Egyptian security services foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Cairo several months ago, the legal advisor of the kingdom’s embassy said in local dailies on Tuesday.
Egypt “arrested three Iranians planning to assassinate the ambassador, Ahmed Qattan,” Al-Hayat quoted Sami Jamal as saying.
“Egyptian authorities informed concerned parties at the Saudi foreign ministry of the details of the plot, but the Saudi side opted to keep silent on the matter,” Jamal said. The arrests were made three months ago.
“Everybody was concerned that foreign parties would exploit demonstrations by some (Egyptians) outside the embassy (in Cairo) to attack members of the mission,” Al-Sharq daily quoted him as saying.
Questioned about the reports, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, told reporters in Tehran that the allegation was “absolutely incorrect.”
“Manufacturing such issues can only help divisions among Muslim countries and benefit the Zionist regime (Israel),” he said.
Riyadh on Saturday recalled its ambassador from Cairo after angry protests outside the Saudi embassy in Cairo over the arrest of an Egyptian human rights lawyer in the Gulf kingdom.
Saudi state news agency SPA said the Cairo embassy as well as the kingdom’s consulates in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Suez were closed.
In October, the United States accused Iran of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Iran has fiercely denied any involvement in the alleged plot.
Judge Salavati has upheld the nine-year prison sentence for prominent lawyer and distinguished human rights activist Mohammad Ali Dadkhah. Dadkhah told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he was only informed of the decision when he went to court to follow up on a client’s case.
“I went to the Revolutionary Court on Saturday morning [April 28] to defend one of my clients, Arjang Davoodi. The branch Judge told me that I was not allowed to defend my client. He said, ‘You yourself will have to go to prison.’ He said, ‘Your sentence has been finalized by the appeals court,’ and he told me to expect service of the ruling. According to this ruling, I have been sentenced to nine years in prison, ten years’ ban on legal practice, ten years’ ban on teaching, cash fines, and flogging. It appears that the flogging sentence will be converted to a cash fine,” Dadkhah told the Campaign.
The ruling, which was upheld by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, was not actually presented to Dadkhah. “Unfortunately, during recent years it has become standard procedure for the Revolutionary Court not to present the suspect with a ruling. They only announce the sentence and now I expect to be served and go to prison,” he said, adding that Judge Salavati informed him of the ruling verbally.
On 20 May 2011 Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court tried Mohammad Ali Dadkhah on the charges of “interviews with foreign media,” “membership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center,” and “representing clients in the Isfahan Metro case.” In July 2011, a lower court sentenced him to nine years in prison and a ten-year ban on his legal practice and teaching.
Mohammad Ali Dadkhah emphasized that he does not consider his lower court ruling fair:
I have not done anything wrong. I am a lawyer who loves my country and defends the rights of the people of our land. If they prefer a humiliated, intimidated, desperate young lawyer who has never tasted freedom, I do not regard this individual a lawyer. What good is a knife that cannot cut? A lawyer must be brave, logical, and law-abiding, and I have tried to be that way. This is why I have never been summoned by the Bar Association Court.
Presently, according to Judge Salavati, his lower court ruling has been upheld in its entirety by an appeals court and he will soon be served with the ruling.
Mohammad Ali Dadkhah is a prominent lawyer who has defended many political activists, students, and prisoners of conscience such as Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Ebrahim Yazdi, and Youcef Naderkhani, a Christian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy.
On 7 July 2009, security forces raided Mohammad Ali Dadkhah’s offices in Tehran and claimed to have found guns and drugs on the premises. His offices were sealed, he and several of his colleagues were arrested, and a judicial case against him commenced. Mohamamd Ali Dadkhah repeatedly stated that the discovered guns and drugs did not belong to him.
