HRANA News Agency – Saeed Shirzad, political prisoner in Rajai Shahr prison who is spending three years in prison, after one year since receiving the primary sentence is still waiting for appeal court’s decision.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Saeed Shirzad, children’s rights activist was arrested on June 8, 2014. He spent over months in ward 209 of Evin in solitary confinement and without communication with his family and lawyer.
Mr. Shirzad was forced to give video confession in detention in ward 209, before being exiled to Rajai Shahr prison.
Saeed Shirzad was tried in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Salvati and the presence of his lawyer Amir Salari Davoodi after 15 months in detention on September 12, 2015. He was eventually sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on charge of “gathering and colluding with intention to act against national security” and the verdict was notified to his lawyer on September 16, 2015.
He had been charged due to his civic activities, including meeting with families of political prisoners and reporting of human rights.
Despite the passage of three years since his arrest, the activist is still waiting for the appeal court’s verdict and is held in ward 4 of hall 12 of Rajaee Shahr prison in Karaj.
It is noteworthy that in the last two years many organizations and political figures and human rights activists have demanded the release of Saeed Shirzad, including the statement of post workers union of Canada, letter of Ms. Barbara Lochbihler, Human Rights Commission of the EU Parliament and the statement of students in Walter Payton Chicago University in America and also Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General in his latest report pointed out Mr. Shirzad’s case as an example of human rights violations.
Amnesty International in a statement demanded his immediate release in 2014 and in a recent statement in connection with the hunger strike of Mr. Shirzad asked for immediate action on his demands and his released in 2016.
