2008: Iran: Emadeddin Baqi
Oslo, 16 January 2008
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei,
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir or istiftaa@wilayah.org
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Minister of Intelligence
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence,
Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Your Excellencies
I, as Chair of The Writers in Prison Committee of Norwegian PEN, am deeply concerned about reports that leading journalist and human rights defender Emadeddin Baqi suffered a heart attack in prison on 26 December 2007. He was reportedly briefly hospitalised for emergency treatment, but then returned to prison, where he is said to be held incommunicado and in solitary confinement in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison.
Norwegian PEN considers journalist Emadeddin Baqi to be detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to free expression, and calls on the Iranian authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a signatory.
Norwegian PEN seeks assurances of Baqi’s health, and guarantees that he is being given access to his family, lawyers and all necessary medical care as a matter of urgency.
Confident that you, Your Excellency, will take action accordingly, I am,
Yours sincerely
Elisabet W. Middelthon
Chair Writers in Prison Committee, Norwegian PEN
Copy of all appeals to: The President, His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: Via Foreign Ministry: +98 21 6 674 790 (mark: «Please forward to H.E. President Ahmadinejad») – Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir via website: www.president.ir/email
Copies to:
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo,
The Norwegian Embassy in Tehran
The Iranian Embassy, Oslo
