An update on the arestees of the November and January protests in Iran

The nationwide protests of November are one of the most significant events of 2019. During the November protests that lasted more than 10 days simultaneously in 719 parts of the country. At least 7133 people were arrested, hundreds died on the streets, and many protesters got gunshot wounds. In addition, on January 8, 2020, the Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people onboard. On January 11, 2020, thousands of people took to the streets across the country after General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran officially admitted that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unintentionally shot down a Ukrainian airliner in Tehran. HRANA has earlier published a report about January protests.

Detention Centers

Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary is one of the detention centers that houses many of the last November and January protests’ arrestees. Many of the arrestees (mostly from the southern parts of Tehran and Alborz Province) are placed with other inmates charged with other types of crimes in Ward 5 of this prison. This is against the prisoner classification regulations that requires the prisons to separate inmates according to the nature of the crimes they are charged and found guilty of. The mentioned Ward that eight days ago housed more than 200 political prisoners who were arrested during the recent uprisings has undergone a change in its population after half of those prisoners were released and many other prisoners with other types of crimes were transferred from Evin Prison. By the time this report was compiled (February 3, 2020) the number of political prisoners in this Ward was about 100.

In addition, Among the arrestees, there are people who were injured by a gunshot when they were arrested. These citizens are transferred to this prison while Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary is facing an overload of prisoners, lack of air conditioning and heating facilities, and a shortage of blanket and warm water.

The following report identifies 138 political prisoners and their detention conditions.

Charges

The arrestees are mostly charged with “assembly and collusion against national security”, “insulting the Supreme Leader”, “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic”, “vandalism (damaging governmental property)”, “disturbing public order”. “disturbing public opinion”, “propaganda against the state”, and “insulting high-ranking authorities”. Their cases are sent to the Branch One of the Evin Prison’s prosecutor’s office, the Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, the Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court presided by judge Iman Afshari, the Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh, the Branch 24 of the Revolutionary Court presided by judge Mohammadreza Amouzad, and the Revolutionary Court of Robat Karim.

Last November Protests

Most of the protesters of the last November’s protests who are kept in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary were arrested between November 15, 2019, to December 15, 2019, by the IRGC (Sarallah Camp). These citizens were beaten and experienced mistreatment at the time of arrest and were briefed on their accusations in Parand and Baharestan’s prosecutor’s offices.

The primary court session for 10 of the arrested has been in session and their imprisonment sentences have been ordered.

Here is a list of 88 detainees (still in prison) who are in a limbo state:

Majid Kharabati, Mohammadreza Esmaeilian Zareian, Ali Bikas, Mohsen Shakouri, Abolfazl Karimi, Seyed Hamidreza Noshai, Hasan Abbasi, Abolfazl Shahabi, Mohammad Moalemian, Jamil Ghahremani, Mehdi Ghalandari, Shahin Motaharzadeh, Danial Bakhshi, Ali Darabi, Farshid Eftekhari, Mehran Jalilvand, Mehdi Hasanpour, Morteza Amirbeigloo, Ali Asghar Karimi, Hosein Reyhani, Mohsen Roshani, Reza Sarvestani, Mohammad Jahani, Masoud Zadkhak, Mehdi Vahidi, Ali Ebadi, Mohammad Adam, Pouria Foroughi, Mohammad Bagher Saadi, Mohammadreza Amiri, Siamak Moghimi, Behnam Bazobandi, Mohammad Kadimani, Tohid Fotouhi, Abolfazl Maghsoudi, Reza Moradian, Ali Mehmandoust, Vahid Mehmandoust, Soheil Alipanah, Matin Ezadi, Mohammadreza Eslami, Ali Kazemi, Mohammad Rashidi, Hamed Karami, Majid Farzad, Behnoud Esmaili, Hossein Nikcheh Farahani, Saeed Asadi, Sajad Salarvand, Seyed Amid Mousavi, Arya Hamedi Rad, Mohammad Eghbali, Saber Rezaei, Hossein Tajik, Farshad Niazi, Ali Akbar Hadipour, Reza Alidoust, Omid Hejazi, Ali Asghar Keramati, Abolfazl Toosi, Javad Adinehvand, Ramin Hosseinpour, Amir Morovati, Saeed Mavedati, Omid Mohammadian, Ali Akbar Moradi, Behnam Nafarieh, Behnam Khakzad, Saeed Golbodaghi, Meisam Khaki, Milad Mahmoudi, Mohammad Rajabi, Ali Nabizadeh, Saeed Tamjidi, Hamid Farahbakhsh, Amir Salman Shirizad, Amir Hossein Keshavarzi, Pouria Mirzaei, Alireza Hosseinzadeh, Iman Daraei, Mohammadreza Doostdar, Mir Mohsen Ghoreishi, Mir Reza Ghoreishi, Masoud Torkpour, Seyed Mohammadreza Mousavi, Ramin Behnoush, Ahmad Ali Hatamian, Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi, Siamak Momeni.

