Kameel Ahmady: Verdict Of His 2019-2020 Trial In Iran

My friend and colleague, the social anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, is a British-Iranian who was arrested in Tehran in August 2019 on charges concerning state security.  In December 2020 he was found guilty by the court of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and sentenced to more than nine years in prison, along with a truly massive fine. He decided however to escape from Iran and now lives in Britain.  What follows is a slightly abbreviated English version of the original judgement, which was written in Farsi.

A summary of events to date is available here.

KAMEEL AHMADY: VERDICT OF TEHRAN REVOLUTIONARY COURT,

14 December 2020

Kameel Ahmady writes: I decided to make the main parts of my verdict and summary of my defence public in order for people to know how and why I was sentenced, accusations I have countered with real evidence that I believe will prove my innocence. Let them be recorded in history, which is the best judge.

 

In the name of God

 Verdict

Division No. 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court held by the undersigned person, the prosecutor of the Tehran Public Court based on the special judgment No. xxx dated Dec. 14, 2020 issued by the Chief Justice of Iran. The session was held on the strength of Article 374 of the criminal procedure code, to proceed the classified file No. xxx  for the accusation of Mr Kameel Ahmady son of Karim. Considering the investigations, obtaining the last defence of the defendant/accused person, and observing the pleading of the defending attorney, the end of hearing is hereby announced, and by relying on God the Almighty, the judgment is hereby issued as follows.

The judgment of the court

Regarding the accusation of Mr. Kameel Ahmady, son of Karim, holder of National ID No. 2xxx and Birth Certificate No. xxx , issued in Naghadeh, Iranian-British Nationality, with no (criminal) record, researcher, who is out on bail; according to the issued bill of indictment regarding:

• Cooperation with the hostile state of USA against the Islamic Republic of Iran,
• Having 1 (one) pepper gas spray,
• Having 1 (one) litre alcoholic drink,
• Having 1 (one) shocker / taser

Sequence of Events

Kameel Ahmady has been acting as a senior expert in sociology and anthropology, directing the propagation of western principles and weakening Sharia/lawful rules and fundamentals in the field of family and marriage, and promoting the necessity to adopt western and humanist values. He was under observation by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Kameel Ahmady, son of Karim, was born in Naghadeh, a town in the West Azerbaijan province; he is of Kurdish ethnicity and from a Sunni family background. He was born into a wealthy family, and his father, Karim Ahmady, was a famous person and businessman of the province, with financial trades and businesses in Iran and abroad. Kameel Ahmady has proficiency in 6 different languages and he has experience of living in different countries across the world.

When he dropped out school in year 7, Kameel Ahmady was home schooled and at the same time started translating novels, reading social novels and other books; he also composed poetry and wrote essays and short stories for a teenagers’ journal. Due to the special geographical circumstances of the Kurdistan region and border lines, which was always in war (Iran/Iraq war), crisis and local conflicts, and social issues, he became interested in the subject of children and social minorities groups.

Kameel completed his national military service at the age of 18, then he joined his family business in the town of Mahabad with the support from his father (350,000/- Tomans in 1990); he continued this activity until the age of 20. After gaining wealth and saving a large amount of money, he travelled to the UK, and stayed at his father’s friend’s house for 2 weeks. After passing language and educational tests, he started his studies in an A Level program at South Thames College in West London. He then applied for studies in the field of publishing from London University of Communication After that, he studied Economics, Environment and Publication and obtained an HND Diploma and Bachelor’s Degree (BA) from that University”.

Currently, he has British citizenship and also a British Passport.

Kameel Ahmady travelled to Turkey from England from 2005-2009 to write and coordinate a research project in Turkey. He published a research book entitled Another Look at the East and Southeast of the Turkey, employing an anthropological perspective on 15 Kurdish provinces. In 2009 he immigrated to Iran.

Execution of gender based projects of foreign subversive institutes affiliated to the hostile state:

Execution of the project of HIVOS subversive foundation:

After investigating documents obtained from Kameel Ahmady, we learned that he has concluded a Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Project in Iran with the support of  HIVOS institute from 2010-2014 with an annual budget of 200,000/- Euros. In another words, Kameel Ahmady was the director of the HIVOS subversive institute’s project in Iran with a total budget of 600,000 Euros.

In these documents, we understood that the project was performed under the supervision of the Manager of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) section of HIVOS Foundation. Meanwhile, according to the available documents, Kameel Ahmady was the developer and coordinator of the project, carrying out research, data collection, awareness raising, training locals, lobbying, and negotiating about FGM in Iran. This project had the goal of the social and gender empowerment of women and children, with the participation of 6-13 staff of the Kameel Ahmady’s field work team.

