Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi, Outspoken Religious Critic, in Grave Danger

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: (New York) – The Iranian authorities should ensure a prompt and thorough investigation into threats and attempted attacks against Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi’s life, and allow him to seek proper medical care outside prison, Human Rights Watch said today. Boroujerdi, a prominent 53-year-old Shia cleric who has criticized the religious system of government, suffers from several serious health conditions.

A source close to Boroujerdi and his family told Human Rights Watch that on November 22, 2011, a cellmate tried to kill Boroujerdi during an altercation. Boroujerdi’s family and followers have long complained of the dangerous and substandard conditions under which the cleric is held, including detention with violent cellmates convicted of drug trafficking and violent crimes.

Failed attempt on Mr. Boroujerdi’s life in Prison

According to reports, on 22 November, Tuesday morning (1 Azar 1390), authorities of Evin Prison in an inhumane action made an attempt on Mr. Boroujerdi’d life.

Witnesses said that authorities had made a prisoner to make an attempt on Mr. Boroujerdi’s life during a false fight. This prisoner was arrested for drug trafficking and was sentenced to death. The authorities had said to the prisoner that if he kills Mr. Boroujerdi he will be free and forgiven by leadership. But this attempt was failed because of co-operations of the prisoners.

Wall Street Movement support of Mr. Boroujerdi

Campaign99: Note - the idea is simple. We have decided to talk with 99 people engaged in Occupy Wall Street Movement around the world. We will listen to each person's narrative of why s/he has joined the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Then we will narrate the life story of an Iranian prisoner of conscience for that person. After this mutual exchange of stories, we will ask the person to send a message to and make a poster for that Iranian prisoner. While s/he is holding the poster, we take a picture. If you like the idea, share it with your friends. This is for global solidarity.

UN regulations mandate proper medical care for prisoners of conscience

Fidh: Several prisoners of conscience in Iran are in pressing need of proper medical treatment, which is not available inside the various prisons where they are held. However, the Iranian authorities are using their poor health conditions to exert more pressure on them, to coerce them to make false confessions or to issue new charges against them and prolong their detention.

Mr. Boroujerdi's letter to Hillary Clinton

Translated and edited by: Banafsheh Pourzand-Bonazzi

banzanbon@hushmail.com

  Esteemed U.S. Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton,

Please accept the greetings of this Iranian prisoner who is deprived of both legal representation and medical attention.

As you may very well know, the Islamic regime in Iran came to power based on lies and false promises by its founders, and with the passage of time, it lost its public footing, to the point where the international community realized that the people of Iran and the regime are in fact, divided. Those atop the regime of Supreme Leadership continue to either plunder or pillage the great wealth of this rich land, or expand their militaristic and autocratic ambitions.

The West Must Bear Witness to Iran's Prisoners

Linda Frum 

Senator, Ontario

huffington post: Last month in New York, in the shadow of the sham "human rights conference" known as Durban III, I had the honour of attending a counter-conference organized by the human rights organization UN Watch. At this conference, leading dissidents and human rights activists from Iran, Syria, Cuba, Burma, North Korea and China assembled to shine a light on the extreme human rights violations that the UN's corrupt "Human Rights Committee" would rather ignore.

UN human rights expert concerned over judicial abuses

UN News Centre: 19 October 2011 – The United Nations independent expert on the situation of human rights in Iran today voiced concern over alleged violations in the country’s judicial system, citing practices such as torture, cruel or degrading treatment of detainees, and the imposition of the death penalty without proper safeguards.

An appeal to Dr. ahmad Shaheed to support Mr. Boroujerdi

His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Shaheed

UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur on Iran

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 

Palais des Nations 

CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

19th October 2011

Your Excellency,

We are writing to you today to express our gratitude for your first report on Iran, which has highlighted the abysmal situation of human rights violations.   Notwithstanding we are astonished and confounded that it did not contain any reference to the case of Ayatollah Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi, who has been incarcerated since October 2006 in Evin and Yazd prisons—without one day of sick leave as has been customary with other prisoners and despite recommendations from the prison’s medical office.  Indeed at one point he spent 400 days in solitary confinement.

USCIRF Condemns Iran’s Continued Imprisonment of Dissident Cleric Despite Grave Health Concern

October 6, 2011 | by USCIRF

UnitedStates Commission on International Religious Freedom
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned the continued imprisonment of dissident Iranian Shi’a cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeni Boroujerdi, who, almost five years to the day of his arrest, reportedly suffered a heart attack a few days ago.

Iranian cleric jailed for dissident views 'has deteriorating health problems'

Kazemeyni Boroujerdi is suffering from worsening Parkinson's, diabetes and high blood pressure, according to Amnesty
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 October 2011 18.18 BST

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been urged to provide a written explanation for Boroujerdi's continued detention or set him free. Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters

An imprisoned Iranian cleric who fell foul of the authorities after advocating the separation of religion and state is in poor health condition, activists have warned.

Boroujerdi Suffers Heart Attack and Pulmonary Edema

HumanRights Activists News Agency: Tehran, 1st October 2011-- More than 5 years after Seyyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi was incarcerated for being a steadfast advocate of strict adherence to the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he has suffered a severe heart attack, which has led to a pulmonary edema.  Intelligence authorities have rejected all demands by Evin prison officials for him to be treated at a properly equipped medical facility.  

Rebel Ayatollahs

Upstream Journal Summer 2011 Vol. 24 No. 1

Michelle Booth:

Iran, which purports to represent ‘political Islam’, has become the role model for injustice and violence

Enemies of the Islamic Republic

Their action is in defense of their rights and against the injustice and oppression they suffer at the hands of that ruling system. Such an action is not only permissible but also, in some cases and stages, obligatory.

Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi is an Iranian political prisoner, jailed in Evin prison since 2006. An outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic, Boroujerdi is an advocate for democracy, human rights, religious freedoms and the separation of religion from politics. He is opposed to Vilayet - i Faqih, the system that rules Iran by clerical jurisprudence.