Abbas Lisani Refused to Make his Defence Statement in Persian

March 11, 2019 - South Azerbaijan

Abbas Lisani, a well-known minority rights activist of Turkish community of Azerbaijan in Iran refused to give his court testimony in Farsi (Persianin a protest to its hegemony as the only language of education, administration, law and court in multiethnic and multilingual society of Iran.

Lisani, 50, who was arrested in Tabriz on January 15, 2019, while attending to the funeral of Hassan Damirchi, a fellow activist was taken to the Prosecution Office of Ardabil Province on Sunday, March 10th, for “spreading propaganda against the state,” and "forming an illegal group."


According to human rights groups reports
A
bbas Lisani (Lesani) objected to wearing a jail uniform for his court appearance because "it  was violation of his human dignity"; he was taken to the court shackled on his hands and legs.


At Ardabil's Public Prosecutor and Revolutionary Court, Lisani refused to speak Farsi and submitted his written defence statement in Turkish, arguing that "it is his legal and constitutional right to use his mother tongue in the court process as a part of fair trial."


Abbas Lisani, Amnesty's Prisoner of Conscience "has been targeted by the authorities for over a decade because of his peaceful advocacy on behalf of Azerbaijani Turks in Iran, including through taking part in gatherings at Babak Fort and on International Mother Language Day, and publishing a calendar in the Azerbaijani Turkish language."

In recent years, in Iran's Azerbaijan, Turkish minority rights activists in insisting on their right to use their native language in courtrooms during trials try to turn their persecution into an opportunity to challenge monolingual hegemony of Persian, which is the only language of education and public institutions in the country.