Emad Baghi
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Emadeddin Baghi (born 25 April 1962) is an Iranian Journalist, human rights activist, prisoners' rights advocate, investigative journalist, theologian and writer. He is the founder and head of the
Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, also translated as Defending the Rights of Prisoners, is an Iranian NGO dedicated to defending the rights of prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was founded by human rights activist Emadeddin ...
and the Society of Right to Life Guardians in Iran, and the author of twenty books, six of which have been banned in Iran. Baghi was imprisoned in connection with his writings on the
Chain Murders of Iran The chain murders of Iran ( fa, قتل‌های زنجیره‌ای ایران) were a series of 1988–98 murders and disappearances of certain Iranian dissident intellectuals who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system. The murders an ...
, which occurred in Autumn 1998, and imprisoned again in late 2007 for another year on charges of "acting against national security." According to his family and lawyers, Baghi has been summoned to court 23 times since his release in 2003. He has also had his passport confiscated, his newspaper closed, and suspended prison sentences passed against his wife and daughter. Baghi was rearrested on 28 December 2009 on charges related to an interview with Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri. Baghi was released and then again rearrested on 5 December 2010.


Early life

Baghi was born in 1962. In the years leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he began to participate as a political activist as an Islamic Reformist, under the mentorship of Ayatollah
Hussein-Ali Montazeri Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri ( fa, حسینعلی منتظری‎ ; 24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the lea ...
. After the revolution, he studied theology and sociology in Qom and
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, respectively. His journalism career started in 1983, and by the 1990s, Baghi was working as the chief editor of the reformist newspaper ''Faith''.


Journalism

Baghi and
Akbar Ganji Akbar Ganji ( fa, اکبر گنجی , born 31 January 1960 in Tehran) is an Iranian journalist, writer and a former member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He has been described as "Iran's preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly pop ...
are credited with uncovering the responsibility of Iranian security personnel for the Chain Murders, in which a number of dissident intellectuals were found murdered, apparently by a serial killer. Baghi and Ganji both argued that orders for the murders came from high in the Iranian government. Two newspapers at which Baghi worked were banned by the Iranian government: ''Faith'' in 2000, and ''Joumhouriat'' in 2003. His books on the Chain Murders were also banned. Baghi has also written extensively about the death penalty, of which he is an active opponent. The
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
and other international human rights groups have relied heavily his work, particularly on juveniles sentenced to death, for their own reports. Baghi estimates that more than 10,000 people have been executed in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.


Arrests

Emadeddin Baghi has been arrested several times by the government of Iran on charges described by international human rights organizations as politically motivated. In 2000, he was charged with "endangering national security" for his writings about the Chain Murders in the late 1990s. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment by Revolutionary Court on charges brought by the intelligence ministry and state television. His newspaper ''Faith'' was also banned and two of its editors also imprisoned. He served two years of that sentence, and one year was suspended. In 2003, Judge Babayee of Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court gave Baghi a one-year suspended term for "endangering national security" and "printing lies" in his book, ''The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran''. Baghi received another one-year prison sentence for "acting against national security" on 15 October 2007, when he was summoned by Tehran's revolutionary court on the charges of "propaganda against the Islamic Republic" and "divulging state secret information". The
Islamic Republic News Agency The Islamic Republic News Agency ( fa, خبرگزاری جمهوری اسلامی, ''Xebergâzari-ye Jimhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye''), or IRNA, is the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Founded on 13 November 1934 as Pars News Agency ...
quoted an official who stated, "Baghi was doing his activities against national security under the cover of defending prisoners' rights". Baghi's imprisonment was condemned by Iranian
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
laureate
Shirin Ebadi Shirin Ebadi ( fa, شيرين عبادى, Širin Ebādi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian political activist, lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was ...
and by the Paris-based
Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
.
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
designated him a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for his release. Baghi was among the numerous journalists and reformists detained by the government of Iran on 28 December 2009 in the wake of clashes between demonstrators and police at the Ashura protests. In August 2010, Baghi was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a five-year ban on political activity. On 22 September, opposition websites reported that Baghi had been sentenced to an additional six years' imprisonment for "propaganda against the state" and other charges for having broadcast an interview with dissident cleric
Hossein Ali Montazeri Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri ( fa, حسینعلی منتظری‎ ; 24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leade ...
on
BBC Persian BBC Persian ( fa, بی‌بی‌سی فارسی) is the Persian language broadcast station and subsidiary of BBC World Service which conveys the latest political, social, economical and sport news relevant to Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, an ...
. Amnesty International again named him a prisoner of conscience. Five years of the sentence was later overturned by an appeals court, and Baghi was released on in June 2011. In the months prior to his release, he and other prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest the deaths of dissidents Haleh Sahabi and Hoda Saber


Homophobic views

On 27.01.2021, Emadeddin Baghi called a
Conchita Wurst Thomas Neuwirth (born 6 November 1988) is an Austrian singer and drag queen who is known for his stage persona Conchita Wurst (or simply Conchita). Neuwirth came to international attention after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 as with t ...
's photo "disgusting" on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. Later in the same thread, he compared
homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
people with
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
ers and argued while homosexuals are disgusting, one can still defend their rights. Many
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
s and
activists Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
reacted to his tweets, and argued that Emadeddin Baghi is a
homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
person who is not credible to be called a
human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...
. On 28.01.2021, Emadeddin Baghi's Twitter account was suspended due to his homophobic tweets.


Organizations

Emadeddin Baghi founded two Iranian nongovernmental organizations — the Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights in 2003, and the Society of Right to Life Guardians in 2005. The two organizations produce reports on the situation of Iranian prisoners and gather data about death penalty cases in Iran.


Awards and recognition

Baghi was awarded the
Civil Courage Prize The Civil Courage Prize is a human rights award which recognizes "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk—rather than military valor." The prize was founded in 2000 by the Northcote Parkinson Fund. The goal of the prize is not to cr ...
in 2004, sharing it with
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
an opposition politician
Lovemore Madhuku Lovemore Madhuku is a Zimbabwean politician and democracy activist who is best known for being one of the founding members of the National Constituent Assembly or NCA, a pro-democracy group. An active civil society worker, Madhuku served as NCA' ...
. However, he was prohibited from leaving Iran to accept it. The following year he won a human rights award from the French government. In 2009, Baghi won the
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, sometimes called "the Nobel Prize for human rights", is an annual prize for human rights defenders. It was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate excep ...
. This award is given annually in Geneva by a coalition of 10 international human rights organizations, including
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
and
Front Line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an armed force's personnel and equipment, usually referring to land forces. When a front (an intentional or uninte ...
, to a leading defender of human rights who is currently in danger. The Iranian government again denied Baghi permission to attend the award ceremony.


See also

*
Censorship in Iran Censorship in Iran was ranked among the world's most extreme in 2020. Reporters Without Borders ranked Iran 173 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, which ranks countries from 1 to 180 based on the level of freedom of the press ...
*
Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been criticized by Iranians and international human rights activists, by writers, and NGOs. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission


Family

Baghi is married to Fatemeh Kamali Ahmad Sarahi, with whom he has three daughters, including Maryam Baghi. In 2007, the two were given three-year suspended sentences and five years' probation for attending human rights training in
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
three years before.


References and notes


External links


emadbaghi.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baghi, Emadeddin 1962 births Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Iran Investigative journalists Iranian democracy activists Iranian dissidents Iranian journalists Iranian prisoners and detainees Living people