Free Dr. Hossein Ghazian

Gooya News:

Petition To Head of the Judiciary and the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and European Parliament

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the condition of Dr. Hossein Ghazian, an Iranian sociologist, public opinion expert, and the director of Ayandeh Research Institute, who is held in Evin Prison since October 30, 2002. Dr. Ghazian was tried and charged with the alleged “crime” of “cooperating with a belligerent state (the U.S.) through conducting opinion polls for Gallup Organization and Zogby Polling Institute,” and "waging propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran." It should be noted that his cooperation with Gallup and Zogby was based on a contract and for doing scholarly research of public opinions, the results of which have since been published for public use. READ MORE

Hossein Ghazian, a Ph.D. in sociology and a recognized expert in the field of opinion polls, was among those in Ayandeh team who had accurately predicted the surprise victory of President Khatami during the May 1997 elections.

Dr. Ghazian was first sentenced to 9 years and 6 months of imprisonment, but by a second court, his sentence was reduced to 4 years and 6 months. He was kept in solitary confinement for almost one year, mistreated physically and psychologically, and was denied access to his lawyers and family members. Later, he was transferred to a 'special section' of the Evin prison.

Late last year Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to an inquiry affirmed that the United States cannot be considered as a “belligerent State”. Pursuant to this statement, Mr. Abbas Abdi, who was also arrested and tried for the same charges at the same time, was released from the prison. Legal efforts have also been made to send Dr. Ghazian’s case to a higher court for review, but, Judge Saeed Mortazavi--now Tehran's Chief Prosecutor, has denied the same treatment to Dr. Ghazian’s case.

With existing standards Dr. Ghazian has done a scholarly opinion study and shall not be punished for the results of his research. We believe that he is imprisoned primarily for exercising his freedom of expression which should be guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic.

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