Support for Political prisoners on hunger strike in Iran

20.08.17

On July 30 this year, the authorities in Gohardasht prison conducted a savage attack on the

political prisoners in hall 12 of ward 4, the guards insulted and beaten the prisoners and they forcefully transferred the prisoners to hall 10 in the same ward. The prison authorities have deprived the prisoners of minimum hygiene products and decent clothing, the prisoners have also been deprived of all family visits and they have been placed under pressure to end their hunger strike.

political prisoners on hunger strike in Iran

Since the news came out the prisoners on hunger strike have gained massive support not only around the world but also fellow political prisoners in various prisons across Iran have expressed their support. 

On August 15, 2017, Mr. Gerard Deprez, MEP and Chair of the friends of free Iran Committee in the European Parliament, issued a statement from Brussels where they expressed their concern about the health and safety of

political prisoners in solitary confinement of Ward 4 in Gohardasht prison of Karaj, west of Tehran. They have been on hunger strike to protest the regime’s ruthless attack on the prisoners on 30, July. 

The statement also mentioned the recently published Amnesty International report on human rights violations under the «moderate» Rouhani. the statement concludes with an urge to the President of the European Parliament, the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran to publicly condemn the continuous mistreatment of political prisoners in Iran and to call for their release.  

A group of exiled prisoners in Ardebil prison expressed their unconditional support to the prisoners on hunger strike and added that they would stage a hunger strike in support of their demands are not met.

Also the political prisoner Ali Moezi expressed his support from Tehran’s Central prison. In his letter, he recalled his memories from Gohardasht prison, memories of the martyrs of the 1980's, particularly the martyrs of the 1988 massacre in Iran. He remembers the martyrdom of some of the political prisoners in recent years in Gohardasht.

Political prisoner Ali Moezi

The lack of options for the prisoners to protest inhuman treatment has resulted in a number of hunger strikes, that is the only way the prisoners can show their discontent with the prison authorities.

Political prisoners all over Iran needs our unconditional support, not only those that languish in Gohardasht prison. It is our duty to urge our leaders to put pressure on the Iranian regime to make them respect and uphold human rights. It is our duty to be the voice of those unable to speak for them selves.

For as long as there are political or prisoners of conscience in Iranian prisons, the Iranian resistance will fight for their human rights and for their release, we will never forget and never give up until the last unjust detainee is released and free.

The massacre of 1988 in Iran will never be forgotten

29 years have passed since the clerical regime committed a crime so grave that it has carved a permanent scar on the Iranian people's soul. The massacre of 1988. It all started with Khomeini’s death fatwa, all dissidents must die. It boils down to the mullahs fear of losing power, it was very important to get all opposition out of the way, nothing or no-one must threaten the clerical regime. Not then, not now. 

victims of 1988 Massacre in Iran

The gravity of this crime against humanity is unpresidential, and the culprits are now serving in the current Iranian regime’s government. Many of the victims had already been sentenced to

Iran clerical regime must be put on trial for 1988 massacre

Finally, the resolution 188 that ask for condemnation of the 1988 massacre was ratified. This is a victory for all the innocent families that lost loved ones in this hideous crime. The mullahs must for the first time since they hijacked the people's revolution in Iran answer for their crimes.

There is no doubt that it is the clerical regime that must be put on trial for this atrocity.  It all started with Khomeini’s death fatwa, and his death commissions were very efficient in their executions. The ratification of this Resolution came at a time when the clerical regime is divided and in chaos. It is a matter of facts that the

Iranian prisoners suppression after Iran election

As Rouhani starts to serve his second term, the torture and abuse are increasing in prisons around Iran. The same can be said about executions. Immediately after holding the sham elections the clerical regime, the torture in prisons across the country resumed. During the first days after the re-election of Rouhani, 10 prisoners in the prisons of Tabriz, Zahedan, Ardebil, Kermanshah, Isfahan Central Prison in Karaj was hanged. During the sham election youth across Iran was protesting against the mullahs. To silence the protesters the regime does what they do best, they resorted to mass executions. The mullahs agents in the West will claim that the moderates have won the election, but there are no such thing as a moderate in the mullahs regime. 

Maryam Akbari Monfared

According to statistic, the number of prisoners in Iranian prisons has increased  333% since the mullahs highjacked the people's revolution in 1979. In comparison, the general population has increased 66% in the same time span. 

The physical conditions in Iranian prisons can be compared with the medieval dungeons, the sanitary conditions are equally bad. The access to clean water is random and most of the time absent. The prison ward has many different torture methods to be used on the prisoners. The torture can take the form of, physical abuse like beating, electrification, denial of medical treatment or denial of clean water or food. Or they can take the form of psychological abuse like denial of visits from family members, arbitrary arrest of one or several family members to be held as hostages. And lies about your children, siblings or parents will be used if the prison authorities think that can break you down.
   

Civil activist and political prisoner on hunger 

What is just as disturbing as the horrific conditions in the prisons is the fact that most of the prisoners are not criminals but the political opposition, human rights activists, children's rights activists, teachers, journalists, lawyers, students, supporters of the PMOI and sometimes children who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you are seen supporting the opposition or the resistance (PMOI) you face execution. 
The prison security in Iranian prisons are behind the torture and abuse that are put upon the prisoners, they are also the head of drug cartels that controls the flow of drugs that are distributed in Iranian prisons. 

Human rights violations in Iran

On April 24 the UN special rapporteur (UNSR) Asma Jahangir has denounced a report published by the Iranian News Agency (IRNA) alleging that she was planning to undertake a visit to Saudi Arabia in order to defame the authorities in Tehran. This attack on the UN SR shows the length the clerical regime in Iran will go to cover up their human rights abuses towards their own people.

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Asma Jahangir

There are many examples of abuses that the regime denies happens. There is not without reason the regime is denying the UNSR to visit Iran and investigate abuse allegations herself. The rise of internet social media has made the evidence easy to access and the videos and pictures leave no doubt that the allegations are the truth.

human rights activist Atena Daemi

 The most pressing violation at this time is that of the human rights activist Atena Daemi, she is on her 17th day of hunger strike and she is in critical condition.

 Atena Daemi was sentenced to seven years in jail on unsubstantial charges of assembly, collusion and propaganda against the regime, blasphemy and insulting Khamenei, and concealing evidence of a crime.

Iran-Maryam Akbari-Monfared the brave political prisoner in jail just for seeking justice

We demand Maryam Akbari-Monfared released unconditionally. 

On march 8, 2017, in a joint statement, 20 human rights organizations including the center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) called on the Iranian authorities to stop the harassment, intimidation and prosecution of human rights defenders seeking truth and justice on behalf of individuals who were summarily executed or forcibly disappeared during the 1980s and their families.

Maryam Akbari-Monfared

Over the past few months, Maryam Akbari-Monfared has been subjected to harassment, reprisals or prosecution on vague national security-related charges for the peaceful effort to learn the whereabouts of her loved ones. Maryam has faced reprisals since she filed a formal complaint from inside prison requesting an official investigation into the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s. she is currently serving a 15 years sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison on several charges, including “enmity against god” she is now living under enormous strain deprived of medical care for her rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid problems. The authorities also restricted visits from her family including her 3 children as a punishment. She has also been threatened her with new charges.  The associate prosecutor of Evin prison have said “what does she want to know? Those who executed her brothers and sister are either dead or elderly and her siblings are probably buried in Khavaran…. such complaints are of no use. They would only make her conditions in prison more difficult and impede her release or access to [prison] leave”
  

Amnesty International urgent action for political prisoner 

Maryam was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2010 on several charges. Her conviction was based on the fact that she had made several phone calls to her siblings in the PMOI, she had also visited them near camp Ashraf in Iraq. Maryam was never provided a written judgment.  She was told during the trial that she was serving prison time on behalf of her siblings. Her appeals were dismissed in a summary fashion with no explanation. Her request for judicial review is currently pending before Iran’s supreme court. She is being held in prison on bogus charges mainly because her siblings are with the PMOI, she has never admitted to belong to the PMOI but the authorities use the possibility to harass her and restrain her healthcare access. She is in danger of becoming seriously ill if she is denied medical treatment. Maryam is imprisoned on false charges and must be released unconditionally.