Asked whether he will appeal his case to the Supreme Court, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said, “I will not object anymore, as I consider this ruling against justice and fairness. What right does the Revolutionary Court have to ban me from practicing law and teaching? These decisions are only within the jurisdiction of the Bar Association Court, and not the Revolutionary Court. But, unfortunately, they do as they please. This ruling is imposed. Even so, I will not escape and I will not leave my country. I will go to prison. Either I will come out, or I will die there.”
Dadkhah explained to the Campaign that his actions and his work did not merit the charges leveled against him. “No credible evidence about the charges was presented at all. First, they planted drugs and guns in Rad Legal Institute, where my offices are located. Then they raided my offices and said that the items belonged to me. I said no, they did not belong to me. Then they said that I had acted against national security through my interviews and speeches. But most of my interviews and lectures were about Iranian culture, Nowruz, Cyrus, and about Iranian history. All my speeches were in the realm of my expertise which is international law and Iranian culture. Therefore they did not include any of the charges they had raised.”
Last year, after his lower court trial, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told the Campaign, “They told me that my actions smell of nationalism. It was the Prosecutor’s deduction that nationalistic activities amount to apostasy. I told him that I am no expert in this area, but of course I have always defended our cultural heritage, such as Nowruz, to the best of my ability. The prophet of Islam said: ‘Love for the land comes from the belief in God.’ Which one should I accept now and what should I do?”
“Many people told me during this time that they could securely take me out of the country. But I will not run away; I will stay … I stand by what I have said and its consequences. They can come and take me; I am ready. My life is not worth much vis a vis this country’s advancement,” said Dadkhah.
He also expressed regret about his inability to defend his client last Saturday. “My client, Arjang Davoodi, has been sentenced to death on moharebeh charges. I had gone to defend him, but it was not possible, so I returned,” said Dadkhah.
Parisa Hafezi, the head of the Reuters office in Iran, was summoned to court over the news agency’s controversial report about a group of martial artists in Iran.
ISNA reports that Hafezi was summoned over the video report about Iranian female martial artists, which described the women as “ninja assassins.”
The report, which Reuters posted last month, accused Iran of “training assassins.”
Some of the women shown in the report filed a suit against Reuters, and the Ministry of Culture shut down the Reuters office in Iran.
Later, Culture and Guidance Minister Mohammad Hosseiny announced that Reuters has apologized for the report, which has been withdrawn, and requested permission to resume its activities in Iran.
The ministry announced, however, that any decision to reopen the Reuters office rests on the outcome of the suit filed against Reuters.
Iran is drawing up plans to cut off its Internet users from the rest of the world with a so-called Halal or “clean” Internet.
Iranians are already used to censors blocking Facebook, Gmail and foreign news sites, and being spied on with surveillance software purchased from Western companies.
But the ambitious plans would go much further, blocking access to foreign-based social media sites and email. Instead, there will be an Iranian version of Facebook and a new email service, to be called Iran Mail. Users will have to register their home address and social security number with police.
The plans have received the backing of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful man in Iran, who has denounced the Internet as sinful and a means for the West to wage “soft war” by invading Iranian culture.
But his real target is anti-regime activists who have relied on the Internet since the failure of the “Green Revolution” which followed the disputed 2009 election. Since then security has been so tight on Iran’s streets that protests are broken up almost as soon as they start.
When the system, called Halal Internet or National Internet by the regime, is introduced this summer only a few approved and carefully monitored businesses and government departments will have access to the World Wide Web. In effect Iran will have a giant, countrywide intranet, with cyber police blocking websites that are not approved.
The Iranian regime has been badly shaken by the use made of the internet by its own opponents and then by revolutionaries during the Arab Spring last year.
In particular mobile phone footage of a young woman called Neda Agha-Soltani, shot dead by government thugs in Tehran in 2009, spread rapidly on the Internet, providing a powerful image to the world of the regime’s brutality.
Amir Bayani, of anti-censorship group Article 19, said: “The government doesn’t want video of another Neda going viral, so controlling the Internet is a priority for them.
