International Campaign to Prevent the Execution of Mr. Saman Nasim

Paris, Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Ref: 540-LN-1303

His Excellency Ban-Ki Moon

Secretary General of United Nations

The United Nations

New York, NY 10017

Re: International Campaign to Prevent the Execution of Mr. Saman Nasim

Your Excellency,

It is with a great sense of urgency that I appeal to the international community to prevent the execution of Mr. Saman Nasim and other prisoners of conscience in Iran, and to facilitate their immediate release. My compatriots and I are extremely concerned about the continuing wave of executions and the declining health conditions of several prisoners of conscience. We are worried that these innocent men and women will not escape execution without outcry from the free world.

Mr. Saman Nasim, a prominent political prisoner, was arrested five years ago at the age of 17, and accused of ‘waging war against God’ and ‘corruption on earth’. According to his family, Mr. Nasim could be executed on February 19th, 2015. Amnesty International and various news outlets report that Iranian government authorities have prevented his lawyer to follow up the case and denied other lawyers the right to take his case. Mr. Nasim has been deprived of his basic rights of due judicial process without access to his lawyer and legal advice. Consequently, he was sentenced to death in the city of Mahabad and could be executed unless the international community demands a stay of his execution, a judicial review, and his ultimate release from prison.

Iranians at large hold the theocratic regime responsible for the disregard and contempt of human rights, as the Islamic Republic of Iran is ranked first in the world for executions per capita. We are highly concerned about the disregard of freedom of speech, expression and belief that are often accompanied by excessive punishments. Whereas Iranians recognize the dignity and inalienable rights of individuals, the Iran National Council seeks, with the ultimate goal of restoring self-determination and a secular parliamentary democracy, the freedom of all prisoners of conscience, and the abolishment of capital punishment and torture.

We particularly expect the United Nations and the international community to weigh in on these crucial matters, and we urge your excellency to remind all concerned about their duty in upholding the most cherished values of the free world as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Yours sincerely,