Kameel Ahmady performed this project through three contracts and received the funding and expenses after sending the report to HIVOS in specific time lines. Based on the contractual document, Kameel Ahmady was obliged to perform the following activities to put the HIVOS Foundation’s project in practice in Iran. These activities include empowering of women, communicating with governmental bodies and lobbying for changing the policies and rules.

It should be noted that the female genital mutilation concept is considered an example of Violence Against Women (VAW) and the international institutes invest huge funding in this subject.

For example, 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal agenda is one of the examples of propagation of western culture and civilisation, clause three of the fifth goal of which (Eradication of all harmful actions such as early child marriage and female genital mutilation) explicitly speaks about FGM and obliges the countries to take action towards this goal. The 2030 SDG agenda is an example of destabilising (Iranian) national security and emphasises the subject of female genital mutilation; pursuing any goals of this agenda is therefore considered to be action against national security. Moreover, the budget of this project was financed by HIVOS, a subversive foundation, one of the well-known institutes active in the field of subverting the Islamic Republic of Iran, and cooperation with this foundation is considered to be cooperation with a foreign hostile government and against national security.

Generally, it can be said that Kameel Ahmady performed the FGM project in order to implement the goals of the SDG 2030 agenda, against Iranian interior and national security, using funding from the HIVOS subversive institute.

We will investigate the records and activities of HIVOS subversive institute hereunder:

HIVOS:

HIVOS is the abbreviated name of an institute “The Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries” founded in Hague-Netherlands 50 years ago. As stated by the foundation, the goal of this foundation is cooperation and financial humanitarian aid‎ to African, Latin American, and Asian countries and organizations with the slogan of “human without borders”. The concentration of this aid and support is on social change, cyberspace activity, and local innovation areas.

In the description of the reason for founding this foundation, it was emphasized that HIVOS is a non-religious foundation or, to be more precise, an anti-religious foundation. It is of note that this foundation pursued its anti-religious approach in different parts of the world. This foundation tried to increase the cost of conflicts of governmental and religious authorities with anti-religious activists in the Middle East and North Africa countries (Islamic countries) in such a way that any blasphemy and insulting of religions would not be considered as a crime, and no punishment should be considered for these persons. It is worth mentioning that HIVOS has active regional and local offices in 43 countries in the world that perform activity in the fields of empowering women, equality of sexual rights, freedom of speech, clarity, and accountability. Equality of women’s and men’s rights and equality of homosexuals rights within the population, and the opportunity of freedom for all, are some of the most important projects defined for this foundation and performed by active and professional journalists, society, and artists.

Financing HIVOS foundation:

The most important point in connection with HIVOS’s foundation is the manner of financing this non-governmental organization. Based on the available documents, we see that HIVOS is financed through two separate sources:

• A part of the shares of HIVOS belongs to Netherlands civil society activists.

In this part, the financial aids to the foundation are the donations given by people to the non-governmental organizations for pursuing the charity’s affairs and/or advancing and defending human rights goals in Iran and abroad.

• Governments, organizations, and international institutions finance the major part of funding for the HIVOS Foundation.

In this part, the ministries of countries with the system of domination, transnational organizations, and multinational foundations inject a large amount of money to implement the project for institutionalizing western values among developing countries.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the European Union, the U.K. Department for International Development and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency are the most important financial and political supporters of HIVOS Foundation at the international level.

The Omidyar network, Ford foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Hewlett foundation are the most important non-governmental investors of HIVOS in the field of human rights activities in different parts of the world.

According to the investigated documents, the institutions and foundations of the USA have made the highest financial contributions to the HIVOS foundation, which we consider the most important as hereunder.

• United States Department of State:

One of the governmental and transnational fellows of HIVOS Foundation is the United States Department of State. In connection with the cooperation of HIVOS foundation with the government of the USA, it is stated in one of the documents published by the Indigo Trust English website that the aforementioned foundation selected Harare city, the capital of Zimbabwe, for supporting cyber facilities in Africa with the cooperation of the United States Department of State and Embassy of this country. 280,000/- Dollars was invested in 2013 for the creation of social development in African countries concentrating on innovation, clarity, and the empowerment of women.

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The Agency for International Development is the main sponsor of international aid by the government of the USA and it is the administrator of the report of the performance of the other institutions of the USA to the congress of this country, in the section of granting aids to domestic and foreign governmental and non-governmental institutions and organizations. The USA Agency for International Development is one of the main supporters of investment and enduring fellows of the HIVOS foundation, with a modern technology development section in cyberspace for strengthening civil society against the governments.