“People rely on the internet for information now. Nobody trusts official government news sources. The only uncensored information comes from blogs and Facebook, and that is under threat.
“Businesses are worried the new system may hurt their profits, and I can only hope that their opposition will be enough to shelve these plans.”
For the people, whose uprising in Tehran and other cities was brutally suppressed by the regime, it was clear that the Basij militia and the Revolutionary Guard played a major role in repressing the people’s protests. However, there has been a need for tangible evidence to prove that the Supreme Leader, as head of the state, was behind the repression. This evidence was provided in the appointment of Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s former General Prosecutor, by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as head of
Hossein Alizadeh
the Social Security Organization, which somehow revealed the invisible hands of the Supreme Leader.
Any repressive organ needs to conduct two parallel things which are known as “row” and “operational center.” Use of coercion and relentless repression is what is being done by the row. Naturally the army, even in the form of plain clothes militia, has the duty to use coercion against the people.
On October 8, 2011, the Revolutionary Guard’s Commander-in-Chief, Mohammad Ali Jafari, confessed that forces under his control successfully quelled the people’s massive uprising following the 2009 disputed presidential election which the government described as “sedition.” He said, “In various occasions like what happened during the bitter period of the so-called reform era which was to extinguish the divine light, members of the Basij militia made numerous sacrifices to protect this revolution and the Islamic system. With sacrifices made by the people, especially by members of the Basij militia, the 2009 sedition, which was a difficult test, was defeated by the people, and it was followed by divine victory.”
In addition to the agents of repression in the row, there is a need for operational centers to command those who are waiting in the row to use force. It is needless to mention that it is practically impossible to conduct an effective repression in the presence of an independent judiciary to which the army people could be held accountable. That is exactly where the judiciary’s role, as a backing operational center which tends to ignore the role of the repressors, comes to the fore.
It is not yet widely known that Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s former General Prosecutor, was directly responsible for the crimes which took place in the Kahrizak detention center following the 2009 presidential election. However, the question is what kind of immunity is provided to Saeed Mortazavi to not only protect him from prosecution, but also help his appointment as head of the Social Security Organization, one of Iran’s richest institutions.
To understand the question, one has to know that Mortazavi has to disclose the role he played within a repressive cycle which includes both the row and operational centers, should he and other judges like him be brought to the dock.
In other words, a trial of Mortazavi is not going to be trial of an individual but of the whole cycle of repressors. Moreover, in case the role of each and every link of the chain of repressors is made clear, the more important question is that who and under what justification was such a repressive organization created? In other words, Mortazavi is a string which should not be pulled.
Haddad Adel’s Interference in Impeachment of Minister of Labor and Social Affairs
The end of the previous Iranian year, 1390, coincided with appointment of Saeed Mortazavi as Head of the Social Security Organization which angered many of the conservative lawmakers.
Saeed Mortazavi is a young judge who had had criminal cases, though left uninvestigated by the judiciary, in sixth, seventh and eighth parliaments. On the other hand, to insist on his position that the Majlis, Parliament, is not above all the country’s institutions, Ahmadinejad appointed Mortazavi first as head of Iran’s Task Force against smuggling after he was suspended from the judiciary, and then promoted him to the Head of the Social Security Organization. As a protest against such disgraceful treatment of the parliament by Ahmadinejad, some of the lawmakers signed a petition in March 2012 calling for the Minister of Labor and Social affairs to be impeached due to his decision to appoint Saeed Mortazavi as head of the Social Security Organization. The impeachment motion was supposed to be held on April 15, 2012.
