Iranian Nobel laureate says assets freeze illegal
Guy Jackson
LONDON, Guy Jackson - Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said Friday the Iranian regime had acted illegally in freezing her assets and said the decision to pursue her for tax came shortly after the election.
In an interview with AFP in London, Ebadi questioned why it had taken Iranian authorities so long to demand that she pay tax on the 1.3 million dollars (870,00 euros) she received for winning the Nobel prize in 2003.
She won the prize in 2003 for her campaign for democracy and human rights in Iran.
The Iranian authorities have denied seizing the award from a bank deposit box in Tehran, although the foreign ministry implicitly confirmed that Ebadi's assets had been frozen on the grounds that she had failed to pay tax on them.
"The confiscation of these properties is in breach of the law of the Islamic republic and I made a complaint against the judge who has ordered this confiscation," Ebadi said, speaking through a translator.
"The people who confiscated and blocked the bank accounts have nothing to do with the finance ministry, they were from the Revolutionary Court."
She said that under Iranian law, the Nobel prize money was not liable for tax.
"The peace prize was won six years ago and over this period of time there has never been a claim from the government for the tax. The claim was made just after the election," Ebadi said.
"I have received documents from the finance ministry asking me for 410,000 dollars in tax. I have protested against the amount, but I haven't had a response so far."
Ebadi, 62, who declined to be photographed, dismissed suggestions that the Iranian authorities had inadvertently taken the Nobel medal while they were confiscating documents relating to her assets.
"There is no mistake or error, they have confiscated or blocked all the personal accounts," she said.
"My husband had a safe box in commercial bank in Tejarat bank in Tehran and they have blocked and confiscated the contents of the safe.
"The Nobel medal and the Legion d'Honneur prize were in that safe box and they have been taken," she added, referring to France's top honour.
Ebadi left Iran on the eve of the election to attend a conference in Spain, and she has not returned since, but she said she intended to go home in the near future.
"All of my relatives and my home are in Iran so I will go back."
Her husband is being prevented from leaving the country, she said.
"He has nothing to do with politics or social activities. He is only involved in business."
Ebadi said she feared the West could be tempted to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in return for Iran's cooperation on its disputed nuclear programme.
"The issue of human rights is a universal concept. So I hope that the nuclear issues don't prevent people from looking at the human rights situation."
The UN nuclear watchdog criticised Iran on Friday and demanded it immediately halt construction of a newly-revealed uranium enrichment plant.
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Image: AFP/File/Fabrice Coffrini.