3. Open Source Society Foundation

The Open Source Society Foundation and George Source Society began their close cooperation with HIVOS in 2005 under the cover of creating mechanisms in civil society to make governments accountable/responsible in third world countries. In this project, the Open Source Foundation is the investor and financial supporter and HIVOS is the executor of George Soros plans in developing countries.

4- Ford foundation

The Ford Foundation is one of the main investors of HIVOS in the field of defending homosexuals, transsexuals, and human rights in third world countries, with the aim of changing and distorting the beliefs and transforming the cultural system of those countries targeted by the HIVOS Foundation.

5- HEWLETT foundation

HEWLETT is one the greatest supporters of HIVOS among the non-governmental institutions. The above foundation began cooperation in 2008, with the aim of securing the rights of sexual minorities and rendering solutions in the field of a better life for homosexuals and breaking the taboo of their presence in third world countries. The HEWLETT Foundation aided HIVOS Foundation with an amount of 31,191,000/- Dollars from 2008-2018 to realize its goals.

6- Omidyar network:

One of the most important American members of the consortium of supporters of HIVOS Foundation is the Omidyar network. This network has an Iranian-French manager, who aims to invest in the crisis-stricken areas of the world through education and the promotion of civil society, challenging governments in the targeted countries. The Omidyar network started its cooperation with the HIVOS Foundation in 2008. In this cooperation, HIVOS, as the executor of the Omidyar Network, performed different projects in different parts of the world including the Middle East and North Africa. According to published documents, Omidyar Network aided the HIVOS foundation by more than 2,000,000/- Dollars during 2008-2010 for the performance of a project in Africa. The Omidyar Network as one of the supporters of HIVOS has had an active presence in performance of the different projects around the world since 2008.

HIVOS and Iran:

One of the most important plans of this Dutch foundation is to confront with the Islamic Republic of Iran using the capacities inside Iran (journalists, artists, human rights activists, feminists, etc.) and external capacities such as human rights organizations, political pressures, and supporting Baha’is outside of Iran. Meanwhile, challenging the government of Iran via feminine, political and social movements is amongst the most important goals of this foundation.

Regarding the activities of HIVOS Foundation in Iran, in one part of the confession of the head of Khatami presidential campaign in New York, it is stated that:

Another institute active in Iran area is HIVOS, a Dutch institute; I had some meetings with their officials. This institute has a good relationship with institutes and NGOs in Iran and spent an amount of 10,000,000/- Euros in Iran at the end of Khatami presidency period, most of which has been granted to the feminine movement.

HIVOS institute financed its budget by taking bribes from Dutch oil companies that want to evade tax payments. They take action via Gooya Media aided by the HIVOS Foundation, with a credit of more than 300,000/- Euros (equal to 400,000,000/- Tooman) regarding operation of a satellite television network and a website criticizing the system (in Iran).

The activity of HIVOS in Iran returned in the years after 1999, when this foundation established a close relationship with non-governmental organizations in Iran. Upon revealing the relationship of this foundation with the counter-revolution collaborators and anti-system activities of this complex, the government of Iran added the name of HIVOS to the list of subversive organizations in 2006 and prohibited any activity of this foundation or cooperation with it.

Since then, the manager of the human rights plan and development of the democracy programme of HIVOS, acknowledged that this foundation has paid money to the persons and organizations in Iran: “Working with civil activists in Iran became so complicated and hard. Persons who obtained money from western countries are accused for being paid by foreigners. Plans by HIVOS in Iran are mainly concentrated on human rights and these three issues: women rights, homosexual rights, and prisoners’ rights, and are followed with the participation of two groups; one via media networks affiliated to HIVOS abroad, and some of its domestic branches by using internal and external opposition and some civil activists.

Working and executive records and voluntarily activities of Kameel Ahmady in England

Kameel Ahmady joined the Youth Committee of UK Socialist Worker Party in 1999 and the Labour Party in 2003 and performed activities and was the head of this committee working in the field of workers’ rights and human rights. Meanwhile, he joined Oxfam International aiding the NGO located in London during 2000-2003.

