- Target:
- United Nations, European Parliament and International Organizations
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- www.facebook.com
Hadi Abedi Bakhoda is a political prisoner of the 1980s on charges of supporting the main Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). He was tortured and shot by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), when arrested.
His spinal cord was damaged in such a way that he now cannot walk and is in a wheelchair since the incident. The shooting also damaged other organs including his kidneys and his bladder that had failed totally. Since then, he suffers from debilitating physical complications as a result of his injuries. Abedi Bakhoda's wife and Mehri Javan Mahjub (a former prisoner) were arrested and sent to Lakan Prison. His brother, Hormoz, was executed by the Iranian regime on similar charges.
Branch One of the Revolutionary Court condemned Hadi Abedi-Bakhoda for two years imprisonment in 2009 (he then was transferred to the Lakan prison in Rasht in Nov 2009) even if he was not capable of imprisonment due because of his severe physical infirmities. The coroner's office, prison clinic and other health institutes confirmed this fact at the time and also demanded his release but the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Court have never paid attention to his conditions, therefore, he was transferred to prison.
Hadi Abedi-Bakhoda is sent to hospital only when his conditions become very critical, but ultimately because of his fragile health, they are forced to give him sick-leave.
According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, on Monday May 23, 2011, the Revolutionary Court of Rasht (Branch One) summoned Hadi Abedi-Bakhoda to notify him that the lash ruling against him would have been carried out despite his health conditions (his bladder was not functioning properly and he was suffering from a severe kidney disorder) and did not even consider the fact that he was in a wheelchair: he then received 51 lashes for the alleged crime of not reporting to the Lakan prison in Rasht on time when he was hospitalized during a sick-leave.
On Hadi Abedi Bakhoda's case, nor the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights nor the ones of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have been respected because they clearly state on their various points the right to physical-mental cares and the support of the state so to be able to live decently and in freedom, therefore we, the undersigned, demand the immediate release of this political prisoner: Hadi Abedi Bakhoda!
Please consider the following points:
- Art 2 (UDHR) Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion..
- Art 3 (UDHR) Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
- Art 5 (UDHR) No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
- Art 9 (UDHR) No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
- Art 10 (UDHR) Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal..
- Art 11/1 (UDHR) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
- Art 18 (UDHR) Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
- Art 19 (UDHR) Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
- Art 20/1 (UDHR) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
- Art 21/1 (UDHR) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
- Art 22 (UDHR) Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
- Art 25/1 (UDHR) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Part I Art 1/1 (ICESCR) All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status..
Part III Art 12/1 (ICESCR) The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
There is also The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. I remind you that parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law (United Nations General Assembly on 13 December 2006 and opened for signature on 30 March 2007). Please apply it to Hadi Abedi Bakhoda's case.
"Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too." - Frederick Buechner
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The Free Hadi Abedi Bakhoda, a very ill political prisoner! petition to United Nations, European Parliament and International Organizations was written by Jeanette LaRibelle and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.