The rights group headed by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is to lodge a complaint against the "illegal" closure of its office, a founding member of the centre said on Friday. Iranian police on Sunday raided and shut down the office of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, signalling a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic."We are lodging a complaint on Saturday. We are also going to write to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi to protest this violation of the law," lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told AFP.
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"We have our rules and regulations. If somebody goes beyond those rules and regulations, they have to undergo the scrutiny of the concerned judicial process, and I believe that has been completed and her office is reopened."
Ebadi's group says it has sought to obtain authorisation to no avail while insisting that founding associations without an official permit is lawful as long as they are not against Islam. "We went to the ministry six years ago and submitted all the required documents," Dadkhah said, adding that a former deputy interior minister in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government "also said we were not illegal".
"This is an organisation that does not seek power but it has solely been targeted for defending human rights," he added.
Ebadi, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2003, was in the office during the raid, which came as the group was to hold a belated ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations declaration on human rights. She condemned the police action, which she said had taken place without a warrant, as "illegal" but vowed that her campaigning would continue.
Founded by five prominent lawyers, the group is a vocal critic of the human rights situation in Iran and has defended scores of prisoners of conscience, including high-profile dissidents and student activists.