Tag: Political Prisoners

Three Political Prisoners Facing New Charges of Questionable Legitimacy After Protesting the Beating of Nayeb Hajizadeh Yangjeh

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Freedom of Expression, Prisoners
Hajizadeh Yangjeh, irgc, Kayhan Mokaram Al-Nabi, Nayeb Askari, Nayeb Hajizadeh, Nayeb Hajizadeh Yangjeh, Political Prisoners, Urmia, Urmia prison

On Monday, July 12, political prisoners Nayeb Hajizadeh Yangjeh, Kayhan Mokaram Al-Nabi, and Nayeb Askari were faced with new charges after protesting the beating of Hajizadeh Yangjeh.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, per an informed source, the lawsuit was filed at the request of Urmia Prison director Amir Sohrabi after several political prisoners protested the beating of Nayeb Hajizadeh by two prisoners accused of violent crimes.

It is said that one of the assailants was also summoned to the court as a witness in the case.

During the briefing session, the three accused were briefed on the alleged charges of “disturbing the order of the prison” and “blasphemy”.

Nayeb Hajizadeh was arrested by security forces in August 2019 and sentenced to 7 years and six months in prison shortly after being charged for membership in an opposition group. Kayhan Mokarram Al-Nabi was arrested by security forces in January 2020 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of membership in an opposition group.

Nayeb Askari was arrested by IRGC intelligence agents in Urmia in April this year and was transferred to prison in June. Mr. Askari has been charged with collaborating with an opposition party.

Political Prisoner Kamran Ghasemi Insulted and Beaten by Officers During Family Visitation in Urmia Prison

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Prisoners
Ghasemi, Kamran Ghasemi, Mistreatment of prisoners, Political Prisoners, Urmia, Urmia prison, West Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan Province

On June 26, political prisoner Kamran Ghasemi was beaten by prison officers after objecting to the inappropriate treatment of his family by the agents during their visitation in Urmia Prison in West Azerbaijan Province.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human rights Activists, Kamran Ghasemi has spent the past two years in the detention facilities of security institutions and Urmia Prison. He was transferred from the youth to the political ward of Urmia Prison in May this year.

“Officers beat Mr. Ghasemi in front of his family, then kicked him out in a very inappropriate manner,” a source close to the family said. “After other political prisoners protested this incident, in response, the chief of prison transferred 15 inmates of violent crimes under his command to the door of the political prisoners and threatened that protesters will be dealt with, in case of any objection. Amir Sohrabi, the director of Urmia Prison, uses such methods to prevent political prisoners from protesting.”

In November of last year, Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia sentenced Kamran Ghasemi to 10 years and 1 day in prison on charges of acting against national security by being a member of an opposition group.

Court Hearing Postponed Again for Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi, and Saeed Tamjidi

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Executions, Freedom of Expression, Prisoners
#Don't_execute, Amir Hossein Moradi, Execution, Hearing postponed, Mohammad Rajabi, November Protests, Political Prisoners, Saeed Tamjidi

On May 12th, the court hearing for political prisoners Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi, detained since the national protests of November 2019, was postponed for a second time.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, the prosecutor’s representative, defendants, and lawyers were all present, but the hearing was unable to proceed in the absence of a second judge. The hearing has not yet been rescheduled.

Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi were previously sentenced to death by the Tehran Revolutionary Court. They were also sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 222 lashes.

On Jun 24, 2020, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)  announced that the death sentence of the three political prisoners had been upheld by the Supreme Court. On July 14, 2020, the spokesman of the Judiciary officially announced the confirmation of their  death sentence and said that the sentences had been sent to the prosecutor’s office for execution.

However, according to the lawyers, permission to enter the trial and study the case was given to them on July 15, 2020–weeks after HRANA news agency reported that the death sentence was confirmed in the Supreme Court.

Less than an hour after the official confirmation of the death sentences for Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi, “#Don’t_execute” became the world’s top trend with hundreds of thousands of tweets. Human Rights Watch, US President Donald Trump, the Writers’ Association of Iran, and others all reacted to this news. The hashtag has now been used more than ten million times.

The following day, UN human rights experts issued a statement and condemned the death sentences. The statement expressed that Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi were tortured and forced to confess and that these forced confessions were later used against them in their trials. HRANA has previously conducted numerous conversations with informed sources and extensive research to determine what happened to the prisoners in the various processes of activity up to the conviction.

