Swiss Embassy in Tehran has served the Islamic Republic of Iran as the Defendant on August 19, 2020. The service has been completed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Iran has 60 days to answer to our Complaint. Our office received the confirmation of service from the Department of State today. Read more about the case here.
Backstory:
Mehrangiz Kar, Iranian human rights lawyer, and activist, and Banafsheh Zand, Iranian-American journalist, and human rights activist, filed separate actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and the IRGC alleging the torture, hostage-taking, and extrajudicial killing of Kar’s husband Siamak Pourzand. Siamak Pourzand was a journalist and film critic. He was the manager of the Majmue-ye Farrhangi-ye Honari-ye Tehran, a cultural center for writers, artists, and intellectuals. In later years, Pourzand was also a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down. He is well known for his articles critical of the Islamic regime and is said to have been working with foreign-based Farsi language media prior to his detention.
Mehrangiz Kar was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for her participation in an academic and cultural conference held at the Heinrich Böll Institute in Berlin on April 7-9, 2000 entitled “Iran after the elections,” at which political and social reform in Iran were publicly debated. She left Iran for cancer treatment, due to security risks she never returned to Iran and since 2001 she is residing in the United States. She received several human rights awards, such as National Endowment for Democracy's Democracy award which was given to Ms. Kar by the U.S. First Lady, Laura Bush, 2002.
سفارت سویس در تهران احضاریه دادگاه #فدرال برای جمهوری اسلامی ایران را ،برای پرونده #مهرانگیزکار بر علیه ایران، رسماتحویل وزارت امورخارجه ایران داد. بنابر قوانین فدرال، ایران ۶۰ روز فرصت دارد تا رسما در دادگاه شرکت کند. ایران در ماه فوریه ازتحویل پرونده توسط دفتر #هریسچی خودداری کرده بود .به روز #دادخواهی نزدیک میشویم