Iranian police shut down the office of a human rights group headed by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Sunday, the deputy head of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, Narges Mohammadi, told Agence France-Presse.
”They have sealed off the office and are telling us to leave the premises without resistance,” Mohammadi said. ”Mrs Ebadi is there too. We have no choice but to leave.”
She said dozens of policemen had gathered in front of the group’s office in north-west Tehran and that the officials had not ”shown a judicial warrant but only provided the number of a warrant”.
She said policemen in uniform and plain clothes had raided the office and made an inventory of its contents.
The group had been scheduled to hold a belated celebration of the 60th anniversary of Human Rights Day on December 10.
On the anniversary, Ebadi delivered a speech in Geneva calling for NGOs to be given a greater role in the UN’s Human Rights Council and other bodies.
Founded by five prominent lawyers and headed by 2003 Nobel winner Ebadi, the group is a vocal critic of the human rights situation in Iran and has defended scores of prisoners of conscience, including political and student activists.
The group holds frequent meetings on what it sees as human rights violations in the Islamic republic.
In one recent meeting, it renewed calls on Iran to stop executing people convicted of offences committed as minors.
In a November gathering, Ebadi criticised Iran’s new Islamic penal code, saying it remained unfair to women and used an ”incorrect” interpretation of Islam. — AFP