On July 19, 2020, the three defendants’ lawyers issued a joint statement announcing that the case had been referred to a different branch for retrial after the Supreme Court’s acceptance of Article 477.

In mid December of 2020, in the aftermath of the global outcry, the young activists’ request for a retrial was finally accepted by Branch 1 of the Supreme Court and their death sentences were overturned.

The case was then referred to Branch 23 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, but, due to a change of chief judge of the branch, the first hearing was postponed from March to May 12th.

Now, it has been postponed from May 12th to a date that has yet to be determined.

Retrial Denied to Imprisoned Couple Struggling with Health Problems

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Children, Freedom of Expression, Prisoners
Evin Prison, Fatemeh Mosana, Hassan Sadeghi, iran political prisoners, medical neglect, Political Prisoners, political prisoners in Iran, Prisoner abuse, Rajai Shahr Prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- A request for retrial for a married couple imprisoned on political grounds has been denied for the second time by Branch 33 of Iran’s Supreme Court.

Hassan Sadeghi and Fatemeh Mosana, who have been tortured and incarcerated multiple times over the past four decades since the Revolution, are currently serving 15-year prison sentences; Sadeghi in Karaj’s Rajai Shahr prison, and Mosana in Tehran’s Evin prison.

After being tortured by intelligence agents during an arrest, Sadeghi sustained eye injuries that have developed into secondary ailments, including glaucoma. His glaucoma-afflicted right eye may soon require surgery, but the advancement of his disease informs a poor prognosis. Though he has made an appointment with an ophthalmologist, he won’t be able to honor it: the prosecutor’s office refuses to issue Sadeghi the permit he needs to go there.

Sadeghi was first arrested in 1981 at the age of 16, and was tortured over the course of his six-year detention; the impact of multiple lashings ground a dent into his skull. Under psychological and physical duress, Sadeghi also developed an ulcer and gastrointestinal infection. Years later, gel insoles and orthopedic shoes help relieve the chronic foot pain caused by his torturers, who fractured his heel bone with repeated whips of a cable to the soles of his feet — yet the prosecutor’s office bars Sadeghi from even buying them himself.

Mosana, 41, was first arrested in 1980 at the age of 13. With her mother, she was charged with “Moharebeh” [enmity against God] and “Baqi” [rebellion] for membership in the opposition group MEK. Both served three years in prison; meanwhile, three of her brothers and a sister-in-law were executed for opposition activities.

Mosana suffered a leg injury while incarcerated in 2016 that required the application of a cast, a treatment that authorities delayed for two and a half months. After her complaints of chronic pain were ignored by prison staff, she was transferred to an outside medical facility where doctors diagnosed her with permanent tendon rupture.

Sadeghi was again arrested along with Mosana and his two children in February 2013 for commemorating his late father, an anti-regime activist. Authorities sealed Sadeghi’s home after the arrest and detained their 10-year-old daughter Fatemeh for three days. Their son Iman, 19 years old at the time, was in custody for a month and a half.

Sadeghi and Mosana spent a year behind bars before going free on bail. Judge Ahmadzadeh of Revolutionary Court Branch 26 would later order the couple to serve 15 years in prison and surrender their property, including their home and their shop. This sentence was later upheld in appeals court.

Mosana was detained September 30, 2015, to begin serving the 15-year sentence. Her husband was arrested in turn while visiting her in Evin prison on February 7, 2016. Their children, now aged 26 and 19, are in the care of their elderly grandmother.

Prison Authorities Withhold Medical Care from an Ailing Arash Sadeghi

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Prisoners
Arash Sadeghi, arash sadeghi diagnosed with cancer, golrokh iraee, Golrokh Irayee, iran political prisoners, Political Prisoners, political prisoners in Iran, Prisoner abuse, Rajai Shahr Prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Per orders from Assistant Prosecutor Rostami, who manages the political prisoners of Rajai Shahr, imprisoned civil rights activist and bone cancer patient Arash Sadeghi has been denied transfer to a hospital despite a severe infection to the surgical site on his arm.

A close source told HRANA that Sadeghi was recently sent to Imam Khomeini hospital after his infection and biopsy results were flagged for concern. “If the infection does not go away, it will lead to a bad outcome for him,” the source said. “Yet it’s been more than two weeks, and Rostami is still ordering that all political prisoners be denied transfers for outside medical treatment.”

