Swedish Government to Deport Another Iranian Activist to Torture & Probable Execution in Iran: Ahwazi Activist Ali Mansouri

The Swedish government continues with its utterly inhumane politics of deporting Iranian political asylum-seekers at clear danger of further torture and possible execution in Iran. We have only just learned of Ali’s case: on Friday, he was lured to the Swedish police station with promises of discussing his asylum case and assurances that he would not be detained or deported. Ali went to the police station innocently, only to be detained and informed that he would be deported to Iran within a matter of days. This is Ali’s story. We will follow with additional information and calls for action. Ali’s case is urgent and we will have to do all we can to stop is deportation given so little time in which to act.

Ali Mansouri was born in Ahwaz, Khuzistan.

Khuzistan is home to Arab Iranians who have lived in this beautiful, rich and fertile area for several thousand years. There are around 10 million Arab Iranians. Iranian Arabs were the first ethnic group to pay the price for demanding human rights under the Islamic Republic. Only weeks into the Islamic Republic nightmare that began in 1979, Iranian Arabs, who had found a window of opportunity to organize themselves and ask for their basic human rights after centuries of discrimination and neglect, were massacred by the thugs of Ayatollah Khomeini. These crimes were in such large proportion that in a just world, they would constitute crimes against humanity during the Iran–Iraq war. Atrocities and organized crimes against Arabs of Khuzistan continue in all shapes and forms to this day. [1]

Ali was born on 2 February 1983 in Ahwaz. He is a member and an activist of an organization called the Republic of the Arab Nation of Ahwaz. He was among those who rioted in the impoverished Arab shantytowns. Ali was arrested at the end of the summer of 2005 by the plainclothes agents of the-President Khatami’s Ministry of Intelligence. His computer and scanner, which he used to print and disseminate flyers and anti-Islamic regime literature were discovered and confiscated. [2] Ali was then detained and brutally beaten and tortured for 2½ months. He was then released on bail pending a court process. Ali’s lawyer later explained to him that according to the indictment, he is accused of disrupting in the system, propagating against the public opinion, and acting against the national security.

Ali decided not to face “charges” in an Islamic court according to a barbaric judicial system with an almost certain death sentence awaiting him. Instead, Ali escaped the Islamic regime and 4 years ago sought asylum in Sweden to preserve his own life.

Ali has delivered to the Swedish Migration Office evidence of his pending court case in Iran, where he is to be tried on the above-mentioned political charges. We will publish this document on Monday.

Ali should not be returned forcibly to Iran on many accounts, and we will point these out later. But one element in his case that is of a decisive character is the situation of Ahwazi movement and the atrocities committed against Iranian Arabs by the Islamic regime on a daily basis in Iran. Such atrocities spread outside the geographical boundaries of Iran and into the jails and camps controlled by Islamic regime and its proxies, like the notorious Islamic terrorist organization the Mahdi Army in Iraq. The sensitivities raised by the political situation in the region as result of the Arab Spring and the uprisings in Bahrain, Yemen, and elsewhere intensify the risk to Ali’s life should he be returned to Iran.

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References:

[1]-According to: Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO) reporting via the Amnesty International blog on 8 May 2011:
Following recent peaceful demonstration in Ahwaz, the death toll has risen to more than 60 people, with 9 young men executed in city of Ahwaz and 2 killed under torture by the Iranian intelligence service. Sources inside al-Ahwaz report the names of those killed by execution and torture as follows:

Jafar Salami – killed under torture
Karim Abeiat – killed under torture
Ali Heidari, age 25
Jasem Heidari, age 23
Naser Heidari, age 21 (these three Heidaris are brothers)
Amir Mavi
Ali Name
Amir Badawi
Hashem Hamidi, age 16 (executed by hanging; he was decapitated in the process)
Ahmad Naseri
(link: http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=7709)

[2]- A rebellion started in Arab townships after a leak to the press of plans of former regime president Khatami’s plans for anti-Arab ethnic displacement – intended to eliminate elements that could create future complications in a region that holds 15 percent of the Earth’s known oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserve in the world. These rebellions were brutally suppressed by Khatami’s security forces. Activists were executed, murdered, jailed and their families intimidated by the Islamic thugs.