Watchdog

Imprisoned Iranian lawyer Mustafa Nili says he will not attend his Islamic Revolutionary Court hearing to protest against the widespread violation of the rights of those detained in the recent unrest.

Nili was arrested on November 7 while he was at the airport on his way to pursue legal affairs related to the protests in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan. He was taken to Evin prison and subsequently Iran's judiciary announced that a previous four-year prison sentence of his would be implemented.

In a short note from prison, Nili said that Iranians have the right to a fair trial and that "the day of accountability for the leaders and perpetrators of constitutional rights violations is near."

Nili is one of more than 40 lawyers -- including Nazanin Salari, Bahar Sahraian, Mahmoud Taravatroy, and Amin Adel Ahmadian -- who have been arrested after representing people detained during nationwide protests sparked by the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.

Anger over the death of Amini has prompted thousands of Iranians to take to the streets to demand more freedoms and women's rights in the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

More than 500 people have been killed in the crackdown, according to rights groups. Several thousand more have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said on January 10 that at least 44 lawyers have been arrested since September to block their ability to seek justice for arbitrarily arrested activists and protesters. Eighteen remain in detention, and the rest have been released on bail but potentially will still face charges, the CHRI said in a news release.

Meanwhile, detainees continue to be forced to use lawyers from a list approved by Iran's judiciary chief. The lawyers on the list are court-approved and have either collaborated with the state security establishment or do not have the resources to defend their clients, CHRI said.

“Due process in line with internationally recognized standards hasn’t existed in the Islamic republic for decades,” Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the CHRI, said. “Yet there are still lawyers in the country who try to squeeze out any form of defense they can for their clients, or advocate for them publicly, which is why the Islamic republic is jailing them.”

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty opened its new office in the Lithuanian capital on January 10 in what the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster called its "latest step in a comprehensive strategy to counter pervasive Russian disinformation and reach new audiences with trusted, independent news and information."

The Vilnius facilities are slated to host journalists exiled from neighboring Belarus since Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime raided and sealed off RFE/RL's Minsk bureau in mid-2021, nearly a year after a flawed presidential election that the beleaguered opposition said was rigged sparked unprecedented street protests.

Lukashenka then designated RFE/RL as an "extremist organization," effectively criminalizing both its reporting and the following of its news coverage.

The broadcaster noted in its statement on the launch of the Vilnius office that two of its journalists, Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk, "remain unjustly imprisoned by the Lukashenka regime."

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, Lithuanian parliamentary speaker Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and the U.S. Ambassador Robert Gilchrist were expected to join RFE/RL President Jamie Fly at an event to mark the opening.

In a statement, Fly thanked Nauseda and Lithuania's government for their "steadfast support of RFE/RL’s mission."

"Our new Vilnius office is a testament to RFE/RL's decades-long partnership with the Lithuanian people," Fly said. "It will allow us to provide our audiences in Belarus with accurate and truthful news. I am immensely proud of our journalists who have sacrificed so much to carry out this mission and who have now found a safe haven in Lithuania.”

The Vilnius office will also house staff of Current Time, a 24-hour Russian-language video platform to counter "Kremlin and other state propaganda," the company said.