A/HRC/25/61 Ashraf Qurbani Lawyer Ms. Qurbani is the wife of Mr. Mohamed Ali Khalili. She notes that lawyers have a lot of difficulty working in Iran, and they “would all tell you this.” They cannot defend their clients freely. Lawyers are always treated badly in the Prosecutors’ offices. When lawyers go into Prosecutors’ offices, their phones are seized, and their items are seized “as if they were criminals.” Moreover, there is currently a bill in Iran meant to strip the Bar Association of “whatever independence it does have.” There is one case, in Chamber 1 of the General Court in Tabriz, regarding a young woman named Azzam Malekpour. She has been in Tabriz Prison since 2012 without charge. She is the daughter of a man who owns a textile company. A few years back, her father gave a check as a loan payment, but the amount bounced. The intended recipient charged the daughter as a way to pressure the father, since she was at the time managing his factory. Even though it is illegal in Iran to charge an individual for someone else’s crime, she was allegedly convicted in absentia, as she was not aware of the charges and thus did not show up (“the person who is supposed to deliver the summonses in ‘bogus cases’ never showed up; they just put a stamp on the document saying the address was invalid.”). At the time, Ms. Malekpour was living her fiance in Tehran. The Tehran prosecutor authorized authorities to arrest her from that house, from where they transferred her to Tabriz. When they took her to prison, her family went to the Bar Association and requested a lawyer. That lawyer was not able to do much. So they came to Ms. Qurbani. When Ms. Qurbani got into the Prosecutor’s office, the secretary there saw the file she was looking at and told her that one of the chief Prosecutors had been involved in that case, and that he would not drop it unless he personally received half the amount of the owed money. Her fiance is now leaving her, since a woman who has been in prison “is looked down upon.” Another case she works on: Five people in Tehran got together and decided to offer loans, independently from the Government. Another bank, run by the Revolutionary Guards, could not compete with them, so the latter tried to force them to merge, but they refused. After this meeting they sent texts to everyone they knew in town to protect themselves, since they knew the Revolutionary Guards now “had it in for them.” Two hours later, they were taken into detention. Ms. Qurbani tried to meet with them, but was told they were still under investigation. She was able to meet with families of the victims four months later, who said they had since lost 20 kgs. each. They are still in detention and their case is with Court Chamber 4. A final case: Criminal Court, Chamber 170; about nine months ago, during the evening of mourning for Imam Ali, a young man happened to be in the street instead of at mosque. He was arrested by Basijis with weapons. Ms. Qurbani was called in and arrived at the station, but was herself threatened by Basijis. They are now accusing the victim of attacking the Basijis. 77