Vol. 74/No. 27      July 19, 2010

The government presented no evidence of Jalalian’s involvement in armed attacks at her trial in 2009. She had no lawyer present. But she was convicted of moharebeh (waging war), a charge under Iranian sharia law designated for armed actions against the state, but often used for broader antigovernment acts. The Iranian Supreme Court upheld Jalalian’s sentence last year.

Jalalian’s family last heard from her about a month ago, when she informed them by telephone that she was in Evin Prison in Tehran. Authorities have provided no information to the family since, and attorneys have been unable to see her.

In late June Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent professor and wife of bourgeois opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, issued an appeal for Jalalian.

In a statement to the opposition Web site Jaras, Rahnavard asked, “What was her crime? Was it because last year she put pen to paper, created posters and carried them around with her? … Is it not better for everyone, particularly women and our youth, to be provided with new opportunities enabling them to once again take their legitimate place in society and the political spectrum?”

Seven Kurds have been among those executed in Iran in the last year, according to the New York Times. Another 15 are currently on death row. The widening use of the death penalty against political activists is viewed in Iran as an attempt to intimidate those who challenged last year’s presidential election and call for freedom of speech and association, release of political prisoners, and more rights for women.

In May the government executed four Kurdish activists, sparking strikes in Iranian Kurdistan.  
 
 
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