He joined the UK Amnesty International in 2002 and continued his activity as a press assistant in the field of workers’ rights and human rights up to 2006. He became a member of the executive committee of the educational and cultural project of Kingston and Chelsea College in 2003 and was active in this position up to 2006. As an ex-member of the Youth Committee of the Labour Party, in 2005 he founded an academic association called the Student and Study Association (KSSO) in SOAS University and managed this association up to 2008. The latest position of Ahmady was a Consulting Expert for the Copper Media Company during 2008-2010.

Some other activities of Kameel Ahmady are as follows:

• Employee of Hackney Museum in London, England from January 2002 to January 2003.Ahmady collected and registered the oral history of the refugee community of London within this period. This museum was very active in the field of investigating the history of Kurdistan (Iran and Iraq) and it seems that they have collected such data for many years. This museum collected data as well as networking and cooperation with the volunteer immigrants as the link between Hackney Museum and similar centres and institutes with the immigrants’ communities.
• Employee of the Refugee Council supervision office, in London, England from 2003 to 2005.
• Senior Consultant of the Royal Court of Justice, UK Ministry of Justice from 2004-2006.

During this period, Ahmady wrote detailed reports in the field of Kurdish-Iranian and                    Afghan communities in Britain and provided these reports to the Royal Court, which is under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice of England.

Training course in the field of influencing:

Empowerment and training courses

When Kameel was studying in England, he passed training courses relevant to his academic degree that has an important and fundamental role in the performance of his current activities. Since the subversive institutes and centres relevant to spying services organised these courses, it is possible that the spying services invested on people like Kameel Ahmady and educating and training them in direction of changing and penetrating in the Islamic Republic of Iran many years ago.

Kameel Ahmady has passed the feminism and gender course at the University of SOAS in London. The University of London School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) is one of the main centres for training and educating experienced staff and specialists to be used in MI6 and other sensitive centres in London and European countries. SOAS is the backyard of western spying services. The interest of Kameel Ahmady in the subject of gender and feminine originated from the training course he has passed in the subject of feminism and gender and women at the University of SOAS.

Training course on lobbying with policymakers (MDF):

In a part of his CV, he stated that “I have passed professional training courses and a course about project management, peace studies and crisis resolution, gender studies, and life skills at consulting and training institute at MDF in the Netherlands.” After investigating MDF, we understood that this institute is under the financial and spiritual support of the HIVOS subversive institute and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Influencing and infiltrating to approve, and preparation to increase, the age of marriage law

Kameel Ahmady has passed professional courses on lobbying and influencing politicians in the HIVOS subversive institute. He acknowledged that his project about increasing the age marriage for children that has been published in a book named An Echo of Silence is one of the main factors in amending and changing article 1041 of the Iranian Civil Code. He believes it is an honour for him that the research became a decision-making reference in Iran.

Although Kameel Ahmady tried to show that his presence in the subject of increasing marriage age is inadvertent, obtained documents have shown that Kameel Ahmady has passed different courses, under the support of HIVOS subversive foundation, about lobbying, negotiating and communicating with officials and politicians in order to influence them and change Islamic-Iranian rules and culture. In one of his sessions with one of his colleagues, he stated that:

“I do research in such a method that is used to enter in policymaking in Iran, or I work on projects that have practical output and submit them to MP’s, to influence the policy and planning through legal means and routes.

Communication with some Iranian Parliament members and influencing them

Kameel Ahmady communicated with some parliament members to reach his goals and intentions in the field of raising marriage age. In many cases, he advised the mentioned MP’s regarding the subject of Early Child Marriage (ECM). In another words they planned their lectures and public speeches and media interviews influenced by Kameel’s studies, and lectured in different meeting and seminars with Kameel Ahmady’s viewpoint and they cite and referenced to results of his research. According to the obtained documents, Kameel Ahmady got close to the parliament members purposefully and introduced himself as a person with an international connection.

His book An Echo of Silence (A Comprehensive Research Study on Early Child Marriage (ECM) in Iran) was a scientific source of reference for the designers and people who pushing for the bill No. 1041 or the bill for increasing the age of marriage. This book removed one of the most important challenges they were facing, and supports their claims scientifically. In addition its contents need to be investigated and the justifiability and reliability of the study should be discussed.  It has doubts and ambiguities that have not been considered and the real social problem has not been stated. Apparently, the scientific accuracy and legitimacy of the research method was considered as a default since the book was published with an official license.

