Tehran: 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 today.
Iranian police on Sunday raided and shut down the office of the Human Rights Defenders Centre as it was to hold a belated ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations declaration on human rights.
"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," Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told AFP.
Iranian authorities said the office was shut down because the centre did not have an interior ministry permit to operate, but the police action signalled a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic.
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.
Political parties and associations must have such a permit to be legally recognised in Iran.
