IRAN: WRITER AND TRANSLATOR DAVARI SENTENCED TO DEATH

March 15, 2017:

Marjan Davari, a 50-year-old researcher and translator, has been convicted of ‘spreading corruption on earth’ and sentenced to death by  Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court. Charges such as ‘liaison’, ‘association and collusion against the state’, ‘membership in Eckankar religious group’ through translating their books, are also mentioned in court order.
Trial of the convicted translator was held in October and December 2016 in Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Salavati.
It should also be noted that Davari was transferred from Evin to Shahre-Ray Prison in February this year.
Marjan Davari was arrested in her parental house in Mehrsahhr, Karaj, on September 24, 2015.
She was then taken to Ministry of Intelligence’s ward 209 in Evin Prison, held in solitary confinement for three months while being interrogated without having access to a lawyer or any kind of legal consultancy. Ms. Davari was then transferred to women’s ward of Evin Prison after investigations ended on January 3, 2016.
As for the reasons and activities that led to Ms. Davari’s arrest, an informed source had told in a previous interview that “Ms. Davari is a translator. She has translated several books, mostly related to psychology, mysticism, and metaphysics. She also used to teach in an institution named ‘Rah-e Ma’refat’ (the road towards knowledge), a registered and legal institution belonging to her husband. Ms. Davari, however, separated both from her husband and the institution in early 2015. Following her ex-husband’s arrest six months later, she herself was also arrested, with all her activities as a translator and teacher being raised as charges.”
Marjan Davari is a Graphic Arts graduate from Al-Zahra University in Tehran. Her activities in Rah-e Ma’refat Institution were focused on mystical and metaphysical studies. Talons of Time by Paul Twitchell, The Seeker by Phil Morimitsu, and The Spiritual Exercises of Eck by Harold Klemp are among her published translations.