HARANA News Agency – Dozens of political prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison wrote: “While article 168 of the constitution has recognized some benefits to the political prisoners regarding their imprisonment conditions, maintaining the political prisoners in the ward of criminals is against the law and contrary to ethics. According to the policy of separating prisoners based on type of crime and considering the recent tyrannical attack on the political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison (Thursday, May 2014), authorities have deported many of the political prisoners to different cities of the country including Mashhad, Tabriz, Nideh, Borazjan and other prisons unknown to us. The prisoners are currently held in apolitical wards.”
The following is a full text of this letter, a copy of which has been submitted to HRANA:
“Dear Iranian Freedom-lovers,
Despite the commonly known and legally accepted law that punishment should be personal and not extended to the family members, the Islamic Republic of Iran is sending the political prisoners to exile and therefore punishes us, the families of these prisoners. Exile, itself, is a severe punishment and must be determined by the court of justice.
While article 168 of the constitution has recognized some benefits to the political prisoners regarding their imprisonment conditions, maintaining the political prisoners in the ward of criminals is against the law and contrary to ethics. According to the policy of separating prisoners based on type of crime and considering the recent tyrannical attack on the political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison (Thursday, May 2014), authorities have recently deported many of the political prisoners to different cities of the country including Mashhad, Tabriz, Nideh, Borazjan and other prisons unknown to us. The prisoners are currently held in apolitical wards.
Some of the deported political prisoners include: Arzhang Davoodi, Gholamreza Ghanbari, Zia Nabavi, Some of the Gonabadi Sufis, Mahmoud Fazli, Ayat Mehrali Beyglou, Shahram Rahmehr, Behrouz Ghorbani, Latif Hasani, Majid Dorri, Shahram Chinian, Siamak Mehr, Nategh Mahmoudi, Hasan Javani, Mohammad Jarrahi, Ali Moezzi, Negar Haeri, Mehdi Khazali, Saeed Shahghaleh, Ghulam Kalbi, Mohammad-Reza Seifzadeh, Ali-Asghar Mahmoodian, Hasan Tarlani, Muhammad Ali Gholizadeh, Farzad Mardani, Reza Mollahzadeh and many other political and ideological prisoners.
It seems that the goal of the regime is to break the unity and strength of the prisoners and psychological torture of the prisoners and their families by imprisoning them in exile.
As you may know, these displacements have placed a huge burden on the shoulder of the families of the prisoners including the death of Shahram Ahmadi’s family members as well as mother and wife of Hamid-Reza Aref in car accidents when returning from their visits.
Moreover, based on our experiences in the past we foresee a number of other threats for the prisoners in exile and keeping in the apolitical wards as follows:
1 – Access to drugs and the risk of addition to this devastating disaster
2 – The dangers of psychological problems and insecurity created in apolitical wards
3 – Improper health conditions and various types of diseases present in the apolitical wards, such as AIDS, hepatitis, etc.
4 – Probability of disrespect and physical clashes between the apolitical prisoners in the ward and in the meeting rooms
Therefore, we, the signatories of this Declaration, condemn the illegal deportations of political prisoners by the regime and ask human rights and international organizations and the great people of Iran to put pressure on the government to end deportations, troublemaking punishment of the families, and torture of the political prisoners.”
Signed by: Mohammad Amir-Khizi, Reza Akbari Monfared, Khaled Hardani, Afshin Heyratian, Shahrokh Zamani, Ali Salan Pour, Reza Shahabi, Asghar Ghatan, Saleh Kohandel, Mohammad Ali Mansouri
