Tag: Prisoner abuse

Ardabil Prisoner Hanged to Death

Posted on by Sara
Executions, Prisoners
Ardabil, ardabil prison, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Execution, executions, executions in iran, iran death penalty, Meysam Saber, Prisoner abuse

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – Twenty-seven-year-old Meysam Saber, a prisoner in the Health Ward of Ardabil Prison, was executed in the early morning hours of Sunday, October 21, 2018.

Saber had been detained on murder charges since 2013. He was reportedly transferred to solitary confinement on the eve of his execution.

Saber was the subject of a HRANA report on prisoner abuse last year when he was chained to the bars of the Quarantine Ward for 24 straight hours for complaining about mistreatment by prison guards.

By carrying out Saber’s hanging in silence, authorities — particularly the Judiciary — demonstrate a continued pattern of obfuscation on the topic of prisoner sentencing and executions, in spite of their responsibilities of informing the public.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. On the World Day against the Death Penalty (October 10th), the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) published its annual report, indicating that at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.

Urmia Prisoners of Conscience End Weeklong Hunger Strike

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
Ahmad Tamooie, Central Prison in Urmia, Central Prison of Urmia, Habib Amini, Hassan Rastegari, Hunger Strike, hunger strike prisoner, Javad Shirzad, Kamal Hassan Ramazan, Kamran Darvishi, Morteza Zohrali, Osman Mostafapour, Prisoner abuse, prisoner hunger strike, prisoner hunger strike iran, saeed nouri, Saeed Seyed Abbasi, Touraj Esmaili, Urmia Central Prison

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – A mass hunger strike of Urmia Central prisoners of conscience ended on its fifth day after prison authorities engaged to addressing prisoner complaints of rampant abuse.

Strikes were underway as of October 16th, when prisoners launched a protest against a violent raid of the Political Ward (Ward 12) by special forces that left a number of prisoners wounded.

Divided between Ward 12 and the Youth Ward’s prisoners of conscience, protesters declared that the restoration of their legal rights would put an end to the strike.

In a recently-issued statement, strikers asked inmates’ families to appear at the front gate of Urmia Central on October 21st to demand justice for those inside. The statement impelled the head of the prison to invite groups of strikers for a sit-down in the prosecutor’s’ office– an invitation they declined, a close source said.

During the hunger strike, at least one prisoner, Habib Amini, was sent to the prison clinic for treatment following a decline in his health.

Below is a translation of the aforementioned statement. Its signatories asked to remain anonymous. :

“Pursuant to the hunger strike of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience at Urmia Central Prison that began October 16, 2018, the families of these and other prisoners are asked to appear before the Central Prison of Urmia on Sunday, October 21st to demand restoration of the legal and Shari’a-granted rights of their children, in a show of support for their legal and judicial demands.

This protest is a declaration of dissent with the extraordinary oppression and discrimination faced by prisoners and their families in this city. In a state of material and psychological insecurity, prisoners here live under surmounting pressures. We hope that officials have the compassion to reduce this targeted oppression.

Finally, we ask that all sensible minds be moved by this news, and react with the same power they displayed over the three recently executed Kurdish political prisoners and the missile offensive on Kurdistan.”

*

The Ward-12 raid occurred on the evening of October 15th, when political prisoners came to the defense of one of their comrades who had been physically assaulted for arguing with prison personnel. In response to their objections, authorities and special forces, numbering more than 50 and armed with with batons, tasers, and tear gas, stormed the political ward and laid into the inmates there. That same night, authorities assaulted and injured a number of prisoners of conscience in the Youth Ward.

Kamal Hassan Ramazan, Ahmad Tamooie, Osman Mostafapour, and Touraj Esmaili were among the first prisoners beaten in response to their objections of a group assault on their wardmate Hamid Rahimi. Personnel identified only as “Eskandar” and “Rezaie” reportedly commandeered additional Urmia prisoners to deal blows to the four men, breaking bones and teeth, and cutting one of them with a sharp object.

Ramezan, Tamoo’i, Mostafapoor, and two more Ward-12 bystanders, Hassan Rastegari and Kamran Darvishi, were among those injured in the onslaught that followed. The latter two were transferred to solitary confinement; Rastegari has since been returned to Ward 12. “Hassan Rastegari was badly bruised all over,” the source said, adding that prison authorities then sicced fellow prisoners on political detainees for a second time.

