Ayatollah Boroujerdi

(5 September 2008)  Iranian authorities should immediately release Ayatollah Kazemini Boroujerdi to receive urgently needed medical care, theInternational Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. According to Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s physician, his condition has considerably deteriorated in prison and requires specialist care.

On 2 September 2008, Human Rights Activists in Iran released a letter by Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s physician, Dr. Hesam Firoozi, addressed to the head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi. Dr. Firoozi reports that Ayatollah Boroujerdi is suffering from multiple health complications, including: heart and respiratory problems, kidney stone complications, as well as loss of 80 percent of his vision due to cataracts. Dr. Firoozi also reports that Ayatollah Boroujerdi has lost as much as 80 pounds during his imprisonment.“As an independent physician, with no political leanings and agenda, and as my sacred duties as a physician devoted to the goal of saving the lives of humans, I urge your Excellency to order his transfer to a specialist medical facility outside the prison, to save his life,” Dr. Firoozi wrote to the head of the Judiciary.

The Campaign holds the Iranian Judiciary fully responsible for the health and well-being of Ayatollah Boroujerdi. Ayatollah Boroujerdi is prosecuted by the Special Court for the Clergy because of his advocacy for separation of religion and politics.

Security forces raided Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s house in Tehran on 8 October 2006. In June 2007, the Special Court for the Clergy prosecuted him behind closed doors. The authorities have not provided any official accounting regarding his prosecution and sentencing. According to his associates, he was initially sentenced to death, but upon appeals his sentence was reduced to 11 years in prison, 10 of which must be served in exile in the city of Yazd.

He has been deprived of access to an independent attorney throughout his prosecution and imprisonment. TheCampaign considers him a prisoner of conscience and urges the Iranian Judiciary to immediately release him and end his persecution and prosecution.