Jina Modaress Gorji denied access to a lawyer after one month of arbitrary detention
On 10 May 2023, the woman human rights defender Jina Modares Gorji announced she is still being denied access to a lawyer despite being transferred from solitary confinement to the pubic ward of the Sanandaj Correctional Centre. The woman human rights defender has been arbitrarily detained since her arrest on 10 April 2023.
Jina Modares Gorji is a woman human rights defender, book seller, and feminist podcaster and blogger in Sanandaj, in the Kurdistan province of Iran. Her human rights work includes advocating for women among the Kurdish community, girls’ rights, and socio-cultural rights via holding book clubs and writing blogs. She has been arrested twice since September 2022, in the context of a series of nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of the Iranian morality police, to break out under the motto of “Woman, Life, Freedom” against systematic discrimination exercised by the Iranian government.
On 10 May 2023, the woman human rights defender Jina Modares Gorji announced she is still being denied access to a lawyer despite being transferred from solitary confinement to the pubic ward of the Sanandaj Correctional Centre. The woman human rights defender has been arbitrarily detained since her arrest on 10 April 2023.
Jina Modares Gorji is a woman human rights defender, book seller, and feminist podcaster and blogger in Sanandaj, in the Kurdistan province of Iran. Her human rights work includes advocating for women among the Kurdish community, girls’ rights, and socio-cultural rights via holding book clubs and writing blogs. She has been arrested twice since September 2022, in the context of a series of nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of the Iranian morality police, to break out under the motto of “Woman, Life, Freedom” against systematic discrimination exercised by the Iranian government.
The woman human rights defender was arrested on 10 April 2023 and has been arbitrarily detained since, while being denied access to a lawyer. In mid-February 2023, she was informed “spreading disinformation” has been added to the previous charges of “gathering and collusion against the national security” via “formation of groups with the intention of subversion” of the Islamic State in Iran and “propaganda activities against the state”.
On 12 February 2023, the Jina Modares Gorji appeared before Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court together with her lawyer, where she did not sign the pardon scheme as she stated this would constitute an acknowledgement that the charges against her human rights work were legitimate. This scheme was announced by the Iranian judiciary in February 2023 on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
The woman human rights defender had previously been arrested on 21 September 2022, in the context of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, on charges of “gathering and collusion against the national security” and “propaganda activities against the state.” She was released on a bail of 10 billion IRR on 30 October 2022 after going on hunger strike for three days in protest against the physical assault and detention she had endured in Sanandaj Correctional Centre.
The prosecution of Jina Modares Gorji is part of a wide crackdown on human rights defenders in the context of the protests in Iran where, hundreds of human rights defenders have been arrested, charged and subjected to hefty prison sentences without adherence to due process or fair trials.
Front Line Defenders is particularly concerned by the breach of international human rights law in Iran’s treatment of human rights defenders in detention. It believes that the woman human rights defender Jina Modares Gorji, is being detained as a result of her legitimate and non-violent human rights work in Iran.
