Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend D.Khatinoglu / Moral pressure is being put on the arrested national Azerbaijani activists in Iran, said the Iranian law observer, Alirza Javanbekht , who is working in Turkey.
According to the information provided by the Committee for Protection of the Rights of Political Prisoners, the family of the arrested national activist of South Azerbaijan, Abdulla Abbasi, paid more than $80,000 to the court as security to free Abbasi, but the activist has not been released yet. The punishment of other national activist, Abbas Lisani, who was sentenced to 50 blows of lash, was postponed up to new year.
Many national activists in Iran incur physical tortures, the Secretary General of the Committee, Javanbekht, reported to Trend during conversation from Ankara on 25 December. "50 blows of lash to Lisani in new year is the small part of the pressure put on him and his family," Javanbekht said.
Since 2006 Lisani has been detained in prison in Iran's city of Ardebil, with accusations of breaking national security. In addition, Lisani's former lawyer Saleh Kamrani was arrested. Amnesty International stated in its final report that the lawyer was arrested for protecting national activists. The Amnesty International condemned the pressure on the national activists in Iran. Lisani's spouse reported to Trend by telephone from Iran that the punishment to Abbas is of inhuman character. "Abbas has been detained in prison since 2006 for his national-cultural activities and will stay there for one more year. Official Tehran repeatedly tried to prolong the period of his arrest. Lisani was sentenced to the fine, punishment with lash and currently efforts are being made to prolong the period of his arrest with new accusations," she said.
According to unofficial information, 35mln Azerbaijanis reside in Iran.