2014 Iran: Marzieh Rasouli
Oslo July 19, 2014
Leader of The Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street — End of Shahid
Keshvar Doust Street,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
Head of the Judiciary
The Islamic Republic of Iran
Ayatollah Sadeqh Larijani
c/o Public Relations Office
Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
His Excellency
Hassan Rouhani
Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: media@rouhani.ir
Your Excellencies,
I hereby write to you to express my serious concerns for the safety and health of journalist and blogger Ms. Marzieh Rasouli.
In 1979, during the Iranian revolution, His Excellency Ayatollah Khomenei, made a pledge to protect freedom of expression and the press which he titled «Our Society Will Be a Free Society. This right is what Ms. Rasouli has been exercising – her right to freedom of expression, in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party and signatory!
Ms. Rasouli’s sentence of two years in prison and 50 lashes must therefore be overturned immediately as it violates the absolute prohibition in international law against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
As a member of PEN international I protest and call for Ms. Rasouli’s immediate and unconditional release, and that of all writers currently detained in Iran solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression.
Sincerely,
Gitte Mose
Member of Danish and Norwegian PEN and its Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC)
Norwegian PEN
Wergelandsveien 29
N-0167 Oslo
Norway
