Sonntag, 15. Juli 2012

Warning! Prevent quiet murders in the Islamic Republic’s prison! Another human tragedy is about to happen.

The suspicious death of eight prisoners in the Rejaee Shahr (Gohardasht) prison is alarming for human rights defenders and political-civil rights activists. These are painful news reaching us, but the depth of the tragedy may be even deeper. The deplorable conditions of the prisons demand special attention and it is necessary to prevent these “silent deaths”. These conditions are not just specific to the prisons in Tehran; they are present in prisons in cities around the country, prisons like Karoun-e- Ahwaz Prison, Behbahan Prison, Ghezel Hessar Prison etc. Additionally, prisons like Kahrizak, and Gharchak Varamin continue to operate.

In Kahrizak, common, male prisoners, and in Gharchak Varmin , common female prisoners are facing incredibly harsh and inhuman conditions that need to be seriously investigated. To increase pressure on prisoners, The Islamic Republic, at times, transfers them to these prisons, like in 2009, when we watched the atrocities that happened in Kahrizak prison. Other example include the transfer of female political prisoners to Gharchack-e- Varamin, which was faced with widespread protests, forcing their return to Evin prison albeit, not to their previous locations but to a substandard cell.
Suspicious deaths in the prisons of the Islamic Republic increase every day. Examples are Mohammad Zalieh Naghshbandian, a Kurdish political prisoner who after suffering 21 years in prison, because of previous damages to his lungs during the Iran-Iraq War, and the unhealthy prison conditions, fell increasingly ill and, due to the negligence of prison authorities who denied him medical treatments, died last night in the Gohardasht prison.

Mansour Radpour also died on May 21, 2012 in the Gohardasht prison due to medical neglect in prison and intense psychological pressure and torture. Mohsen Dogmehchi, also died in Gohardasht prison on March 27, 2012 due to a pancreatic cancer and lack of medical care.

Hoda Saber, an activist for religious and national causes, who protested the killing of Haleh Sahabi, died in Evin Prison on June 12, 2012 of hunger strike and lack of care. According to a statement issued by 64 political prisoners in Ward #350, she was transferred to the Evin Prison Clinic under critical conditions and not only was she not helped, she was subjected to beatings and insults and was thrown out of the clinic room.

Amir Reza Mirsayafi, a weblog writer, died under suspicious circumstances in Evin Prison in 2008, due to tremendous emotional stress and lack of care.

Amir Heshmat Saran, Director of the National Union Front who had been sentenced to 16 years of prison on two separate occasions, was severely injured during an attack by the Special Guards of the Gohardasht Prison. Due to lack of care from the prison officials and injection of suspicious drugs, after three episodes of losing consciousness, he was transferred to the Rejaee Karaj Hospital and passed away in the same hospital on March 6, 2000.

A variety of diseases have become common epidemic occurrences in prisons, and are seriously threatening the lives of many prisoners who have suffered various tortures, and abuses during their detention and who have no access to medical services. Prisoners like Farrokh Vazehan, one of the prisoners following the Ashura events, who was sentenced to 15 years, is suffering from an infectious disease and has been taken to the intensive care unit once, in handcuffs. However, his health condition remains dangerous and his bail has been set at a very high level.

Maryam Akbari Monfared, is a family member of the martyrs from the decade of 80 whose three brothers and one sister were executed in those very years. She was arrested on December 31, 2009 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and exile in the Rejaee Shahr Prison for collaborating with the Mujaheddin Khalgh Organization. She was recently transferred to the hospital by the security forces for a gall bladder surgery and was immediately transferred back to the prison without any regards for the recovery terms.

Narges Mohammadi Sokhangoo, the vice president of the Human Rights Society was arrested on May 1, 2012 to serve her six years term sentence. She is extremely ill and suffers from muscular paralysis and in her last visitation in Zanjan Prison, four female agents had to carry her on a regular chair to the visitation hall.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Labor activist was arrested on June 12, 2010. He suffers from ear infection but went on a hunger strike in support of Reza Shahabi and, in spite of requests by him and his family members, the prison masters pay no attention to his conditions.

Riaz Sobhani, a Bahai Citizen with heart conditions has received an angiogram once, but is still in critical condign;

Hamed Roohnejad, a student from Beheshti University, accused of collaborating with The Iranian Royal Society, has been sentenced to ten years of actual prison terms and exiled to Zanjan Prison, in spite of suffering from an advanced form of Multiple Sclerosis and a compromised health.

Djila Karamzadeh Makvandi, one of the Laaleh Park mothers, who were arrested on December 27, 2011 to serve a two-year term, is suffering from high blood pressure and recently passed out in prison and needs special attention.

These are but a few of the prisoners in the country’s prisons, suffering, and facing various challenges on a daily basis, due to physical and psychological abuse and pressures, unsanitary and unhealthy environment, and neglect by the authorities.

The lack of basic services for prisoners in the prisons of the country, specially for political prisoners, has brought them face to face with serious issues, as if , invisible hands behind the scene are at work to eliminate political prisoners and even common prisoners. These days we are facing, not only an increasing wave of executions, but also, suspicious deaths in the country’s prisons,

The Women’s Ward of Evin Prison which holds female political prisoners, is yet another substandard prisons in the country. This prison is very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer and is in danger of crumbling any minute to the extent that a while back, during a storm in Tehran, part of its ceiling came down and put female prisoners in serious conditions. Lack of warm water and other basic amenities in this prison is one reason why most of the political prisons are grappling with multiple illnesses.

Sometimes prisoners have to go on long hunger strikes to obtain their most basic demands, putting their own lives in danger. Prisoners like Hossein Malaki Ronaghi, in objection to forced televised confessions, has gone on a huger strike multiple times and, in spite of kidney problems and stomach bleeding, and despite the recommendation by the prison’s medical staff, the security forces are not allowing his transfer to the hospital or his a medical leave for treatment.

Mohammad Sadigh Kaboodvand, a Kurdish political prisoner was arrested in June 2007 and sentenced to 11 years of prison. He is ill and, many times, he has asked to go on a leave due to his son’s cancer. He has been denied and has been on a hunger strike. He has indicated that he will stay on a hunger strike as long as they deny him the chance to visit his sick child. Arash Sadeghi, a student activist, who, after 2009 protests, has spent 30 months in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, has gone on a hunger strike in support of Hussein Ronaghi.

Reza Shahabi, a bus driver, and a member of The Labor Syndicate of The Vahed Bus Company, is yet, another prisoner whose life is threatened. At the time of arrest, he was brutally beaten by the security forces and has suffered injuries to his neck and spine and, ever since, he has lost his balance. He has frequently resorted to hunger strikes to protest a lack of attention to his conditions and almost lost his health completely when, finally, after widespread protests, locally and internationally, he was transferred to the hospital and underwent an operation.

Many more of the political prisoners are in similar conditions and if this continues, everyday, we will witness these silent murders in the prisons of the Islamic Republic.

We, the Mothers of Laaleh Park, while emphasizing our three fundamental demands, are hereby asking the human rights organizations and all the defenders of human rights, especially the family members of political prisoners, to prevent yet another tragedy in the country’s prison. We must use all the available tools to obligate the Islamic Republic to recognize the rights of prisoners; prisoners who, according to all the international conventions, have the right to live and the signatories of these conventions are bound to completely follow all its articles.

Mothers of Laaleh Park

June 6, 2012
 

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