Victimizing Vafadari?

"Being a dual national is no longer a source of pride but a liability that could lead to your prosecution… The court has granted me the honor of being the first Iranian to be convicted under Article 989 of the Civil Penal Code… It means my wife and me, and every one of you dual national Zoroastrians who returned to your country to invest in the homeland you love are always going to be in danger of losing your assets and being forced to leave the country.” The letter dated January 21, 2018 by Iran’s Aun art gallery owner Karan Vafadari who has been detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison, was quoted on the website of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). While Vafadari, an electrical engineering graduate from the US, has reportedly been served a 27-year prison sentence, his wife Afarin Neyssari, an architect, was sentenced to 16 years in prison by Judge Abolqasem Salavati at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

According to Article 989: "In case any Iranian subject acquired foreign nationality after the solar year 1280 (1901-1902) without the observance of the provisions of law, his foreign nationality will be considered null and void and he will be regarded as an Iranian subject. Nevertheless, all his landed properties will be sold under the supervision of the local public prosecutor and the proceeds will be paid to him after the deduction of the expenses of sale.”
"Unfortunately, my international activities (in the art world) raised the suspicions of the IRGC’s (Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps) Intelligence Organization,” declared Vafadari who was arrested from the Tehran airport on July 20, 2016 shortly after his wife was refused permission to board a plane to fly to Italy in preparation for an art exhibition. "Fortunately, the initial, baseless security accusations that led to our arrest were dropped, but our gallery, office, warehouses and home remained locked and our cars, computers and documents were confiscated, followed by accusations and interrogations that indicated a deeper plot.” Earlier they were accused of organizing mixed gender parties for foreign diplomats and their Iranian associates and serving alcohol at their home. A few months later, fresh charges were brought against the couple of attempting to overthrow the Islamic Republic and recruiting spies through foreign embassies.
Vafadari wrote that his sentence includes 124 lashes and a fine of nine billion rials (USD 243,000 or Rs 1,56,42,032). Karan’s son, Cyrus Vafadari, told CHRI on February 2, 2018 that Salavati is demanding 100 billion tomans (USD 27 million or Rs 173,80,03,500) bail for the couple or 50 billion tomans (USD 13.5 million or Rs 86,90,01,750) each for his father and Neyssari. With a lot of difficulty the family managed to raise the bail amount for Neyssari but the Judge refused to accept it, saying, "If I wanted her free, I wouldn’t have set (the bail) so high.”
As reported on CBS News of January 31, "Analysts and family members of dual nationals and others detained in Iran have suggested that hardliners in the Islamic Republic’s security agencies use the prisoners as bargaining chips for money or influence… Iran does not recognize dual nationalities so those detainees cannot receive consular assistance.”
Parsiana sought clarifications from the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in India, Gholamreza Ansari but received no response to our emails.
Vafadari belongs to a prominent Zoroastrian family known in Tehran for its philanthropy. The city’s Firouzgar Hospital was endowed by his maternal grandfather who employed scores of Zoroastrians on his vast farmlands, mentioned one Iranian source when Parsiana sought inputs on the case. In his letter, Vafadari claimed that before he was arrested he was actively trying to regain some of his family’s confiscated assets through the Iranian legal system.
According to Vafadari’s sister Kateh, the couple has been arrested "to fabricate a case for the purpose of extortion and property seizure.” Since last year "Free Karan and Afarin blogspot.com” has been attempting to bring the couple’s plight in the eye of the general media and urging readers to petition the Iranian officials to free the couple. Two hundred Iranian artists have signed a letter requesting the head of the Iranian judiciary Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani to release the couple immediately.
While members of the Zoroastrian community in the US realize that the "majority of legal cases in the Islamic Republic usually violate people’s human and civil rights regardless of one’s religious or ethnic affiliation,” they have been advised "to stay out of this controversial case (as) almost all had limited information about the circumstances and lacked any verifiable facts.”
As expressed by one Iranian Zoroastrian, "Compared to his brother Kasra Vafadari, murdered in Paris, who was very social, outspoken and involved himself much in community activities, Karan is rather shy, soft-spoken, hardly shows up for community or public (meetings).”
The views of former Italian ambassador to Iran, Roberto Toscano were made public on the media, "One has to be truly gullible and the easy victim of propaganda to believe charges leveled against Karan… The reason must be a different one, political blackmail toward the US of which they are also citizens, envy for their success, intimidation toward the Zoroastrian community, desire to grab their properties (and) repression of contemporary art.”
Concluding his letter on a dejected note Vafadari wrote, "If you get entangled in a legal misunderstanding, or if you refuse to ‘cooperate’ with the authorities and are chosen for a ‘hot branding,’ in the words of a judicial official, aimed at discouraging others, do not have expectations from anyone… With the approaching festivities such as the New Year (March 21), I implore my fellow Zoroastrians to act cautiously for their own good. The reason is that holding mixed (gender) meetings which are very normal for us… will be seen as promoting indecency and they will sentence you to 15 years in prison for so-called corruption and depravity like I have (been).”