The Critical Condition of Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi and the End of 11 Years of Sentencing

The 57 years old religious theoretician, Mr. Seyed Hussein Kazemeini Boroujerdi, has been undergoing the most severe physical and psychological tortures in solitary confinement and public cells of the Iranian prisons, and has been serving his sentence since October 8, 2006, until now, due to resistance for his pacifist believes and his stance on the separation of affairs of the state from religion.

As a result of enduring severe tortures, this prisoner of conscious is suffering with numerous acute and chronic diseases, and is experiencing irreparable physical damage to his body parts and organs; including heart and renal disease, respiratory issues, loss of more than 90% of vision in one eye, sever weight loss, lack of balance when walking, and according to the latest reports he has elevated cholesterol, and deformation and inflammation of legs, causing difficulty in walking. This is while Mr. Boroujerdi has been deprived of any kind of proper treatment and appropriate medications since a decade now, and has not been granted a leave of absence even for one minute. Currently, because of being deprived of the right to receive treatment, he is using pain killers in order to calm his pains, which actually do not have much effect on relieving his pains.

The most important instances of violation of human rights with regards to his case are as follows:

·      Creation of a new case and the oral submission to the special court of the clergy of a ruling for apostasy, in  April 12, 2015, by Mohammad Movahedi, the special prosecutor for the clergy, charging Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi with “heresy and religious interpretations contrary to those of the religious leaders”, because of his teachings and editing of a monotheistic encyclopedia (making the ruling of heresy issued against him to be baseless), and also due to the request formulated by the said prisoner in view of holding a live debate in the presence of international observers, which had also caused concerns and resulted in keeping him in the quarantine of the death row prisoners for a period of 44 days, starting from October 1, 2014, while his hands and feet were tied with chains, and he was deprived of making phone calls for seven months.

·      During these ten years of imprisonment, Mr. Boroujerdi has spent 440 days in solitary confinement. This is while based on the orders of Mr. Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, each day of confinement in a solitary cell should be considered as equivalent to a minimum of ten days in a public cell.

·      The rulings issued with regards to his case, have been in oral form from the beginning until now, and no official written ruling has been issued to him.

·      He has been deprived of the right to having an independent attorney- both in the previous case and in this new case - so that the said attorney may study the matter and respond in view of defending him.

·      Despite the fact that in February 2014, the doctors of the prison affirmed that Mr. Boroujerdi should be admitted in a hospital outside of the prison, yet the authorities of the regime, in view of prohibiting the treatment of this prisoner, are constantly refraining from providing him with medical attention and hospitalization in a suitable hospital outside of the prison, and until now no required medical treatment has been provided for Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi.

·      The authorities of the prison and the special court for the clergy have deliberately deprived this prisoner of conscious from having the right to receive proper medication and treatment, and have not given him even one hour of leave in view of receiving treatment, so that they may force him into writing a repentance letter. This is while it is considered the right of every human being in prison to be entitled to not only a general leave, but also at least a medical leave of absence in view of receiving treatment.

 We, as his lawyers and representatives, are asking the UN High Commissioner for Human rights in charge of Iranian affairs, as well as other international organizations, that in view of the liberation and saving the life of this enchained leader by political Islam, whose 11 years of sentencing ended at the end of 2015, to take immediate action, and not to allow the dictatorial regime to exercise further repression and impose isolation toward him. Needless to say that any negligence with regards to his position as a religious yet secular leader in the Middle East, when supporting him and the propagation of his peaceful ideologies can lead to the spread of secularism, and prevent the violent actions of extremist Islamic groups, will be considered as an injustice to history and humanity, and will shed a black stain on the calendar of the Middle East.