bjbjVwVw RAY SUAREZ: Next to Iran.
Journalists and human rights groups there have charged the government with imprisoning
dissidents, part of a campaign to silence criticism of the regime.
The NewsHour, along with the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED San Francisco, have obtained
interviews from an Iranian journalist to help tell that story.
NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels reports.
SPENCER MICHELS: This is a rare event in Iran today, a party in a private apartment to celebrate
the birthdays of 10 human rights activists who are all in prison.
Their relatives and friends gathered, including the husband and children of Nasrin Sotoudeh,
an attorney who has defended many of the activists.
She was sentenced to 11 years for opposing the regime.
To the surprise of many, no one at this party was arrested.
But gatherings like this are increasingly infrequent, as the government has made it
more difficult than ever for dissidents even to meet, much less to openly push for free
speech, free elections and human rights.
For a decade, Sotoudeh defended Iranians accused of all manner of crimes, and it has cost her
and her young family a lot.
Here she is five years ago, working the phone giving media interviews, trying to prevent
the execution of a teenager.
The next day, the youth's life was spared.
During the Green Movement, an uprising that followed the disputed reelection of Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad in 2009, people took to the streets, demanding their votes be counted.
Many were emboldened to speak out for issues like human rights that had been suppressed
for years.
But the regime quickly dashed any hopes with a violent and firm response.
Sotoudeh was one of a few attorneys who dared to defend the protesters, pushing for rights
for women, juveniles and dissidents, and not always winning.
Her 17-year-old client in this case was accused of political activity against the government,
and he was hanged at the age of 20.
Sotoudeh herself was charged, like many dissidents have been, with acting against national security
by talking with the media.
Her husband, Reza Khandan, says it goes deeper than that.
REZA KHANDAN, husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh (through translator): The reason for my wife's arrest,
I think, was that she insisted on representing political prisoners.
In general, the idea was to prevent the lawyers from going to court and following up on human
rights cases.
SPENCER MICHELS: All of this has taken a heavy toll on the dissidents' families.
For Sotoudeh, whose prison sentence was reduced to six years on appeal, her children are only
allowed to visit their mother occasionally.
REZA KHANDAN (through translator): They make it very hard on political prisoners.
In the first eight months that my wife was in prison, we didn't even have one unrestricted
visit.
SPENCER MICHELS: Finally, the children, now 5 and 13, did see their mother, but only behind
prison glass.
REZA KHANDAN (through translator): In addition to cameras and microphones, there are guards
who stand there and watch us.
They listen to every word of what the children tell their mother.
They watch all emotions and feelings.
The children become a means to put pressure on their mother.
SPENCER MICHELS: The Iranian press office at the U.N. responded in writing to our inquiry
about Sotoudeh's case, saying: "Mrs. Sotoudeh has been duly prosecuted and convicted, and
she has enjoyed all her rights, including access to her attorney and regular visits
with family."
Today, reports out of Iran indicate the government is squashing the fledgling protest movement
that once thought it a chance at reform by arresting and in some cases torturing critics
and cracking down on journalists who report on it.
The most well-known of those critics is Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in
2003.
She was Sotoudeh's most famous client and her mentor.
Ebadi founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center.
After receiving threats on her life, she is now living in exile in England.
In 2005, she presided over a meeting of leading human rights activists, many of them, including
activist Narges Mohammadi, attorney Mohammad Seifzadeh, and Abdolfattah Soltani, another
attorney, are now in prison because of their activities.
In October, thousands of Iranians, including striking merchants from Tehran's bazaar, protested
the declining economy and the devaluation of the rial.
Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European countries have contributed to the downturn.
Stanford Iranian scholar Abbas Milani, himself a human rights activist before he fled Iran,
says the government responded with force to the demonstrations.
ABBAS MILANI, Stanford University: The regime is more paranoid today than probably any time
since June 2009.
They brought out 15,000 Revolutionary Guards into the streets in what was clearly advertised
as an exercise in control of social disturbances.
This was a show of force that had only one meaning: We know you're unhappy.
We know the economy's in a shambles.
We know you might explode, but, no, we are ready for you.
SPENCER MICHELS: Since many journalists and activists are in jail, stories about the crackdown
on dissidents have been hard to find in the press.
An Iranian journalist whose who asked not to be identified brought us video of some
of the participants.
Last summer, as the families of political prisoners met, Jila Baniyaghoob, a journalist
who has since been sent to jail, talked about her husband, also a journalist and an economist,
who was sent to prison for three years for anti-state activities.
JILA BANIYAGHOOB, journalist (through translator): For several years, he had been writing about
widespread corruption in government circles.
SPENCER MICHELS: On his release, he will be given 34 lashes.
This fall, the United Nations Human Rights Office declared that Iranian authorities have
embarked on a severe clampdown on journalists and human rights activists in a run-up to
next June's Iranian presidential elections.
The Iranian delegation to the U.N. dismissed the report as unfair and biased, and said
the republic has worked wholeheartedly to realize the rights of its citizens.
In an e-mail to the NewsHour, the Iranian U.N. mission claimed the report leveled "general
allegations in the absence of authentic and reliable evidence aimed to serve propaganda."
The communication also stated that political parties "enjoy the right of freedom of speech
and free activities," and the Iranians accused the U.S. of "a long list of gross and systematic
violations of human rights, both at home and abroad."
Regime critics say they risk years in prison for their actions.
Abdolfattah Soltani, an attorney and co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, tried
to represent leaders of the minority Baha'i faith.
His daughter, Maedeh Soltani, was interviewed in Germany.
MAEDEH SOLTANI, daughter of Abdolfattah Soltani (through translator): My father was sentenced
to 13 years in prison, and, in addition, 10 years of disbarment.
In the trial, the judge told my father, as soon as you are in jail and you don't work,
that's good enough for us.
They don't want him to do his job.
SPENCER MICHELS: Besides fighting for their own rights to protest, the dissidents have
long fought for women's rights, equality in marriage and inheritance, an end to polygamy
and restrictions on women's dress, all dictated by clerics who enforce a strict interpretation
of Islam.
Anything can be regarded as a form of protest, says Abbas Milani, who is teaching a seminar
at Stanford on dissent in Iran.
Milani told his students the regime is very clever in using force.
ABBAS MILANI: I don't think this is a regime that uses force randomly.
They use force when they need it.
They're brutal when they need to be.
The number of people killed by this regime is in tens of thousands.
In one short period alone, they killed almost 4,000 political prisoners who were already
serving time on another crime.
SPENCER MICHELS: I asked him what the regime is afraid of.
Why is it so paranoid, as he put it?
ABBAS MILANI: They're afraid, because they know the reality.
The Iranian society doesn't want them.
They are, in my view, not supported by any more than 20 percent to 25 percent of the
people.
It's that 20 percent to 25 percent that is taking the lion's share of the oil wealth.
They are robbing the country blind.
SPENCER MICHELS: The dissidents' earned international recognition recently when imprisoned attorney
Nasrin Sotoudeh and banned filmmaker Jafar Panahi were awarded the European Parliament's
prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights work.
The Iranian government refused to let the prize winners meet with the prize sponsors.
Still, despite the crackdown, dissidents keep trying to change a regime that is now also
under pressure from upcoming elections and a stressed economy.
RAY SUAREZ: You can read the full response from the Iranian government to our reporting
on our website.
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