Supreme Leader’s Hand in Haddad Adel’s Sleeve
Everyone knows that Haddad Adel is a relative of Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, and is obedient to his orders. In a very rare example, which shows how the system provides safe haven for the repressors, Haddad Adel, who is a simple member of the parliament and not its head, wrote a letter to the lawmakers one day before the impeachment of the labor minister saying that Mortazavi had consulted with him and is ready to give up his post as head of the Social Security Organization. He said, “His Excellency Saeed Mortazavi met with me and sought my consultation over the issue. Taking into account the Supreme Leader’s s aegis on the occasion of the New Year meeting, I asked Mr. Mortazavi to resign from his post in order to solve the dispute. Mr. Mortazavi accepted my recommendation for the sake of system’s expediency. So, I would like to thank Mr. Mortazavi, and I also would like to call upon all those who signed the petition for the impeachment of the labor minister to withdraw their signatures and cancel the impeachment motion which is to be held on April 15, 2012.”
Some Considerations on Haddad Adel’s Letter to Lawmakers
1- In case it is proven that Mortazavi met with Haddad Adel, the question is whetherhe meet Haddad as a de facto person or as a de jure person (as a member of the parliament)? Haddad Adel is one among hundreds of lawmakers, thus he cannot be considered as a reference of consultation by Mortazavi. Moreover, if Mortazavi wanted to consult with an effective figure in the parliament, he would have been better off to consult with the parliament’s speaker, his deputy or the parliament’s presiding body.
2- If one assumes that Mortazavi had met Haddad Adel as a de facto person, then the question is how could Haddad convince Saeed Mortazavi, who is not even answerable to the judiciary, to seek consultation with him? For instance, is it because that Haddad is the head of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature?
3- The only quality of Haddad Adel, which separates him from the others, is his closeness and obedience to the Supreme Leader. He is the only relative of Khamenei who has written a poem for him.
4- What sort of expediency was there in Haddad’s words which could convince Mortazavi to resign from his post? The extremely polite tone of the letter, in which Mortazavi is called His Excellency, shows that what Haddad had said to Saeed Mortazavi was his own words and opinions. Haddad’s message to the lawmakers is that Saeed Mortazavi is an Excellency who has obeyed the Supreme Leader’s order. By his resignation, Saeed Mortazavi had indeed taken into consideration the system’s expediency. Therefore, lawmakers have to call off the impeachment of the labor minister for the sake of the system’s expediency.
Conclusion
The system’s expediency means the system’s secrets which Mortazavi should in no way disclose. Mortazavi is a clue to the row and operational center of repression. Any revelation about the role of the agents of the repression will be naturally followed by revelation of the role of the commanders of the repression. That is what has to remain undisclosed forever.
Iranian authorities have arrested another Gonabadi dervish in Fars Province, sources say.
According to Majzoon Noor, a site affiliated with the Nematollah Gonabadi Sufi Order, Mohammad Ali Shamshirzan was arrested on Saturday morning in Kavar, a town in Fars Province. The arrest took place at Shamshirzan’s workplace.
Rights groups believe the rounding up of Gonabadi dervishes in Kavar is part of an ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation against members of the Sufi order there. Arrests are generally carried out in a violent manner and detainees taken to the Intelligence Ministry’s detention centre in Shiraz often suffer beatings and abuse.
Up until now, seventeen Gonabadi dervishes in Kavar have been charged with “Corruption on earth,” Moharebeh (“Enmity against God”) and carrying illegal weapons. The first two charges are punishable by death.
Also, Mostafa Daneshjou, an imprisoned lawyer representing the Gonabadi Dervishes, was recently hospitalised following a respiratory problems. Daneshjou has also been suffering from a kidney condition in recent weeks.
Daneshjou was imprisoned on 18 May 2011 to serve out a seven-month prison sentence in Sari Prison for propaganda-related charges. Yet despite having served his jail-term, he was transferred to Evin prison’s Ward 350 on 29 October.
In recent years, the Gonabadi dervishes have increasingly become the target of persecution, with many members of the community being subjected to attacks, arrests and lengthy jail terms.
Prior to his house arrest in February 2011, Green Movement leader Mahdi Karroubi repeatedly expressed his support for Sufi rights in the country.
In a recent interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a spokesperson for Gonabadi Nematollahi Dervishes said that “dervishes have traditionally voted for those who have defended their rights.”
