Sara Moghaddam
Esha Momeni has been unable to meet with her family or lawyer a week after having been arrested by the traffic police and detained at the Evin prison.
Speaking to Rooz regarding the circumstances surrounding her arrest, Esha Momeni’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, tells Rooz, “The scope of responsibility of the traffic police is clear and obvious. Despite this fact, after searching her vehicle, and because of films in her possession, they transported my client to Evin [prison]. So far, unfortunately, neither her family has been able to visit her nor I have been allowed to meet with my client, who is a student researcher.”
Dadkhah regards the rights to visit with his client as the most basic rights of a detainee and, noting that he has not yet been able to communicate with his client, says regarding Esha Momeni’s charges, “With the information we have been able to gather from her family, the charges seem to be related to her activities in connection with the One Million Signatures Campaign.”
Insisting that activism in the One Million Signatures Campaign is not a crime, Dadkhah says, “The Campaign’s activity, in the end, is a simple protest against laws. This itself is in accordance with the Constitution. Our religious tradition grants opponents the right to voice their views as well.”
Noting his client’s higher education goals, Esha Momeni’s attorney hoped that judiciary officials would compensate Momeni for damages arising from time lost on her research program and announcing his readiness to post the required bail amount for her release whenever the judiciary’s officials announce that they are ready.
Esha Momeni is a graduate student at the California State University’s Northridge campus and a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign. She was stopped and arrested by the traffic police on October 16 for “illegal passing” while driving on one of Tehran’s freeways. She was transported to the Evin prison following the stop and has been allowed to have one telephone conversation with her family since.