Urmia Central Prison authorities have a history of ruling my corporal punishment. On October 8, 2018, prisoner Morteza Zohrali’s right arm was broken in a beating by prison officials; On September 23rd, Youth Ward inmate Javad “Arash” Shirzad was sent to an outside hospital for treatment of a concussion sustained at the hands of “Bayramzadeh,” the prison’s internal director; in July, Saeed Seyed Abbasi was beaten and sent to solitary confinement without treatment of his injuries, all for arriving late to the prison yard for recreation time; and in May, according to HRANA reports, prisoner Saeed Nouri, a former IRGC lieutenant, was beaten by two personnel in the internal director’s office.

Reports indicate that political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience are more vulnerable than others to the gamut of inmate abuses. HRANA previously reported on a September 18th raid on Ward 12 by special forces, where guards pilfered and destroyed the prisoners’ personal belongings, including food they had purchased themselves.

Zahedan Prisoner Attempts Pill Overdose

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
prison suicide, Prisoner abuse, Saeed Baravi, suicide in iran, Zahedan, Zahedan Prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- On the morning of October 20, 2018, Zahedan prisoner Saeed Baravi, 26, attempted a pill overdose after authorities refused to address alleged mistreatment of his family by Zahedan personnel.

An unconscious Baravi was transferred to the prison clinic after ingesting the pills.

An informed source told HRANA that Baravi’s family had been met with verbal aggression when they pressed the supervising judge for an update on his request for furlough.

“The judge’s secretary Mr. Nouri insulted the family and had them removed from the office,” the source said. “Mr. Baravi then met with Mr. Khosravi, the Zahedan prison director, to deliver a letter objecting to the secretary’s conduct.”

Baravi has been serving a 15-year sentence on drug-related charges since 2016.

Multiple inmate suicides have been attributed to Zahedan prison’s oppressive and unhygienic living conditions, not least of which include patterns of abuse and neglect by prison authorities. Anguished by authorities’ continued neglect of his case, death-row prisoner Saeed Saberi completed suicide by pill overdose in mid-August of this year when he saw his name removed from a list of prisoners scheduled for a sit-down with the prison prosecutor. On August 5th, 42-year-old Mansour Mohammad Zehi, also on death row, took his own life by swallowing razor blades, having claimed that prison personnel had confiscated his dieh, or “blood money” [a price set by families of murder victims by which some defendants can buy their way out of a death sentence]. In May, HRANA reported on the suicide of Mehdi Kouhkan, who had reportedly been distressed by a transfer order to the quarantine section.

Zahedan Prison is located on the southeastern border city of Zahedan.

In Solidarity with Fellow Gonabadi Dervish Prisoners, Reza Sigarchi Forgoes Food, Medicine

Posted on by Sara
Freedom of Expression, Religious Minorities
Abbas Dehghan, Ali Mohammad Shahi, dervish hunger strike, golestan haftom, Gonabadi Dervish, gonabadi dervish iran, Gonabadi Dervishes, Hunger Strike, hunger strike prisoner, Mohammad Reza Darvishi, Mojtaba Biranvand, Prisoner abuse, prisoner hunger strike, prisoner hunger strike iran, Reza Sigarchi, Saeed Soltanpour, Salehodin Moradi

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – In an act of protest, Reza Sigarchi, a Great Tehran Penitentiary prisoner of conscience and member of the * Gonabadi Dervish religious minority, announced Saturday, October 20th that he will be abstaining from both food and medicine.

Sigarchi’s strike is a demonstration of support for his fellow downtrodden Dervishes, according to Majzooban Noor, a website covering Dervish community news. He will reportedly not eat or ingest medicine until the following demands are met: lift the house arrest order on Dervish leader Noor Ali Tabandeh; release female Dervish prisoners; reunite separated Dervish prisoners into the same Ward; return Abbas Dehghan to Great Tehran Penitentiary.

Sigarchi, who suffers from heart disease, was hospitalized last week in Imam Khomeini Hospital where he underwent an angiography.