“Because in the past Mr. Karroubi repeatedly defended the rights of dervishes, during the [2009] presidential election the dervishes voted for him,” Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh added.
Ali Moradi, an Iranian-Kurdish prisoner, has sewn his lips together as part of a hunger strike he’s been on since April 4 in Bandar Abbas Prison in southern Iran, Moradi’s family reports.
Zamaneh has been informed that Moradi began his hunger strike to protest his “illegal transfer” to Bandar Abbas Prison from Minab.
The report indicates that Moradi has been transferred to solitary confinement and is in “critical condition.”
Moradi was arrested in 2004 in a Kurdish village near Marivan and sentenced to 30 years in jail and exile to Minab Prison for the charge of “enmity against God” due to his membership in a Kurdish dissident group.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has quoted a local source saying that last February, Moradi reportedly spoke to one of the national prison inspectors and reported shortcomings in the medical and hygienic facilities of the prison.
According to the Campaign report, Moradi was beaten in prison following his talk with the inspector and transferred to solitary confinement. After 15 days, in a reportedly illegal procedure, he was then exiled to Bandar Abbas Prison.
It is said that Moradi and several of his inmates have protested on numerous occasions for being held in the general section of the prison rather than in a special ward for political prisoners.
The 2009 presidential elections in Iran were a turning point in the history of the Islamic republic. They created a crisis in trust for the regime, which continues till today. Specifically, the results of the vote count that reinstated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were challenged on a large scale resulting in massive demonstrations that eventually put the two leading candidates who challenged the sitting president under house arrest. They are still confined to that today. But details about how the elections were rigged leak out occasionally while much speculation continues as well. This week, Rooz spoke with Ehsan Mehrabi, a journalist who was at the Ministry of the Interior on that fateful election date; but not monitoring the election results at the Election Commission in the agency. He, and other journalists there, were sort of locked-up at the ministry’s conference hall, prevented from having any access to the election commission at the agency on the actual voting day, where conflicting announcements were made at the last hours of the day.
This is the second part of Rooz’s interview with Mehrabi, the first part covering his days at the infamous wards 209 and 240 of Evin prison, and the proceedings at his trial. Now, Mehrabi talks about the atmosphere that was dominant at the powerful election commission of the ministry of interior on election day, and also in ward 350 of prison, where he spent a year. In this interview, he talks about the pressure that the regime has applied on his family members after the publication of his first interview, the executions that took place, the death of Hadi Saber and more. Mehrabi was the parliamentary journalist and wrote for such newspapers as Hambasteghi, Tose’, Etemad Melli and Farhikhtegan Ghalam, all liberal and non-state publications.
Rooz: You were at the election commission on election day in 2009, what was going on there?
Mehrabi: I was there then and did not know much about what was going out outside the building. I was surprised when I came out. At the commission, the news went around by word of mouth. One news was that Mir-Hossein Mousavi was planning to come to the commission. But no real news came into the headquarters. Even prior to the voting, the ministry appeared to be poised to win the election. We sensed that they seemed confident that they (i.e., Ahmadinejad) would win in any way. When we told the other reformist kids who called us from the outside of the atmosphere inside the building, they brushed us off as being influenced by the events inside. We had no idea that they planned to rig the elections at this scale. When we spoke with reporters from the other side (i.e., supporting the administration), they told us that Ahmadinejad would win with 24 million votes. We stayed at the commission all night but had no idea of what was going on. We did see the equipment and reconnaissance motor-bikes at the ministry, but did not know their purpose. And nobody would explain either. It was only later when we came out that we realized that the very same bike-riders had been used against the gatherings of people. We heard that Mousavi’s campaign offices in Gheitarieh district of Tehran had been attacked. As night fell, Genera Radan came to the election commission. When we told him that we had heard rumors of kidnappings, he laughed it off as a joke.
Rooz: So you did not know about the protests and clashes when you were inside?
