SCHOLARS AT RISK N E T W O R K
His Excellency Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President, Islamic Republic of Iran The Presidency Palestine Avenue Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
His Excellency Gholam-Hossein Elham Ministry of Justice Park-e Shahr Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
July 24, 2009
Re: Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh
Your Excellencies:
I am writing on behalf of the Scholars at Risk Network to express grave concern over reports that Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, a respected international scholar and researcher, has been wrongfully detained and is being held incommunicado in an undisclosed location.
Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of universities and colleges dedicated to promoting academic freedom and its constituent freedoms of thought, opinion, expression, association and travel. Through our network, SAR arranges temporary academic positions for threatened scholars where they can continue their work in safety. In especially serious cases, we intervene on behalf of detained scholars like Dr. Tajbakhsh.
We understand that Dr. Tajbakhsh was arrested at his home in Tehran on the evening of July 9, 2009. We further understand that the agents who took him into custody provided no legal justification for his arrest and removed him to an undisclosed location, in apparent breach of guarantees outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is signatory. Dr. Tajbakhsh was later charged with trying to create post-election turmoil, charges his family strongly denies.
Dr. Tajbakhsh’s arrest raises grave concerns for his well-being. The suddenness of his arrest and the lack of any clear basis for his detention raise grave concerns about the ability of internationally recognized scholars and intellectuals to safely visit Iran. Taking into account his wrongful arrest under similar circumstances in 2007 and the recent arrests of academics throughout Iran following the June 12th election, this event suggests a wider attempt to intimidate intellectuals and to limit academic freedom in Iran—a suggestion we find particularly distressing and unfortunate, given Iran’s rich intellectual history and traditional support for the values of scholarship and free inquiry. We find this even more distressing given the current tensions in the
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region and the world, which appear to warrant more rather than fewer exchanges and discussions among scholars inside and outside of Iran.
We therefore join with the many national and international academic associations, scholarly societies, human rights organizations and individual scholars in imploring you to examine the circumstances of Dr. Tajbakhsh’s arrest and detention, as well as any other scholars currently detained. We urge you to work for their immediate release, and in the interim to ensure that they have immediate access to legal counsel, to family and to any necessary medical treatment.
We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Robert Quinn Executive Director
CC:
H.E. Mr. Mohammad Khazaee, Ambassador of Iran to the United Nations Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations 622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10017, USA
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520, USA
President Bob Kerry The New School 66 West 12th Street, Room 800 New York, NY 10011, USA
John Akker Executive Director Network for Education and Academic Rights London South Bank University 90 London Road SE1 9LN London, UK