Anyone wanting to add their signature to the letter below should email Dr Victoria Tahmasbi at York University (Canada): tahmaseb[at]yorku[dot]ca. Please include an affiliation. The cut-off date for the letter is today (May 16) at midnight.
Open Letter to President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
CC: Chief Justice, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Mr. President,We the undersigned write to appeal for the immediate and unconditional release of the prominent Iranian scholar and public intellectual, Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo. It has been close to three weeks that Dr. Jahanbegloo has been arrested without a proper court order, official charges, legal representation, and the right of visitation for his family. On Saturday, 6 May 2006, Minister of Intelligence, Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, confirmed his arrest and implied that Dr. Jahanbegloo is being held for "having contacts with foreigners." However, as of now, no official charges have been announced and many inside Iran and throughout the world who are familiar with Dr. Jahanbegloo's writing are surprised as to why such an internationally prominent scholar is being held without due process.
The arbitrary arrest and detention of Dr. Jahanbegloo are in clear violation both of the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the country's obligations under international human rights law. As you are well aware, Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the detainment of a scholar for his global outreach is in violation of that covenant as well as all other international conventions.
Mr. President, Dr. Jahanbegloo is a distinguished scholar, philosopher and humanist who is committed to the principle of non-violence, cares deeply about the fate of his fellow Iranians and has worked tirelessly to build bridges of understanding between Iran and the world. As the Director of the Cultural Research Bureau in Tehran and a leading global thinker, he has brought the richness and complexity of Iranian civilization to hundreds of thousands of his readers, students, and colleagues around the world. As a result, Dr. Jahanbegloo has won admirers around the world, from Italy to India to Indonesia, many of whom also share our deep concern with his fate. He is an outstanding cultural ambassador for the Iranian people and should be celebrated for his enduring devotion to scholarship and dialogue across civilizations rather than being imprisoned. Dr. Jahanbegloo's arrest has already sent shockwave[s] across the international academic communities and has become a source of serious concerns for scholars traveling to and out of Iran.
We believe that the unlawful and inhuman detention of Dr. Jahanbegloo demands your intervention for his immediate and unconditional release.
Respectfully,