Mehrabi: No. On the day of elections, they took us to the ministry’s conference hall, which was adjacent to the commission, but the doors of the hall were locked, and so we were not in the exchange of the news that was going on. It was only the next day, when we came out, that we learned of what had taken place outside.
Rooz: So you were not in the election commission offices when the vote counting was going on?
Mehrabi: Yes, and we had no access to the commission or anybody. It was as if the commission had been dismantled. The only place with which we had contact was the Central News Unit (of the official IRNA news agency). The reporter from the unit was Ranjbaran and he was confident that Ahmadinejad was the winner. We were kind of locked up at the conference hall because we had no way of communicating with the election commission next door or the other offices of the ministry, or any person. We occasionally saw some representatives from the candidates, but only after 5 or 6 pm. But from the time when the presidential candidates began to protest and we heard that people were not allowed into the voting boots and that there were no ballots left, we saw nobody. I remember well when Mr. Torknejad, Mousavi’s representative at the commission announced at 10am that in some provinces including East and West Azerbaijan, voting ballots had run out, but nobody cared. He said that he had complained about this to even Mr. Golpaygani, the head of the supreme leader’s office, but he too did not pay attention. The head of the election commission, Daneshjoo too did not respond to our questions. The only communication we saw from him was when he came in at night with a piece of paper in his hand from which he read out the results, and then left. They had created such an atmosphere that nobody dared ask a question. When some did, Mr. Mardookhi would begin to shout and protest and chant slogans against the Greens.
Rooz: After you came out of the ministry and saw what was going on outside, did you return to the ministry?
Mehrabi: No. Never. I had covered other elections, but after Kardan and then Mahsooli came to the ministry, things had changed dramatically were shut off, climaxing during the 2009 elections.
Rooz: In your first interview you had said that your experience in ward 350 of Evin, where you spent a year, was very bitter. Can you explain?
Mehrabi: Yes, when I was put in ward 350, I noticed a bitter incident. A man was sitting in the yard, smoking, and a group sat around him crying. When I asked what was going on, they said that he was going to be executed shortly and that he had not accepted to write a petition requesting a pardon. This was a man who was executed the next day with Jaafar Kazemi. This was a very bitter incident for me. The next day, Ali Ajami was exiled to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj.
Rooz: How was the year you spent there?
Mehrabi: As Bahareh Hedayat wrote in her last letter, a person finds himself in a different world in prison. People acquire and share similar feelings. You sometimes crave for things that you would not in normal life. Even our night dreams change and become confined to the prison. There were times when I could not remember the names of prominent people or colleagues outside.
Rooz: You had said that on the days of visitations you felt the strongest psychological pressure.
Mehrabi: When prisoners returned from visits, you would normally expect them to be happy to have seen their loved ones. But in reality, those that smoked would immediately go to a corner and smoke a cigarette. Those that did not smoke would go to bed to sleep. I remember in Ward 209, if you were left alone, you could stay asleep for two days continuously (ward 209 is an interrogation ward, while 350 is a post-interrogation ward). Pressure was so high in ward 350 after visitations that people slept a lot and it seemed as if prisoners could not communicate with their loved ones and could not understand the news that family members brought during visits. One journalist had said that at first he looked forward to the regular visits with his family members, but later he only wished for the visitation hour to end quickly. Many such as Abdollah Momeni (a prominent student activist who reported on prison abuse) would say they had no hope of being released. But despite the pressure, ward 350 was different from 209 or 240. When Hossein Marashi came, things changed for the better a bit, especially in the area of doing exercise. Arash Alai was a doctor who tried to change daily routines. Some artists tried to make conditions more tolerable for others. When on Bahman 25 they brought in about 350 new prisoners, the atmosphere in ward 350 changed as prisoners saw that people were still protesting. It gave them hope and improved their spirits.
Rooz: When you were in ward 350 some political prisoners were executed. How did you deal with things then?
Mehrabi: When prisoners were paged to be taken to be executed, other prisoners would say, “They have started again. They are taking them up to be executions.” Everything would go chaotic then.
Rooz: When Mr. Saber died you were in ward 350 and saw the events.
Mehrabi: I remember when Hadi Saber and Taghi Rahmani were in ward 350, news came that engineer Sahabi was not feeling well. The two had strong emotional ties to Sahabi, so it was very difficult for them. When Haleh Sahabi died, things became even worse for all of them. Some prayed because there was nothing else they could do about these bitter events. When Hadi Saber began his hunger strike Arash Alai watched on him. Alai said that in fact the strike comforted Saber, who wrote a letter to his children explaining why he was doing it and that it was not merely emotional. Some influential people outside prison had written to Saber to stop his strike, but prison officials withheld these letters. One Friday morning we heard that Saber had been taken to the prison clinic because he was not feeling there. At the clinic, the doctor hat hit him and then returned him to the ward. When they came to take Saber to the clinic again he refused and said they beat him up the last time. They took him to a hospital outside the prison, but it was too late then. Arash Alai and other doctors in the ward said that if the first doctor at the clinic had attended to Saber and sent him to hospital, instead of beating him, things may not have ended the way they did. When the news of Saber’s death came on Sunday, the atmosphere in the ward changed completely. Even those who normally did not display their tears to others could not stop crying. Then 12 others started a hunger strike. But prison officials disregarded even these.
Female political prisoners in Evin prison are suffering from illness and are in poor health. According to the families of political prisoners who met on Monday with women prisoners, during the last week most were sick and proper medical care was not provided to them.
The female political prisoners said they “Suffer from various illnesses, kidney problems, headaches, colds, high blood pressure, heart palpitation and……are among the problems they constantly suffer from .
They also said that the store in the women’s ward has stopped carrying fruits, meat and other important food items.
The prisoners said, “The store’s excuse for not carrying these items is that orders placed for these items are low and they can not carry such low amounts”.
It now has been two months that the female political prisoners have been deprived of fruits and vegetables.
On Monday, prison official disallowed the families to give personal hygiene items like shampoo and tooth brush to the prisoners.
The political prisoner families say, “The prisoners have placed an order for shampoo & other items with the prison’s store for a while. In the wake of the store refusing to fill the orders and the officials’ refusal to accept these items from us, what are these prisoners suppose to do?”
Talking about the problems in the women’s Ward, the families say, “The women are practically deprived of fresh air area. There is a very small courtyard that the women use to hang their clothes to dry. At times, the store in this Ward will not carry any meat, fruits or chicken for months while these are part of main food items.
For this reason and due to lack of proper nutrition, there has been a constant increase in illnesses among the women. These women were all healthy prior to incarceration.”
During the past three years, and after the 2009 presidential election, the female political prisoners’ ward has these recurring problems, but the officials refuse to do anything about them.”
The families of these political prisoners say, “We try not publicizing these problems and try to solve them by speaking with the authorities. But, day-by-day, these prisoners face more problems and their situation becomes worse.
They are banned from phone calls, they don’t have a proper space for fresh air time, they encounter many limitations that the male political prisoners don’t have, as though, even in prison, the women have to face more oppression.”
Currently there are 26 female political prisoners in Evin most of whom were arrested post-2009 presidential election.
Student activist Moeen Ghamin has been detained, according to human rights sources in Iran.
According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, children’s rights activist Moeen Ghamin was arrested on Monday afternoon while on his way home from Mazandaran’s University of Science and Technology. After arresting him, five security agents then reportedly took Ghamin to his home and inspected it, despite failing to show a search warrant. They confiscated his personal belongings including his laptop, books and CDs.
Following arrest, Ghamin was initially taken to an Intelligence Ministry jail in Babol, but was later transferred to Sari, Mazandaran Province’s capital.
The reasons behind the arrest are still not clear.