Five other Dervish prisoners in Great Tehran Penitentiary — Salehodin Moradi, Mojtaba Biranvand, Mohammad Reza Darvishi, Saeed Soltanpour, and Ali Mohammad Shahi — have been on hunger strike since a violent raid on their sit-in by prison guards on August 29th.

Hunger-striking Dervish Abbas Dehghan still hasn’t eaten since September 2nd. Dehghan reportedly spent one hour in Great Tehran Penitentiary post-trial before being transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison, under IRGC jurisdiction, where he has remained since.

All of the aforementioned prisoners were arrested amid the “Golestan Haftom” incident in February 2018, where Iranian police and plainclothes members of the IRGC’s Basij faction confronted hundreds of Gonabadi Dervishes who had rallied outside the home of their spiritual leader Noor Ali Tabandeh. The Dervish demonstrators sought to prevent the possible detainment of Tabandeh, who has reportedly been placed under extended house arrest by Iranian authorities.

Hundreds of Dervishes were beaten, wounded, and arrested during the Golestan Haftom incident. A similar attack occurred on January 24th after an intervention from security forces on the same street, heightening the sense of fear within the Dervish community.

Though Iranian judicial authorities estimate that around 300 people have been arrested in connection with Golestan Haftom, HRANA has thus far published the names of 324 arrestees and estimates that the actual number is considerably higher.

* There are various divisions among Dervishes in Iran. In this report, the term “Dervish” refers to Nematollahi Gonabadis, who declare themselves as followers of Twelver Shi’ism, Iran’s official state religion.

Bandar Abbas Authorities Break Fingers of Prisoner Pleading for Furlough

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
Bandar Abbas prison, Mohammad Hajizadeh, Prisoner abuse

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- A Bandar Abbas prisoner has been held in a solitary cell incommunicado since authorities assaulted him October 11, 2018, breaking two fingers on his right hand.

Prison authorities reportedly struck the victim Mohammad Hajizadeh after his visit to the prison social assistance office, where he was protesting the prison’s continued denial of his furlough requests.

A close source told HRANA that Hajizadeh was still yowling in pain long after the assault, adding that his transfer to solitary confinement was likely the prison’s way of blocking attempts to obtain any evidence of the injury that could substantiate a formal complaint.

Hajizadeh, 41, is a married father of one. He has been serving a prison sentence on drug-related charges since 2016.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sloganeered against civil rights repressions, publishing a Civil Rights Charter and verbally pushing for the comprehensive implementation of its provisions. Article 64 of the charter reads, “anyone arrested, convicted, or imprisoned is entitled to their civil rights, including proper nutrition, clothing, health and medical care, educational and cultural services, religious worship and practices.” Thus far, though, Rouhani’s rhetoric has yet to materialize into concrete initiatives.

Bandar Abbas Prison is located in Bandar Abbas on Iran’s southern coast.

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Doctors, Coroner Plead Furlough for Sadeghi’s Chemo

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
Arash Sadeghi, arash sadeghi diagnosed with cancer, Evin Prison, iran political prisoners, Prisoner abuse

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Prison authorities continue to jeopardize the post-operative course of imprisoned civil rights activist Arash Sadeghi, who was finally transferred to the hospital October 13th. Now his best hope of recovery, doctors say, is the slim chance that those same authorities will consent to a medical furlough.

So far, according to HRANA reports, Sadeghi’s urgent need for specialized care has done little to inspire sympathy from the prison powers that be. When doctors urged that he remain under hospital supervision after his September 12th bone cancer surgery, he was hastily whisked back to Evin Prison only three days later.

Back at the prison, a prosecutor’s assistant, identified only as “Rostami,” delayed Sadeghi’s follow-up for two weeks, during which time an infection took hold in the surgery site on Sadeghi’s right arm. Indeed, Sadeghi’s October 13th transfer was the sole successful among several hospital visits that authorities deliberately thwarted, i.e. postponed until afternoon hours when a qualified team of specialists was no longer available.

Immediately prior to his latest hospital visit, Maghsoud Zolfali, the head of the prison’s security unit, told Sadeghi that prosecutors had ordered all political prisoners on medical transfer to remain in prison garb. Sadeghi’s refusal to do so led to a verbal altercation, after which authorities placed him in a cold room as a punitive measure from 7:00 to 10:30 pm.