Against the orders of his doctor, Sadeghi was returned to prison just three days after a September 12th surgery for chondrosarcoma at Imam Khomeini hospital. His surgical site would contract a severe infection soon after, prompting his return to the hospital September 22nd at noon. Despite his decline into critical condition, he was again returned to prison, reportedly due to the absence of an appropriate specialist to treat him.

Chondrosarcoma is the most prominent malignant bone cancer in youth, affecting an estimated 100 patients per year in Iran. In this type of cancer, malignant tumors are composed of cartilage-producing cells.

Amnesty International issued a statement on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, saying “The Iranian authorities are torturing jailed human rights defender Arash Sadeghi, who has cancer, by deliberately depriving him of the specialist medical care health professionals have said he desperately requires.”

On July 21st of this year, HRANA reported on Sadeghi’s transfer to the hospital under tight security controls. Saying that the doctor was not present, hospital officials turned him away, postponed his scheduled treatment, and returned him to the prison.

Arash Sadeghi was sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment by Tehran Revolutionary Court. In December 2016, he staged a 72-day hunger strike to protest the continued imprisonment of his wife, Golrokh Iraee.

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Four Sentenced to Prison for Political Activism

Posted on by Sara
Freedom of Expression
Ali Bazazadeh, Ali Kabirmehr, iran political prisoners, January Protests, january protests iran, Morteza Nazari Sedhi, Political Prisoners, political prisoners in Iran, Telegram, telegram activist in prison in ran, Zahra Zare Seraji

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – Morteza Nazari Sedhi, a political prisoner in Ward 4 of Evin Prison, has been sentenced to prison together along with his wife Zahra Zare Seraji.

The Revolutionary Court of Baharestan County in Tehran Province sentenced both Sedhi and Seraji with forming an illegal group, disseminating lies in cyberspace, and propaganda against the regime. Among the evidence cited against them was their forming of online political groups, recruitment of participants in the January protests, membership in monarchist groups via a social messaging app called Telegram, a close source told HRANA.

Sedhi was sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison, two years of exile to Azna County in central Lorestan province, and a fine. Seraji got an eight-year sentence and a fine on the same convictions, while their co-defendants Ali Kabirmehr and Ali Bazazadeh were both sentenced to 13-year prison terms.

All of the defendants will be required to learn sections of the Quran as part of their sentence.

Nazari Sedhi and Seraji were in a bad physical and psychological condition as of their sentencing, the source added.

Seraji had been previously released on a bail of 2 billion rials (approximately $48,000 USD).

Rajai Shahr Authorities Botch Arash Sadeghi’s Recovery from Cancer Surgery

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Prisoners
Arash Sadeghi, arash sadeghi diagnosed with cancer, Political Prisoners, Prisoner abuse

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Authorities are botching the post-op course of imprisoned civil rights activist Arash Sadeghi, who underwent surgery for bone cancer on September 12th.

While attempting to recover in Rajai Shahr prison of Karaj, Sadeghi contracted an infection on his surgical site. On September 22nd, authorities were adamant about escorting him to the hospital at noon, despite his specialist’s explicit indications that he could only give consultations in the morning.

According to a close source, authorities told Sadeghi that his specialist’s schedule had changed, which upon their arrival at the hospital proved untrue. Sadeghi’s only recourse was a general practitioner, who added 12 antibiotics to his medication regimen.

Sadeghi is currently taking only prescribed antibiotics, and will possibly be transferred to a hospital next week. En route back to Rajai Shahr from his September 22nd consultation, Security Unit Commander Maghsoud Zolfali and Prison Director Gholamreza Ziyai threatened to block his transfer.

HRANA previously reported on Sadeghi’s ongoing medical ordeal.

Afrin Battles Detainees Condemned to 11 Years in Prison

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Other, Prisoners
Afrin Battles, Ghader Zeinab, iran human rights, irgc, Political Prisoners, Rahim Mahmoudi Azar, syria iran, syria kurdistan

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- The verdict of Mostafa Ghader Zeinab and Rahim Mahmoudi Azar–two Urmia residents who were sent back to Iran from Syrian Kurdistan after being wounded in the Turkish offensives on Afrin–was upheld by Branch 1 of the Appeals Court of Urmia.

Per their original sentencing by Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia on July 6, 2018, Zeinab and Azar face five years in prison on charges of “Membership in anti-regime groups,” five years in prison for “collusion and conspiracy,” and one year in prison for “propaganda against the regime.”

Zeinab has been released on bail, and Azar remains in detention at Urmia.