According to the available documents, after the rejection of bill 1041, the accused person tried to communicate with civil activists in the field of children rights in collaboration with xxxx ( secretary of the campaign of poorly supervised child is more alone and society of supporting children rights, NGOs activists in the field of harmful social practices organised increasing pressure, pushing and passing the bill again to raise child marriage age in the parliament. Moreover, by inviting xxx, Kameel Ahmady is one of the main participants in the augmenting and discussing the bill of amendment of article 1041 of the Civil Code or increase the marriage age in the judicial and legal committee of the parliament. In this direction, Kameel stated that “advising in parliament for a parliamentary think tank for increasing child marriage age in Iran” is one of his main features/characteristics.

We will investigate increasing age of marriage project by Kameel Ahmady in the following:

Early child marriage project in Iran:

The Early Child Marriage (EMC) project is one of the most important projects and academic studies of Kameel Ahmady in Iran, and was carried out during 2014 to 2016. This project was done with the aim of increasing the age of marriage in Iran via policymaking and the legislating process.

The subject of rising the age of marriage (as one of the effective ways for weakening the family) draws the attention of the enemies of Iran as their main goals and plans, and this issue has been emphasised in their strategic documents.

Communication and cooperation with the embassies of European countries for the implementation of the early child marriage project in Iran:

On this basis, increasing marriage age in Iran was one of the main projects of international subversive institutes and organisations that has been executed in Iran for many years. Kameel is one of the most reliably connected persons for foreign institutions that have perfect communications with embassies of European countries in Tehran; he started his activities for increasing marriage age under the title of the early child marriage project in 2014 by having access to international subversive organisations such as HIVOS and the support of the above mentioned embassies.

This project with a complex network consisting of scientific, civil and media activists and non-governmental organisation put legalisation of increasing marriage age in Iran into its working schedule, while communicating and influencing policymakers (some of the parliament members and decision-makers of Iran) and with the support of domestic and foreign media networks.

The beginning of this communication was after the book lunch and presentation of Kameel Ahmady’s research In the name of Tradition (A Comprehensive Research Study on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Iran) in the National Library, when Mr. Ahmady was getting to know the Chargé d’Affaires of the French Enbassy, and holding a meeting with him.

After that meeting, Kameel Ahmady was referred/introduced to the No Peace without Justice Organisation, and had a conversation with the representative of his organisation named xxx. After some conversations and a further visit, he was prepared to attend the lobbying workshop held by them in Italy for the advancement of the lobbying project in Iran. He sent his booklets, books, and also a proposal about lobbying for a homosexual rights project to this organisation. The results of these communications were introducing/referring Ahmady to the coordinator in Italy. At the beginning of cooperation, he invited Ahmady to a workshop on negotiating and exchanging views in Rome, Italy drawing on the case study of Ahmady’s FGM project in Iran.

It is of note that the No Peace without Justice Organization is under the financial and intellectual support of Italy, USAID, the UK Government, Germany, France, and the European Union. Meanwhile, this institute belongs to the radical Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs who intentionally entered Mehrabad Airport in Iran without a hijab in 2013; after threatening the cancellation of her visit to Iran, she put on her hijab.

Ahmady, through the investigations and integrations, said that his goal was research work and charity, but there are some documents proving his bad intention and action against Iran’s interests/benefits. When the Norwegian Embassy refused to finance Ahmady’s project, he emailed to one of his main middlepersons in the USA and said that: “I have sent you a lobbying proposal for ending the early child marriage project, if you are any points about it please let me know. They couldn’t fund the study due to the financial issues but I will proceed it at my own expense; since I remember your strategies to lobby and put the Iranian government under relative pressure by global mainstreaming and NGO participations. Then someone will see this on the internet and may fund it”.

The accused person Ahmady points out the contents of policymaking and lobbying and negotiating project to prevent female genital mutilation and early child marriage in Iran with this thought in mind: to penetrate Iranian governmental bodies to pursue his aim in FGM and ECM projects in the field of increasing age of marriage and cohabitation and relationship out of marriage, etc and writes:

“This was a general idea to put it in to action plan, but no one welcomed it. The basis of this though was that as a researcher in the field of anthropology, I wanted to share my research results and its solutions and strategies for ways forward with relevant people and institutes. The most important of these organisations were the research centres of the Ministry of Health, Welfare, the Judiciary, the Ministry of Labour and Social Services, and similar bodies in the field of children and child labour. I felt that these people in such places may have scientific and expertise skills and information about such subjects and harmful practices and they should have access to up to date research and findings.”

Generally, it can be said that increasing the age of marriage for children is one of the strategies of the enemy for weakening and ruining the family system; and that Mr Kameel Ahmady is one of the leaders in the implementation of this strategy in Iran. According to our investigations, should this project be performed, it would lead to a decrease of 100000 marriages and also reduce 20% of the reproduction rate in Iran that would have been disaster in the current situation of Iran, faced with the population crisis.

