10 , April , 2010
2 months after the end of his interrogations and despite a bail order, Emadeddin Baghi is still being held on an expired temporary detention order.
RAHANA – On April 8, the family of Emadeddin Baghi visited with him in an Evin visitation booth. Following the visit, Baghi’s wife Fatemeh Kamali said, “In the past 102 days, there have been no rules on when prison visits and phone calls are permitted. Therefore, we went to Evin Prison, and since Thursdays are booth visitation days, we requested to visit with him. The visit was allowed and we could see Baghi through the glass divider and talk to him over the phone.”
The prominent rights activist remains in high spirits, according to his wife, who nonetheless finds his detention in a small Ward 240 cell astonishing, especially since his interrogations ended more than 2 months ago and he was expected to be released on bail.
During the visit, Baghi told his family that keeping prisoners in limbo situation is in contravention of the regulations governing prisons and security detention centers. He added that, “keeping individuals in closed spaces over long periods of time without access to newspapers, television and books as well as other rights provided by the law is an obvious form of torture.”
According to Baghi, his prison experience has shown him how far away the country is from respecting the civil rights of its people.
Baghi has spent the last 2 months of his detention without an official detention order. He has also been denied the right to object his arbitrary detention.
Baghi has filed an official complaint about the conditions of his detention, but his complaint has not yet been addressed. Baghi considers his complaint to be potentially very important since it is a right guaranteed by Article 597 of the Islamic Penal Law, which considers the failure to address complaints filed by prisoners about their treatments to be a criminal offense. Baghi did not tell his wife about the details of his complaint but asked that his lawyers pursue the matter. However, ever since the magistrate court was relocated to Evin Prison, it has become increasingly difficult for lawyers to have access to their clients’ files.
Kamali expressed hope that Baghi’s complaint will not have the same fate as the investigations into the obstruction of his release on bail; i.e., being shrouded in a veil of uncertainty.
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