Free Iranian Student Activist Roham Barkachizadeh, Sentenced To 7.5 Years For Participation in 2009 Protests
- Target:
- UN, Ban ki-Moon, OHCHR, Navi Pillay, Ahmed Shaheed, State Department, EU, European Parliament
- Region:
- Iran
- Website:
- bcrgroup.us
Roham Barkachizadeh, an atomic student of Shaheed Beheshti University, was arrested by Intelligence Service officials when he had passing pre-university course in 2011.
Authorities allegedly seized Roham’s personal belongings during the raid and investigation at his grandfather house. He has been at Ward 209 of Evin prison since his detention.
It should be noted that Roham had been freed on the bail for a while, and he has returned back to the prison to serve his seven year, six month prison sentence. He as arrested because of participating in the mass protests during the unrest of the presidential election in the summer of 2009.
Roham was sentenced to seven years and six months on the charge of collusion against national security, propaganda against the regime of Iran and insulting to the Supreme Leader and previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, through the demonstration in Revolutionary Court which chaired by Judge Salavati on 2012
“It is obviously in violation of the Children’s rights Convention for Islamic Republic of Iran to convict Roham in the Revolutionary Court” as Human Rights activists have acknowledged in the exclusive report of Exiles Activists website by Vandad Olad Azimi.
The article 37 of the Child Rights Convention says that No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age, and also notes that no child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.
Iran has joined to the convention of children rights since 1969. All teenagers who are committed a crime when they are under 18-years-old as Roham should be tried in juvenile court according to the article 220 of the Public and Revolutionary Courts Procedure Code of Iran and commitment to the Children’s Rights Convention.
From a translation by Kaveh Taheri, BCR Group
WHEREAS: Roham Barkachizadeh has been imprisoned solely for peacefully protesting the fraudulent 2009 Presidential Elections in Iran and is a prisoner of conscience;
AND WHEREAS: His imprisonment is therefore ILLEGAL under Articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory, as well as Article 25 of the Iranian Consitution;
AND WHEREAS: He was tried for activism which took place while he was a minor, and therefore his trial and sentencing are also ILLEGAL under Article 37 of the Child Rights Convention, to which Iran is also a signatory;
THEREFORE: We, the undersigned, demand that the international community bring all possible pressure to bear upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to honor its binding human rights and children's rights obligations by IMMEDIATELY and UNCONDITIONALLY releasing Roham Barkachizadeh from prison, reversing his ILLEGAL sentence and dropping all equally ILLEGAL charges against him.
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The Free Iranian Student Activist Roham Barkachizadeh, Sentenced To 7.5 Years For Participation in 2009 Protests petition to UN, Ban ki-Moon, OHCHR, Navi Pillay, Ahmed Shaheed, State Department, EU, European Parliament was written by John S. Burke and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.