Communication with some governmental implementers:

In respect of the implementation of plans and goals intended by western subversive organisations, Kameel communicated with the governmental bodies at decision-making levels; for example, he is in touch with some of the managers of National Authority for the Convention on the Rights of the Child based in the Ministry of Justice, the National library of Iran, the Deputy of The Vice President for Women and Family Affairs (the deputy of citizenship rights) and xxx (legal deputy), and had close cooperation with the Deputy of Women’s Affairs in compiling the bill for raising child marriage age.

Communication with religious leaders

For running research and advancing goals in the field of increasing of children marriage age and female genital mutilation, Kameel Ahmady had a lot communications with religious leaders along the borders and deprived provinces, to change their opinion about increasing the marriage rate. He met some famous Sunni clergymen such as Molana Abdolhamid Esmaeil Zehi (the supreme leader and founder and principal of Maleki seminary and grand mosque in Zahedan), Moulavi Abdolsamad Jazinki, chief of Zahedan religious, and Moulavi Ghasem Nouri, one of the prominent religious leaders of Kurdistan. He emphasised in his books An Echo of Silence and In the Name of Tradition also A House on the Water (A comprehensive research on temporary marriage in Iran) that according to the power, role and influence of the religious leaders in advancing religious goals and cultural subjects, it is necessary to change the opinion of religious leaders concerning social and cultural subjects, by awareness raising of people and lobbying and negotiating with religious leaders. In this respect he mentioned as one of his abilities “lobbying and negotiating with the local governors and religious leaders in seven provinces of Iran regarding increasing age of marriage for children through Fatwa and sermons in Friday prayers” in his English CV.

Homosexuals project in Iran

His book Forbidden City (A Comprehensive Study on lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) in Iran 2018) is one of the projects of Kameel Ahmady about homosexuality and bisexuality (LGB) in Iran from 2017 to 2018.

Kameel Ahmady’s the main goal in this project is to understand the emotions and beliefs about LGBTs and investigate their challenges in life and a religious, class-based, traditional, and patriarchal society that rejects LGBT as an identity. In a part of the of Kameel Ahmady’s book he described the goals of the LGB project as follows:

This study wants to break the ice and prepare the environment for negotiation and solving such parallel relationship problems in Iranian society.

One of the destructive goals of this research is working on parallel relationship issues in the family and breaking taboo in this regard. This project holds that parallel relationships and having multiple sexual and emotional partners besides the official and legal wife/husband is fully and strictly rejected in Iranian society and it has more problems and limitations for women. This project intends to make these relationships ordinary, especially for married people by proposing such relationships. An interesting point about this project is that this project has not said anything about transgender or transsexual and only speaks about uncommon and deviant tendencies and the failed tendencies of homosexuals (LGB), and this issue shows that the goal of the project is disgracing and working on destructive and uncommon issues such as homosexuality. As said by him, homosexuality is a continuing and progressive issue in Iran and the most concern is that the LGBs are facing legal punishments, distinctions, deprivations, and sexual discrimination.

Another goal of this book is negotiating and solving problems which women in parallel relationships face at home and in the society through increasing awareness in the governmental bodies, members of society and local governmental authorities, religious leaders, and other social activists, as these arise from the previous successful experiences of Ahmady in lobbying, influencing, policymaking with local leaders regarding female genital mutilation. He was successful in and obtaining religious Fatwa from Molana Abdolhamid who is the leader of the Sunni Muslims in Iran, and persuading other religious leaders to deliver a Friday sermon to abandon issues like FGM and talk about the negative impacts of early child marriage. He also gave consultations and lobbying with some parliament members and guiding amendments of article 1041 of the civil code in the direction of increasing age of marriage; we may see Kameel Ahmady’s studies and lobbying  skills to solve obstacles and rising the profiles of the homosexuality and unreligious parallel relationships in Iran in near future.

Sending a report to UN special rapporteur on human rights against Iran

In regard to increasing international pressure about human rights abuse in Iran via sensitisation and drawing international attention, Kameel Ahmady communicated with Ahmad Shahid, the human rights special rapporteur on Iran, with the support and cooperation of the HIVOS subversive institute. According to the obtained documents, Kameel Ahmady asked xxx, manager of the Freedom Society plan in Iran, to communicate with Ahmad Shahid. xxx introduced/referred him to xxx, advisor of Ahmad Shahid, and he introduced/referred him to xxx and xxx. In this Email, Ahmady provided some links to reports and interviews with the BBC, The Guardian and Reuters about female genital mutilation in Iran. In this email, xxx stated that Ahmady is proceeding with two projects of early child marriage and female genital mutilation in Iran.

