Other Political Prisoners 
------------------------- 
 
8.(S) Asked for updates of other political prisoners, Fakhravar 
gave the following information (see the 2005 Iran human rights 
reports for details of their cases): 
 
- Akbar Ganji - Fakhravar said that since his release, his 
network is trying to get him out of the country. 
 
- Naser Zarafshan - recently got a two month leave. 
 
 
DUBAI 00002757  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
- Siamak Pourzand - on medical leave, under house arrest. 
Fakhravar said he had seen him two weeks earlier, he is very 
sick, and doubts he would not survive a return to prison. 
 
- Mojtab Saminejad and Massoud Bastani - in prison in Arak. 
 
- Abbas Amir-Entezam - on medical leave for two years. 
 
- Abbas Deldar and Mehrdad Lohrasbi - in prison, arrested in the 
1999 student demonstrations.  Were picked up in random arrests, 
were street vendors, not students.  Lohrasbi is very sick, 
suffering from mental problems and obesity. 
 
- Manuchehr and Akbar Mohammadi - Manuchehr was recently 
returned to prison; Akbar is on leave. 
 
- Ahmad Batebi - death sentence recently upheld, "to scare 
others," said Fakhravar.  (Death sentence commuted to 15 years, 
according to press reports.) 
 
- Amir Heshmat Saran - in prison. 
 
- Hussein Qazian - on leave. 
 
- Arjang Davoudi - in prison in Bandar Abbas, sentenced to 15 
years.  One of the founders of the student movement.  With 
Fakhravar, founded Jonbesh-e Azadi-ye Iranian (JAI or Iranian 
Movement of Liberation) in 2002.  Has partial loss of sight and 
hearing because of torture.  Is held with dangerous prisoners. 
 
- Peyman Piran - freed April 10. 
 
- Bina Darabzand - in Evin prison. 
 
- Abdol Fattah Soltani - recently released on a very expensive 
bail. 
 
- Arash Sigarchi - now on leave, but supposed to go back to 
prison. 
 
- Heshmatollah Tabarzadi - original sentence of 14 years was 
recently reduced to nine years, of which he has served six. 
 
9.(S) Regarding the 2006 case of a young woman, Elham Afrotan 
and other journalists from the provincial weekly "Tamadone 
Hormozgan," arrested January 29 for insulting the supreme 
leader, Fakhravar said Afrotan was sentenced to two years in 
Evin prison.  He said press reports that initially said she died 
in detention were incorrect; she may have attempted suicide. 
Another journalist from the publication, Mohsen Dorostkar, was 
also sentenced.  Fakhravar noted there is no special ward for 
female political prisoners.  They are held with regular female 
prisoners, something he called "culturally very difficult." 
 
10.(S) Fakhravar volunteered to continue to provide updates on 
Iranian human rights cases. 
DAVIS