Siamak Momeni, a political prisoner and one of the arrestees of the last November’s protest committed suicide by cutting his hand’s vein on January 25, 2020, and was transferred to the hospital but has not yet been returned to the Ward. Mr. Momeni is 18 years old and committed suicide after his sentence of 10 years imprisonment was ordered by the Revolutionary Court. In addition, Saber Rezaei was wounded by gunshot during the protests.

As mentioned earlier, 23 detained protesters of the last November’s protests were temporarily released on bail who are identified as the following:

Milad Arsanjani, Sina Naimipour, Javad Monafi, Mohsen Tashakori, Ehsan Khazaei, Mohammad Javad Foroughi, Hossein Adam, Mohammadreza Fathalizadeh, Kaveh Asadi, Mohsen Adibzadeh, Iman Abdi, Arash Salari, Mohammad Lotfi, Iraj Deldari, Danial Dadashzadeh, Mohammad Ali Safari, Shahram Kalantari, Rouzbeh Jahangiri, Shervin Beigi, Siamak Paymard, Jafar Dehdari, Reza Allahyari, Vahid Najafi Khuzestani.

Siamak Paymard, Jafar Dehdari, Reza Allahyari, and Vahid Najafi Khuzestani were shot in Qarchak during the last November’s protests. They were transferred to Tharallah Camp after being arrested and then to the hospital. They are charged with “assembly and collusion against national security”.

The inmates of the aforementioned ward are mostly residents of the poor neighborhoods of southern Tehran and were arrested in those areas. They mostly have no college education.

January Protests

During the January 2020 protests, more than 500 people were arrested on January 12 in Tehran of whom 300 were transferred to Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary. Some of them were temporarily released on bail and some others were transferred to Evin Prison. Only a few of them are still in Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary. These citizens who are mostly college students and government/private employees were arrested by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and were briefed in the Branch One of the Evin Prison’s prosecutor’s office. They were beaten, threatened and mistreated at the time of their arrest.

Most of these detainees were released in the past few days. However, there are still two detainees who have not been released. They are identified as Iman Heydari and Pouria Gozarabadi.

The name of 25 citizens who were arrested during the January protests and were released from Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary the last week of January 2020, were identified as the followings:

Bahador Hadizadeh, Mohammad Pakpour, Morteza Hosseini Lavasani, Pouria Foroughi, Pouya Gozarabadi, Iman Poonaki, Siavash Monfared, Mostafa Farahani, Bahram Fardi, Masoud Khaksar, Amir Soleiman Shiralizad, Mohammad Rajabi, Ali Salimi, Ashkan Dehghan, Nima Rajabzadeh, Kamyar Saadati, Behrouz Habibi, Mehrdad Norouzi, Mottaleb Kardarfar, Habib Pashai, Kasra Taghavi, Emad Rashidi, Sahand Babaei, Shahab Reisi, Behnam Zandi.

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