Communication with anti-revolution and problematic institutes and foundations:

Foundation for Iranian Studies:

As part of his international work in the field of early age marriage, Kameel Ahmady used all his international connections/communications to achieve this goal, and in addition to the media, he communicated with some subversive and active foundations against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to the obtained documents, through an email sent to the Foundation for Iranian Studies, Kameel Ahmady introduced himself via the publication this foundation (that is the publisher of open-minded and anti-religious opinions about women rights) and submitted his paper about homosexuals in Iran for publication. He introduced himself as being referred by xxx.

It is worth mentioning that the Foundation for Iranian Studies located in Washington in the USA, is managed with funding from the Pahlavi family (late Shah of Iran). xxx (ex-chairperson of the board of trustees), xxxx (anti-revolution feminist) and xxx (head of the Ashraf Pahlavi office) are the main members of this anti-Iran foundation.

Iran Female Research Foundation

Meanwhile, Kameel communicated with the Iran Female Research Foundation, and through an email, he pursued his participation in their conference and sought acceptance of his paper under the subject of early child marriage, female genital mutilation and homosexuals, also publishing his partner’s paper on the subject of non-balance between Iranian female movements and the women movement of Kurdistan in Turkey. It is of note that the Iran Female Research Foundation (WSF) is funded by the Baháʼí Society residing in the USA, and managed by xxx (Baháʼí anti-revolution activist) and xxx (feminist activist and Nobel Prize winner residing in the USA).

Orchid Institute:

The Orchid Institute is a UK based feminist NGO that is active in support of the propagation of 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda. An email sent from xxx, a member of Orchid Project, explained this project as follows:

“The Orchid Project has put much effort into the realisation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda for which one of its indexes is ending FGM/C, which will be investigated only in countries that is a common phenomenon, not the whole world.”  In this email, they asked Kameel Ahmady to put his effort to at least make the opposition to this phenomenon become a public demand.

Norway government origin information organization

One of the cases that lead to the expansion of attracting refugees in European countries is the existence of supporting rules about abuse of human rights in origin countries. For example, whipping for drinking alcohol! In the field of activities by Kameel Ahmady, in almost all cases (early child marriage, female genital mutilation, homosexuality, co-habitation) legislation exists in European countries for supporting the refugees that are not supported in their origin country. One of the cases required for approving such rules is to perform field research in countries of origin to prove the spread of abuse of human rights norms; Kameel Ahmady has the role of compiler of field research in this puzzle.

In the email send by Norway government origin information organisation to Kameel Ahmady, they asked him to provide the organisation with precise information to facilitate the compilation of refugee rules for those suffering from female genital mutilation.

Travel to Israel

Kameel Ahmady travelled to different neighbouring countries when he was a teenager, when he was working in his family business due to living in a wealthy family. After moving to England, he travelled to most countries in the world from the eastern countries like Maldives and Philippines to countries like Canada, the USA in the west of planet earth.

In this alignment, Kameel travelled to Israel in late 2005 in the second year of cooperation with the Royal Court of Justice under the title of correspondent together with a British person. After investigating an article written by him for this travel and published under title Hijacked Nations, we understood that the goal of this trip was to study and investigate the Kurdish societies of Israel.

He was interviewed by security officers of Israel in the airport and they asked him different questions about his life, research, and activities, and Kameel said that due his political activities, he was prosecuted and in a part of his article, he said:

They asked me about all aspects of my life and my life back in Britain, and the background of my family in Kurdistan/Iran. Meanwhile, they asked me why I travelled to Syria, Morocco, Indonesia, and other countries. They asked me about some of my political and social activities, and being prosecuted by authorities.

Kameel Ahmady travelled to Israel with a British person that has had some communication with Israel earlier. In this travel, Ahmady met some prominent Israeli persons, of whom he wrote that:

“The next day, I met xxx, an Israeli scholar and poet that I have already communicated with him via one of my close friends in London.

The accused person stated the reason for his travel to Israel:

During my graduate degree, I travelled to Palestine in 2005 together with a friend, to visit the University of Ramallah as part of anthropological project, and I was there for one week. They questioned me at Jerusalem airport simply because I was born in Iran although I had a university ID card and introduction letter from my university. I was there for a week and travelled to some historical cities such as Ramallah, Hebron, Jericho and Jerusalem/Al-Quds and visited the religious and cultural sites. When I returned back to the UK, I wrote a critical article called Hijacked Nations which was published in a left-wing paper/site called indymedia. I also published it on my own website since other media outlet did not print it due to my critical views on both Israeli and Palestinian governments.