The chill followed Sadeghi to the hospital, where guards insulted him, twisted his arm, tightened his handcuffs, and punched him in the arm that had undergone surgery, reportedly because he had returned the greeting of medical personnel. When hospital staff protested the manhandling, agents responded that they were following the orders of the prison director to treat Sadeghi according to his status of a “security prisoner.”

When after his medical exam Sadeghi’s doctor advised he begin chemotherapy, Sadeghi expressed doubt that the treatment would work, citing the physically and mentally abusive dynamics of the prison. To ensure optimal results from this strenuous therapy, medical sources say, chemo patients must undergo treatment in the utmost comfort and calm. Citing this reason, doctors strongly advised against Sadeghi undergoing chemo outside of the hospital.

Upon Sadeghi’s return to Evin, the head of the prison medical clinic noted signs of injury to the surgical wound where he was punched at the hospital, including increased inflammation and discoloration due to bleeding. In the face of documentary evidence of this injury, prison authorities have done nothing to address it in the past five days.

Pursuant to the doctor’s chemotherapy recommendation, prosecutors ordered Sadeghi’s transfer to the coroner’s office. The coroner had no access to Sadeghi’s medical files; from a visual examination alone, they concluded that furlough from prison would be a necessary requisite for his chemo.

Maltreatment Results in Hunger Strike of 56 Urmia Prisoners

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
Hunger Strike, hunger strike prisoner, Prisoner abuse, prisoner hunger strike, prisoner hunger strike iran, Urmia Central Prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Fifty-six youth and political prisoners declared the launch of a hunger strike on October 17th in defense of their ward mates, many of whom were recently victims of vicious assaults by authorities.

The strikers hail from Ward 12, designated for political prisoners, and the youth ward.

On October 15th, more than 50 special agents attacked Ward 12, breaking prisoners’ bones and teeth. Later the same day, Urmia guards enlisted common-criminal prisoners to wage an assault on 8 prisoners of conscience from the youth ward.

HRANA is in the process of confirming the names of the striking prisoners.

More than 50 Special Forces Attack Ward 12 of Urmia Central Prison

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
Ahmad Tamooi, Hamid Rahimi, Hassan Rastegari, Kamal Hassan Ramezan, Kamran Darvishi, Osman Mostafapour, Prisoner abuse, Touraj Ismaili, Urmia Central Prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – In the latest of a long string of power abuses at Urmia Central Prison, more than 50 special forces responded to prisoner objections with severe beatings, breaking prisoners’ bones, and sending a number of them to solitary confinement on the night of October 15th.

A close source told HRANA that a large-scale reprisal was set into motion when three prisoners went to the guard’s office to check in on their wardmate Hamid Rahimi, who had been beaten there by four personnel and transferred to solitary confinement after a verbal altercation with staff. Rahimi is from Ward 12, designated for political prisoners.

Once arrived, the wardmates — identified as Kamal Hassan Ramazan, Ahmad Tamooie, and Osman Mostafapour — were met with their own violent beatings. Authorities started in on Tamooie, while additional prisoners, on orders from personnel members “Eskandar” and “Rezaie,” assaulted all three with a sharp object. Prisoner Touraj Esmaili was also beaten in the attack.

Authorities reportedly looked on as the attackers cut Esmaili, broke Ramezan’s nose, and busted the teeth of Tamooie, who has since gone on hunger strike to protest the assault.

When authorities were met with outcry over the assaults, they moved to disperse the victims and their comrades among different wards; when that measure, too, was met with resistance, prison authorities sent for reinforcements.

Prison guards and dozens of special forces stormed Ward 12 armed with batons, tasers, and tear gas, laying into Ramezan, Tamoo’i, Mostafapoor, and two more Ward-12 bystanders, Hassan Rastegari and Kamran Darvishi. The latter two were then transferred to solitary confinement; Rastegari has since been returned to Ward 12. “Hassan Rastegari was badly bruised all over,” the source said, adding that additional prisoners had attacked the men on orders from prison authorities.