A source close to both men previously told HRANA that Zeinab and Azar were members of a Kurdish military group fighting in Syria. After sustaining injuries during a Turkish attack on Afrin, they were transferred to a hospital in Aleppo. “Upon realizing their nationalities, Syrian authorities handed them over to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the source said.

According to the source, they were interrogated at Evin Detention Center for a week in March 2018 before being transferred to Urmia’s Intelligence Office, where they were interrogated for a month.

Both men have been denied the right to appoint lawyers of their choice and attended their court session with a public defender.

Anemic Political Prisoner Denied Medical Treatment on 10th Day of Hunger Strike

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Freedom of Expression, Other, Prisoners, Women
Human Rights, Iran, iran human rights, iran protests, janujary protests, Mahin-Taj Ahmadpour, Political Prisoners

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – On the shore of the Caspian Sea in the city of Tonekabon, authorities at Nashtaroud Prison are still withholding medical care from political prisoner Mahin-Taj Ahmadpour, who has now been on hunger strike for ten days.

Sentenced to 10 months in prison for her participation in the January protests, Ahmadpour has been on hunger strike since September 10th, in protest of her restricted access to both medical care and the prison telephone.
Her strike is also a revolt against prison authorities who, as a form of coercion or harassment, reportedly threatened to open new charges against her.

An informed source told HRANA that prison officials have displayed apathy toward Ahmadpour’s anxiety about her condition. “On Thursday, September 13th, Ms. Ahmadpour felt sick and asked prison authorities for a transfer to an outside hospital, or to allow her family to bring medications to her, but the authorities ignored her pleas,” the source said.

Concerned at her frail state and steep drop in blood pressure, Ahmadpour’s ward mates brought her to authorities again in hopes of obtaining her treatment. A few hours later, the ward mates learned she had instead been transferred to solitary confinement.

“They said that she would be held there until she broke her hunger strike,”  the source said. “She was sent back to the ward last night, without having been treated, and still on strike.”

Per her treatment plan for anemia, Ahmadpour should receive seven units of blood every month. An informed told HRANA that monthly blood infusions were also recommended for her as a preventative measure against leukemia. Despite her diagnosis and supporting medical documentation, however, prison authorities are adamant about denying her requests for a medical transfer.

Mahin-Taj Ahmadpour is a 46-year-old resident of Tonekabon. A peddler by trade, she was arrested along with 14 other residents during widespread rallies that took place in January 2018 across Iran, known as the January Protests. The Revolutionary Court of Tonekabon sentenced eight of these arrestees to 28 months’ imprisonment, divided among the defendants. Branch 101 of Criminal Court No. 2 of Tonekabon, presided over by Judge Ebrahimi, also sentenced six of the arrestees to 24 collective months of prison time.

Ahmadpour was first sentenced May 2, 2018, in Branch 101 of Tonekabon Criminal Court No. 2 to serve a six-month prison sentence on a charge of “disrupting the public peace through participation in an illegal gathering.” On August 11, 2018, Tunekabon’s Revolutionary Court compounded the sentence with four months’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the regime.” As evidence against her, the court cited a combination of law enforcement reports and images and video taken during the January protests in Tonekabon.

HRANA previously reported on Ms. Mahin-Taj Ahmadpour’s third day of hunger strike in Nashtaroud Prison.

Political Prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared Joins Chorus of Eulogies for Executed Kurds

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Ethnic Minorities, Executions, Prisoners, Women
ethnic minorities in iran, iran human rights, kurdish political prisoners executed, kurdish prisoners, letter from prison, Loghman Moradi, Maryam Akbari-Monfared, political hostages, Political Prisoners, prisoner letter, Ramin Hossein Panahi, september 8, Zanyar Moradi

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner held in the women ward’s of Evin Prison, has penned an open letter in response to the highly controversial September 8th executions of Kurdish political prisoners Ramin Hossein Panahi, Loghman Moradi, and Zanyar Moradi.
Monfared, whose own siblings have been executed, expressed her sympathy for the mothers and sisters of the executed prisoners and chastised the broken promises of both current president Hassan Rouhani and the past 40 years of Iran’s Islamic governance.
The full text of her letter, translated into English by HRANA, is below:

Maryam Akbari Monfared

It has been a week since that day, September 8th, 2018.
September is the month of blood in Iran: September 8th, 1978*, and September of 1981**.
September 8th: Everyone is worried. My ward mates and I have heart palpitations. We are in a swarm of contradictory news flashes. Some say the families were told the executions have stayed; someone else says that their families visited them yesterday for the last time.
And then comes the 8 p.m. news, broadcasting a speech from a figurehead of a government touting “prudence and hope.”*** I think to myself, “Hope is such a beautiful word!”. Rouhani promises to break the chains of injustice with a golden key and to sow new hopes in the souls of the nation. He campaigned as his predecessors did before him, riding the wave of the country’s emotional elan. The ink on the ballots was still wet when he changed his stripes. How despicable of him to preside over the nation’s highest rate of executions and civilian crackdowns in 30 years.
All eyes in the ward are transfixed on the TV screen and the news ticker running at the bottom. Ears in the ward are attuned to the speaker’s’ every word.
Finally, the 10:30 p.m. broadcast: “Three terrorists…”
That’s right. For 40 years, they sent this land’s youth to the gallows, lined them up before firing squads, sent them off wholesale to torture chambers and prisons. Then, brazenly, they speak of their actions under the guise of eliminating “terrorism” and other excuses of this ilk. The chariots of oppression, torture, and captivity have been riding unbridled for 40 years.
I don’t intend to re-narrate the crimes of the regime, for the vileness and cruelty of the establishment are readily apparent. The news is abuzz with sympathy and condolences. Perhaps now it is too late to add my own….but for a while, I was unable to muster the presence of mind to pen even a few lines to the mothers and sisters of these beloved men.
To my mothers and sisters: I know your pain very well. I can almost sense the unbearable, scalding pain in your hearts. I know the whispers of the warm lullabies you used to sing, even those lost in the wrinkled lines of your bodies or drowned out by screams in a faraway land. I know the bitter taste of those tears shed by poppy flowers.
I know that you are adding a page to what will be the proud and bright history of Iran’s fight for freedom. I wish to honor your motherhood, this exalted, humane quality, and to thank you for your endless, unabating kindness. Your name is a comforting breeze in the sky. Your familiar faces and your kind gaze bear the promise of life, love, and resistance. When the flames of injustice burn your cheeks, I will put out the flames by touching your cheek to my own, which is frozen in the grimace of injustice.
I am brimming with unspoken words. My tears and the lumps in my throat are bursting with the pain of oppression. But now is not the time to cry. We have to spread our screams all over like ashes. I will lean against your warm chest from behind these stony and cold prison walls. My heart is ablaze with pain, and the tip of the flames reach my throat. This is not only the fire of pain–it is also the fire of life. I wish to carry your tears and your anguish on my shoulder, to feel the burden of this responsibility for the rest of my life. My mothers! My sisters! We must harness the power of our collective pain to soothe the wounds of the Iranian freedom movement.
The vampire will not leave its throne of darkness unless we shake that throne and force it to flee. Let me hold your warm hands with my cold hands, and together, we will join the ranks of the justice movement for our loved ones. To bring to justice the ones responsible for these horrific crimes, we must join forces.
Maryam Akbari Monfared
Evin Prison
September 2018
************************
Maryam Akbari Monfared was arrested amid the 2009 Green Movement protests, and in June 2010 was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Judge Salavati in Branch 15 of Revolutionary Court for “enmity against God and the Islamic government through membership in the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).” Monfared has denied these accusations.
Two of her brothers were executed in 1981 and 1984 by revolutionary courts for membership in the MEK. In the summer of 1988, two more of her siblings — a brother and a sister — were executed as part of a widespread massacre of political prisoners. In a letter to former UN Special Rapporteur Ahmad Shaheed, Monfared quoted her sentencing Judge: “You [Monfared] are bearing the burden of your siblings’ [political activities].”
Monfared served the first two years of her sentence in Karaj’s Rajai Shahr Prison on the western outskirts of Tehran. She was then transferred in May 2011 along with eight other female prisoners to Gharchak Prison in Varamin, southeast Tehran. Shaheed protested the transfer and shed light on the deplorable conditions at Gharchak. As a result, Monfared was then transferred to the Evin Prison women’s ward, where she is serving the remainder of her sentence.
* In the last months of the Shah’s reign preceding the revolution, September 8th, 1978 came to be known as “Black Friday” when soldiers opened fire on protesters assembled in Jaleh Square, killing many.
** Iran’s then-new Islamic government intensified its crackdown on the opposition in the summer of 1981, arresting and executing a countless number of people.
*** “Prudence and Hope” was Rouhani’s slogan during both of his presidential campaigns.