Ruling:

The word ‘hostile’ means enemy, and in the dictionary this means to have conflict with each other, as has been mentioned in the Quran. In legal terms, the parties to the claim are sometimes called adversaries, while it is evident they have had no armed war with each other. The word ‘war’ does not mean armed war, and some expressions such as cold war show the peak of advertising attacks of both countries against each other; it is a well-known word in international relations. In the legal cases of the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the use by legislators of the word ‘hostile government’ does not mean a government that is at war with Iran (clause 6 of article 1 of Armed Forces Criminal Act). The meaning of ‘enemy’ in the view of legislators is not a person or government at war with the Iranian government. As per article 25 of the Armed Forces Criminal Law approved in 2003, the enemy means groups of villains, and governments that are in a war with I.R. Iran or tried to overthrow it or their actions are against the national security.

Therefore, in Iranian rules, a hostile foreign government does not necessarily mean a government that is in armed combat with Iran; it means a government that is not in a friendly or impartial relationship with Iran, and is instead hostile.

Reports by the legal deputy of Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been considered, along with explicit declarations and contradicted declarations by the accused person in connection with the HIVOS subversive foundation implementation of a female genital mutilation (FGM) project in Iran with an annual budget of 200,000/- Euros, as well as the fact that that the government of I.R. Iran added the name of HIVOS to the list of subversive organisations in 2006, and any activity of this foundation and cooperation with this foundation is forbidden.

The accused person passed training courses, empowering, and lobbying with policymakers in UK universities. He worked to prepare and approve raising the age of marriage law.  He communicated with some of the parliament members and influenced them, also communicating and cooperating with the embassies of European countries to gather support in order to carry out the early child marriage project in Iran. He communicated with some governmental executors, carrying out and researching a homosexual project in Iran and cooperating with foreign obstinate Medias and sending a report to the UN special rapporteur on human rights against Iran.

Ahmady communicated with anti-revolution and problematic institutes and foundations and travelled to occupied Palestinian territories.  A teaser, pepper spray, alcohol to the value of alcohol were discovered by Iranian customs (3150000 Rials), as well as other available evidences and documentation.  His crime is proved.

Therefore,

• on the strength of article 508 of Islamic Criminal Law approved in 1996 and clause A and note of article 22 of the Act for combating smuggling of goods and foreign currency and clauses D and E of article 12 of the Act for punishing smuggling weapon and ammo,
• and holders of unauthorised weapons and ammunition by observance of clause B of article 18 of the Islamic Criminal Act approved in 2013, and clauses B and C of article 12 of the law for reducing discretionary imprisonment punishment  in terms of damaging national security,
• and harmful impacts of actions of the accused person regarding the clause A (cooperation with hostile government of the United States of America), Kameel Ahmady is sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment;
• regarding accusation of clause B (keeping a pepper spray) he is sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and seizing the spray for the benefit of government,
• and regarding the accusation of clause C (keeping 1 litre of alcoholic drink) he is sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and payment of a cash penalty to an amount twice the value (3150000 ×2 Rials) and destroying the alcoholic drink,
• and regarding the accusation of clause C (keeping a teaser) is sentenced to 91 days imprisonment and seizing it to the benefit of the government,

and according to the contents of the file and explicit declarations of the accused person regarding the budget of 600000 Euros project fund from the HIVOS subversive foundation for execution of the above mentioned project and the mentioned fund has been acquired/obtained in effect of committing a crime, on the strength of article 214 of Islamic Criminal Law approved in 2013, the above fund returned and seized to the benefit of the government of I.R. Iran.

The days of detention for interrogation already served will be deducted and calculated as per article 27 of Islamic Criminal Law. The issued judgment is the present judgment and may be objected to in the Court of Appeal of Tehran province within 20 days.

Abolghasem Salavati

Head of Division No. 15 of Islamic Revolutionary Court

And prosecutor of Tehran Public Court

~.~.~.~.~

Kameel Ahmady writes:
The main parts of my verdict and summary of my defence can be accessed on my website through the links at the end of this statement. I decided to  make these public in order for people to know how and why I was sentenced,  accusations I have countered with real evidence that I believe will prove my innocence. Let them be recorded in history, which is the best judge.

Farsi version of these Statements, on Kameel’s website

See also: