Persecution of Political and Conscience Prisoners by the Authorities in the Central Prison of Zahedan:
Political and conscience prisoners in the central prison of Zahedan are frequently being insulted and harassed by prison officials because of their religious beliefs.
Friday, April 14th, a prison guard called Mohammad Kalkaly, a prayer of Sunni prisoners of conscience imprisoned in ward number three, with insults and inhumane treatment, before he ordered the shaving of his beard. According to a prison guard named “Rasti”, the order of such act was given him by the prison warden. Also on April 11th, an ill prisoner, “Hyatollah Noutizehi” from ward number one of Zahedan central prison, after a seizure was brought to the prison’s clinic in a wheelchair. But in such a condition, his foot hit the prison key keeper’s foot. Due to this, even with the prisoner’s unsuitable condition, he was taken to the prison’s quarantine unit instead of the clinic. An IRGC officer claimed that the prisoner deliberately kicked him in his complaint. Hyatallh Noutizehi was sent to solitary confinement for 20 days. He was dispatched to the prison’s quarantine, even though this prisoner should have been treated in the clinic due to his deteriorating health.
Five Year Prison Sentence for a Kurdish Political Prisoner:
The so-called number two revolutionary court branch in the city of Urmia sentenced a Kurdish prisoner, who is currently held in the central prison of the city, on charges of “acting against national security through membership in one of the Kurdish parties”.
According to a human rights group of Kurdistan on March 4th, Bashir Pir-Mavaneh, a resident of a village around Urmia, has been arrested by the Information Ministry Security forces and is currently in their prison. He was interrogated for 12 days by them about his relationship with a Kurdish opposition party and then released to the central prison of the city. This Kurdish citizen has been sentenced in unit number two of the Urmia revolutionary court presiding by a so-called judge “Sheikhloo” with the delivery of a five year prison sentence. This political prisoner is now in number 13 of Urmia Central Prison, being held with ordinary criminals.
Beating of a Prisoner in Ward Eight of Evin’s Prison:
Majid Abedinzadeh, a leading civil rights activist and witness of the infamous Kahrizak prison, is in ward eight completing his 3 year prison sentence. He was beaten by ordinary criminal prisoners last night.
Failure to comply with the principle of prisoner separation for political and criminal prisoners has precedent in the political prisoners being beaten. Other political prisoners, including Kayvan Karimi, Mehdi Rajabi, Amir Amirqooly and Waheed Saiadi-Nasir, were beaten in the general ward of Evin prison in recent months. It should be noted that ward eight in Evin’s prison is for ordinary crimes and the regime’s housing of political prisoners among them is to torture and pressure those prisoners.
Poet didn’t show up in Court:
Habib Sassanian, a poet from Ardabil being held in Tabriz central prison, refused to appear in third branch of the revolutionary court in Tabriz presiding by Judge Bagherpour on April 18th in protest to disappearance of some of documents in his court records. A source close to the Sassanian family with knowledge about the latest situation of the prisoner said, “Habib Sassanian, following his beating on April 14th by prison authorities and in protest to his undecided situation after five days of a hunger strike, as well as missing some of the documents from his file in the Tabriz revolutionary court presided over by Judge Bagherpour, refused to appear in the court today and his trial was postponed until May 15, 2017.” This prisoner, in May 2016 along with five other Azeri-Turks, was arrested in the city of Ardabil. The charges against this political prisoner were erecting a political group, spying for foreign countries, copying of confidential data from Iran’s revolutionary guards and sending that confidential information to foreign countries. Habib Sassanian is still being held with illnesses and a lack of proper treatment in ward 12 of Tabriz central prison.
Transfer of a political prisoner from solitary confinement to the general ward of Evin’s prison after the 472 days:
Kamran Qadri, an Austrian-Iranian citizen, has been sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of spying for enemy states. This is after 472 days of detention in solitary confinement within Ward 209 (a ward associated with the Iran’s Information Ministry) of Evin’s prison. He is being transferred to the general ward of the prison on Monday, April 16th.
Source: / ncr-iran /