Nine Sunni political prisoners in Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison in northeastern Iran wrote a letter to Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, requesting an investigation into their case.
The nine political prisoners were identified as Issa Eidmohammadi, Farhad Shakeri, Eidolhakeem Azeem Gargij, Abdolrahman Gargij, Habib Pirmohammadi, Abdolbaset Orsan, Mohammadreza Fakouri, and Abdollah Hosseini.
They wrote of being tortured into forced confessions, death sentences, and long prison sentences based on false accusations. The nine prisoners have been imprisoned for over five years and banned from visits and phone calls for over two years.
In the letter, they wrote that their family members were also threatened and detained to increase pressure on them.
Their letter is as below:
“Honorable Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, we are political prisoners writing to you from Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison Section 1.6.
We request an investigation into our case which includes false accusations such as acting against national security, membership in opposition groups, membership in the Forqan group, and spreading propaganda against the state.
We have been in prison for over five years. We have been banned from phone calls and visits for over two years.
We are in Section 1.6, and falsely accused, tortured for forced and dictated confessions, and our family members have been threatened and imprisoned. These have led to death sentences and long imprisonment sentences, for over 15 years.
Some of our families, parents, and spouses were summoned and detained to harass and torture us. Also, the Intelligence Ministry has become involved in our family affairs, and it has led to divorce and the disintegration of our families, and our children lost their parents.
These actions had been taken to force us to cooperate with the Intelligence Ministry and to accept the false accusations.
We are routinely beaten and desecrated in Section 1.6 by prison guards, and the ward’s supervisor, and non-political mercenary prisoners who harass us on the orders of prison officials.
In addition to issuing illegal death sentences, the Intelligence Ministry, and the Judiciary, through some of their lawyers, liaisons, and informants, go to our families and demand large sums of money to cancel our death sentences.
By issuing unjust and illegal verdicts, they have found a way to fill their own pockets at the price of sacrificing Iranian and Sunni people. Who will answer to our mothers, fathers, and family? There is much more to tell, that we will write later. (Hopefully).
Our request is that our cases are urgently investigated by you and international organizations.”
Background
Issa Eidmohammadi, Farhad Shakeri, Eidolhakeem Azeem Gargij, Abdolrahman Gargij, Abdolbaset Orsan, and a few others were detained by Intelligence agents in 2015. They were kept in solitary confinement for 10 to 12 months.
Issa Eidmohammadi, Farhad Shakeri, Eidolhakeem Azeem Gargij, Abdolrahman Gargij, and three others were sentenced to death by Mashhad’s Branch 1 Revolutionary Court for their membership in the Forqan group and Sunni groups. The other three, Hamid Rast Bala, Kabir Saadat Jahani, and Mohammadali Arayesh were executed on December 31, 2020.
Abdolbaset Orsan and two others were sentenced to 15 years of prison for being members of a Salafi group.
Habib Pirmohammadi was detained on March 17, 2018, and sentenced to a total of 21 years of prison for “assembly and collusion against national security”, “spreading propaganda against the state”, “membership in a cyberspace group”, and clashing with the security forces to evade arrest. The sentence was later reduced to 15 years of prison.
Abdollah Hosseini is in a state of limbo in Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison.
Source » irannewswire