United Nations human rights experts have called on Iran to end the "harassment" of a woman trying to learn the fate of her brother and his newborn daughter who disappeared from prison more than 30 years ago.
Raheleh Rahemipour is now facing criminal charges and has undergone a lengthy interrogation at Tehran's Evin prison, the same jail where her relatives were last seen in 1984, the UN right experts said in a statement on November 24.
The statement said the campaign against Rahemipour "may be a direct reprisal for her human rights activism in the search for her relatives, as well as the exercise of her rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression."
The experts said the harassment against Rahemipour had increased "after concerns about the missing pair were relayed to the Iranian authorities by the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances" in August 2016.
"Instead of replying to our call, the state authorities have now charged Ms. Rahemipour with a number of national security offenses, including propaganda against the regime, and participation in unlawful assemblies," the experts noted.
She has been given a court hearing date of December 13.
According to the statement, Rahemipour's brother and his pregnant wife were arrested over their "political beliefs." Their baby daughter was born in jail in April 1984, but was taken away a few days later, and the couple was told the baby had died.