Brother pleads for release of British woman jailed in Iran

The brother of a young British woman jailed in Tehran for watching a volleyball match made an emotional appeal to the Iranian president to release his sister as he carried a petition signed by nearly 400,000 people to Iran’s United Nations mission.

Security guards turned away Iman Ghavami, less than a day after President Hassan Rouhani was heckled at a New York panel discussion by protestors holding up pictures of Ghoncheh Ghavami.

The 25-year-old University of London law graduate, who attended a male volleyball game after Mr Rouhani spoke out against a ban on women spectators, was this week charged with propaganda offences.

Mr Ghavami, who like his sister has dual British-Iranian nationality, travelled to New York from London to publicise her plight while Mr Rouhani attends the United Nations general assembly.

As Mr Rouhani blamed foreign powers for the scourge of terrorism in his speech to world powers, Mr Ghavami arrived at the nearby Iranian mission in an unsuccessful attempt to hand in the petition calling for his sister’s release.

“What did my sister do to deserve this?” he asked. “How can it be a crime is to want to watch a volleyball match?”

“This isn’t about the global politics being discussed right down the street. This is about one young woman who has been wrongly incarcerated for a crime no one even knew could be committed.

“I’m issuing a personal plea to President Rouhani to please help my sister be released. Our mother is restless beyond imagination. My father, a surgeon, can’t work so deep and unnerving is his fear for his girl.

“We have always been a very close family. Please, President Rouhani, free Ghoncheh and reunite our family again."

Miss Ghavani, who has spent three months in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, was charged with “propaganda against the regime” – a crime, which if it goes to the infamous revolutionary courts, carries a potential prison sentence of several years.

Her case was raised by David Cameron with Mr Rouhani during a historic first meeting since the 1979 revolution between the leaders of the two countries.

The Iranian president later delivered an address to the New America think-tank where he referred dismissively to the plight of “individuals” when asked about similar cases, including that of six young Iranians who were imprisoned for recording a video showing them dancing to the Pharrell Williams song, Happy.

Noting that those who broke the law must face the legal consequences, he said: "We do have a multiplicity today of problems in the region and the world, then to speak about the prosecution of certain individuals.

"I as the President of Iran have been sworn in and put there by all of the people to protect the constitution and if the constitution is a violated it is my legal responsibility to take the appropriate steps."

Saying the judiciary was separate from the political system, and everyone had to obey the law: "whether I like it or you like it or not," he went on: "I do not think the problems are such in Iran that if someone wants to have fun they are arrested."

As Mr Rouhani began to leave the room, two protesters held up banners with photographs of Miss Ghavami. One, Ali Abdi, a student at Yale University, stood up and shouted at the departing president, saying: "You promised us last year that all Iranians were welcome to go back to in Iran. She is 25-years-old and she is in prison for the act of watching volleyball."

Women in Iran were prohibited from watching volleyball matches in September 2013. However, Mr Rouhani had recently spoken against the ban and Miss Ghavami thought an agreement had been reached to allow women to attend.

Her brother said that his family was not political. Indeed, the only conversation he recalled about politics at the dinner table was before last year’s election when his sister persuaded her family to vote for Mr Rouhani.

Telegraph