Shahrzad
Mir Gholikhan (left): Was she an innocent bystander
to
her husband's attempts to break the arms embargo against
Iran
- or an active and willing participant?
Fars News Agency, Islamic
Republic of Iran
Americans Hold Innocent
Iranian Woman, Endangering Her Life
Is the
United States holding an innocent Iranian woman, caught up in her ex-husband's
attempt to illegally traffic weapons to Iran - or was she a willing accomplice?
According to this 'news' item from Iran's state-run Fars News Agency, not
only is the United States breaking international law by holding her - it is
detaining her under conditions that threaten her health and deny her the right
to visit with her family.
Happier days?: Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan with alleged ex-husband, Mahmoud Seif: Where she and Iranian agent operating under cover, or innocemtly caught up in her husbands business dealings?
TEHRAN: On Saturday, the
Iranian Society of Human Rights Defendants [ISHRD] announced plans to file suit
on behalf of Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan, an innocent Iranian woman held in U.S. prison
for three years.
The head of the executive
committee of the ISHRD, Sajjad Salami said, "The society has a committee
of attorneys which pursues Mir-Qolikhan's case, and in her defense, we plan to
file lawsuits with the Iranian judiciary and competent foreign bodies."
He described Mir-Qolikhan's
status as "hazardous and wretched," and stressed that Shahrzad's case
is one of the more obvious instances of America's double-standard when it comes
to how it treats nationals from other nations.
"Today we see that Mrs.
Mir-Qolikhan is being deprived of her most basic and legitimate rights. The
refusal to allow here to meet with her family has worsened her condition badly,"
Salami lamented.
Earlier this week, Shahrzad
was transferred to another prison, after more than a month of solitary
confinement, which further aggravated her condition.
Director of the Shahrzad-Freedom
Campaign, Vahid Khodabandeh, said on Monday that "Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan
has been sent to a place she calls a 'holding' center."
According to Khodabandeh, after-a-month-and-a-half
of trying, Shahrzad managed to phone her family in Iran, telling them that because
of danger and horrible conditions at the prison, she was in solitary
confinement at her own request during the previous month.
Shahrzad was detained by U.S.
authorities in December 2007. Her former husband, Mahmoud Seif, allegedly tried
to export night-vision goggles to Iran from Austria. She was sentenced to five
years in prison in absentia by a U.S. federal court in Florida.
[Editor's Note: According
to Iran Watch, Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan's former husband,
Mahmoud Seif, was arrested in Vienna on November 30, 2004 and accused by Austrian
authorities of attempting to violate Austrian export control laws; Shahrzad Mir
Gholikhan, allegedly Seif's former wife, was also arrested in connection with
this attempted transaction, accused of assuming the identity of Farideh Fahimi,
an employee working for one of Mahmoud Seif's companies, and translating
Persian to English for Seif during the transaction. The transaction is said to have
included the illegal export of 3,000 helmet-mounted night vision systems from
the U.S. through a third country to Iran; the systems are classified as U.S.
Munitions List items and cannot be lawfully exported from the U.S. without the
appropriate export license from the U.S. State Department. Seif pled guilty in
Austria to one charge of trading defense articles without a license was penalized
with 28 days in prison and a fine, and returned to Iran, where U.S. authorities
think he remains at large; on February 25, 2005, the United States issued a
warrant for his arrest, charging him with conspiring to commit export violations].
In November, Melika and
Melina Mir-Qolikhan, the innocent woman's teenage twin daughters, along with
their grandmother Rowshan, appeared on the Iranian English language Press TV
channel and pled with President Obama to release their mother.
Earlier, Shahrzad's mother
unveiled new details about abuse, torture and cruel treatment of her daughter
by U.S. prison guards, and stressed that her daughter is being held illegally since
her U.S. retrial violated international and U.S. law.
In an interview with the Fars
News Agency, Belqeis Rowshan said that in 2005, her daughter was initially
sentenced to 52 days in prison by an Austrian court, and that her case was
closed after she served her term.
"Again and after a short
period, a U.S. court sentenced Shahrzad to five years in prison for the same crime,
while under international law, courts are not permitted to try a person twice
for the same crime," Rowshan stated.
"Therefore, American
handling of the case was wrong from the beginning - and they know it," she
stressed. "Therefore, Shahrzad's detention was and is illegal. My daughter
has now been in jail for three years for attempting to buy a single pair of
night-vision goggles," Rowshan explained.
She went on to underline Shahrzad's
mistreatment at the hands of U.S. prison guards, and said whenever her daughter
is allowed to contact the family, she complains about the physical and mental
torture being committed by her jailors.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Rowshan said in March that due
to bad healthcare and sanitary conditions at the prison, Shahrzad was suffering
from respiratory problems, and she expressed deep concern about the fate of her
daughter.
"Shahrzad, who is suffering
respiratory trouble due to a lack of hygiene and sanitation in the prison, was
transferred to the facility's clinic last night after her condition worsened."
The prison was built in 1938 and is in dire condition, she said, adding that
the mold on the walls and ceilings of the prison is responsible for her
daughter's respiratory problems.
Rowshan also complained indifference
by U.S. officials to her family's repeated demands to meet Shahrzad, even after
family members submitted their passports, related documents and visa
applications to U.S. authorities, reiterating that the family would spare no
effort to help Shahrzad in any possible way.
In September, Iran's former foreign
minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said that Tehran has prepared a list of Iranian
nationals imprisoned in the United States on false charges and that the Ministry
is closely pursuing the issue.
Speaking to reporters on the
sidelines of the 65th session of the U.N. General Assembly (2010), Mottaki said
that the issue of the Iranian captives would be a main topic of his discussions
with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
In addition to these cases, Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the U.S. had recently detained and held
eight Iranian nationals based on false allegations. In an interview with Russian
TV, President Ahmadinejad said that the Iranian captives were arrested in third
countries by U.S. agents based on "false accusations," and
transferred to U.S. jails.
"This is kidnapping and
doesn't belong as part of any legal system. These are people who had traveled
to other countries on official visas yet were arrested by the Americans,"
Ahmadinejad said at the time. "Americans have not observed international
law, should review their conduct and allow the detainees to return home."
