Letter from Nadim Zakka, son of Nizar Zakka, to HE Hassan Rouhaniرسالة للرئيس الإيراني من ابن المعتقل اللبناني في إيران، نزار زكا
Mr. President Hassan Rouhani
First of all I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you Mr Rouhani on your recent Presidential election.
My father Nizar Zakka, was invited by your Vice President Mrs Shahindokht Molaverdi to attend the 2nd International Conference & Exhibition on Women in Sustainable Development “ Entrepreneurship & Employment” in Teheran from the 14th to the 18 th September of 2015 (Invitation and Visa attached). He was officially invited according to Mrs Molaverdi’s own words for his “countless knowledge, valuable experiences and deep creativeness & innovations…for enriching this significant event and transferring” his “achievements and experiences to this Conference.” After the Conference, my father was kidnapped on his way to the airport and has been detained in Evin prison ever since.
Many understand and find justifications for your government’s tactics and ideologies. I do not claim to be an expert in the politics of any nation. Even though many people have tried to explain to me the ongoing situation with my father; Simply put, I do not understand it. I have been told that things in Iran are different than anywhere else in the world… How is Iran different? Isn’t your Government based on Justice, Unity and Peace? In my life I have never doubted the intentions of any Government, as all Governments seek the Best interest of their people.
We might speak a different language and live in different communities, but we all laugh and we all bleed. You and my father are not so different; you are both good men that live for the people before yourselves. When my father got an official invitation to your country, he felt nothing but pride and honor. He was eager to use his experience and achievement to promote a better prosperous future for Iranian society as he would have helped any other nation in the world. Before being a Lebanese citizen, before being a father, a son, a brother, my father is a citizen of the world, having all of us weighing on his shoulders.
I do not seek your sympathy President Rouhani, I do not even seek your remorse but I am simply bewildered and wish to understand. I have been baffled for almost 2 years, I have asked nothing! I have put faith in your judicial system hoping that justice will prevail. What worries me most are some of the comments made by yourself during the recent presidential campaign criticizing the harsh sentences by the Iranian courts against some Iranian citizens. Now and after more than twenty months, I think the system has not been fair for my father and my family. In fact, for the past Eight months, my father’s case has been put “on hold” awaiting “Istiilam” or additional information by the judge. Throughout the process, my father has not been able to hire a Lebanese attorney nor see the Lebanese Ambassador freely, which are basic rights under any international law. This clearly shows that the case against my father is being fabricated and the delay in court is just a mean to prolong his suffering. What has he done to deserve such treatment? Why would you invite him to take him away from my brothers and me? I am just a young man trying to understand…
My family just spent the second month of Ramadan without my father. My father is now on an open-ended Hunger Strike and is in very poor health, and I am very worried for his life.
Please stop our suffering before it is too late…
Faithfully,
Nadim Nizar Zakka
04 July/2017
