HRANA News Agency – Sunni prisoners locked up in Ward 4 of Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj have faced problems such as lack of dispatching ill prisoners out of prison and three years of exclusion from eating meat. It is said that in some cases, these problems are deliberately caused by the prison authorities to harass them.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Sunni prisoners in Ward 4 of Hall 10 of Rajai Shahr prison described the situation as inappropriate, while the prisoners face a double whammy.
An informed source in an interview with our reporter said: “About 30 Sunni prisoners are kept in Ward 4 of Hall 10 in Karaj prison. The prisoners face many problems and in some cases the problems are deliberately caused by the prison authorities to harass them.”
He explained about this issue that: “Some of the prisoners have serious health problems such as diabetes and others require surgery, but the prison authorities have refused to send them to a hospital outside the prison. The prisoners are allowed only three hours a day to go outside for fresh air. In some cases, prison officials intentionally cut warm water to harass the prisoners and even it happens that they do not take away the waste for two to three days out of this ward.”
In this regard, another source told our reporter: “Among the prisoners there are those eligible for amnesty or parole that this opportunity is being applied to them because of the ongoing discrimination. The prisoners are all from remote towns and their visit time is only 20 minutes. Sometimes it happens that the prisoner’s family come to visit from far away towns near the border and prison authorities refuse to let them visit. Once, Mr. Mohammad Mardani, the chief of the prison came to review their problems after seven months but instead of solving the problems in response to the requests from prisoners threatened that all prisoners on death row would be executed together! He has changed the prisoners elected representative and has assigned a representative of his choice. He told the prisoners to ‘keep track of your problems should not personally come to visit us, we have appointed a representative,’ although they do not do anything.”
The source also explained at the end about halal meat problem: “In the Shiite-Sunni issue halal meat is different. Earlier they used to bring approved halal meat of Sunni references for the prisoners from the respective cities with the seal of the Ministry of Health, but they have stopped this process now for three years, so prisoners have not eaten meat.”
It should be noted Hall 10 (Ward 4) of Rajai Shahr prison is for many of them Sunni prisoners who have been sentenced to death. There is no specific notice of the charges against these prisoners, judicial authorities often accuse these prisoners of “Salafism” and acts of violence, but most of the prisoners reject these accusations and believe “missionary activities” is the reason for being arrested and sentenced.