Shortly thereafter, authorities established a perimeter around Ward 12. Crowded around the ward’s door were all those in charge of the prison, its investigations and protection unit, and Intelligence Security of West Azerbaijan Province. Inside the ward, dozens of special forces took up watch, while still more stood armed guard roof.

The special forces dispersed a few hours later, with the exception of a few that remained in the main prison hall.

Kamal Hassan Ramezan is on death row for political charges. Ahmad Tamooie is serving a 15-year sentence, and Osman Mostafapour is serving a 35-year sentence. As of the date of this report, the health statuses of the assaulted prisoners have yet to be confirmed.

Iran’s Prison Bureau stipulates that prisoner and prison-cell inspections must be carried out with respect to prisoners’ safety, i.e. to uncover and confiscate contraband items such as weapons and narcotics. Increasingly common, however, are inspections that lead to insults or destruction of prisoner property, and political detainees have proven to be popular targets. HRANA previously reported on the September 18th storming of Ward 12 by special forces, where guards pilfered and destroyed the prisoners’ personal belongings, including food they had purchased themselves.

Compounding harassment and pilfering at Urmia Central Prison is its authorities’ liberal use of corporal punishment. On October 8, 2018, prisoner Morteza Zohrali’s right arm was broken in a beating by prison officials; On September 23rd, Youth Ward inmate Javad “Arash” Shirzad was sent to an outside hospital for treatment of a concussion sustained at the hands of “Bayramzadeh,” the prison’s internal director; in July, Saeed Seyed Abbasi was beaten and sent to solitary confinement without treatment of his injuries, all for arriving late to the prison yard for recreation time; and in May, according to HRANA reports, prisoner Saeed Nouri, a former IRGC lieutenant, was beaten by two personnel in the internal director’s office.

Clashing Zahedan Prisoners Beaten, Forcefully Undressed

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
prison overcrowding, prison overpopulation, Prisoner abuse, Zahedan Prison, Zahedan Youth Ward

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – On Friday, October 12th, fights that broke out amid the stifling conditions of Zahedan Prison landed 29 prisoners in quarantine. The next day, quarantined prisoners were taken to the prison yard, forcefully undressed, beaten by prison guards, and left outside until morning.

According to one of the prisoner’s relatives, tensions had reached a breaking point in Zahedan’s Youth Ward, also known as Ward 1, which has a capacity of 140 but currently houses 350.

The source added that 17 youth were injured in the scuffle, and authorities cut the phone lines to Ward 1 immediately after the incident.

The overpopulation of Iranian prisons a systemic issue exacerbated by authorities’ laxity in addressing requests for furlough and sentence reductions, even for lawfully eligible prisoners. Meetings intended to review requests for commutation and conditional release are routinely postponed.

Urmia Prisoner Dies by Suicide

Posted on by Sara
Prisoners
mohammad ahoupah, prison suicide, Prisoner abuse, suicide, suicide in iran, Urmia prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- On the night of Wednesday, October 10, 2018, Mohammad Ahoupah, 33, died by suicide in Urmia prison.

Ahoupah was a native of Urmia, northwestern Iran, serving his sixth of a 25-year sentence in Ward 15 of the prison on drug-related offenses. He is survived by his wife and two children.

An informed source related to HRANA the running theory among Ahoupah’s ward mates: that when he took his own life in the showers of Ward 15, he had lost hope of stepping foot outside the prison before his time was up. “Four months ago, he submitted a request to be transferred to Zanjan prison from Urmia, and had requested furlough several times to resolve family problems,” the source said. “His requests were denied every single time.”

Recent months have seen the suicides of several prisoners who, despite family emergencies and lawful eligibility, were repeatedly denied the right to furlough. In Sanandaj, western Iran on August 18th of this year, five prisoners desperate to attend to family problems outside the prison made attempts at their own lives when their furlough requests were denied by the supervising judge. One of the five, 36 -year-old Eghbal Khosravi of Ward 6, did not survive the attempt. In another case just three days earlier in Zahedan, southeastern Iran, a prisoner completed suicide by pill overdose when, racked with exasperation over authorities’ continued neglect of his case, his name was removed from a list of prisoners scheduled for a sit-down with the prison prosecutor.