The testimony of 41 political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin: Sattar Beheshti had been tortured

HRANA News Agency – According to reports published by media outlets, Sattar Beheshti was arrested by the cyber police, a subsidiary of the nation’s security forces on October 30th 2012. On November 6th, Mr Beheshti’s family was reportedly informed of his passing, requesting that his body be collected at the Kahrizak morgue. All along, the family was threatened not to speak to anyone regarding this matter.

Give that Mr. Sattar Beheshti was at Evin’s general ward 350 from October 31st 2012 to November 1st 2012 and the detainees at this ward had therefore witnessed his painful physical and psychological condition first hand, we view it our national and religious duty to inform the honorable Iranian nation of Mr. Beheshti’s background and predicament.

Sattar Beheshti was charged as a result of his criticism of the authorities of the ruling establishment in his personal blog.  He told eye witnesses at Evin’s ward 350 that while in custody at the police headquarters, he had first been severely beaten while hanging from the ceiling and later beaten further while tied to a chair. Sometimes  he was beaten while his hands were tied and at other times he was pushed to the ground and kicked severely in the area of the head and neck by interrogators wearing army boots.  While being tortured, Beheshti was reportedly subjected to the most vulgar curses attacking his honor and his interrogators repeatedly threatened to kill him.

When arriving at Evin’s ward 350, evidence of torture was apparent throughout Sattar’s body and he was in a painful physical and psychological state. His face was scarred, his head was swollen, his wrists and arms were bruised and the effects of hanging from the ceiling were apparent on his wrists.  Bruises were also apparent on other parts of his body such as around his neck, his stomach and his back.

Despite the fact that he was barely able to write as a result of his beatings, Sattar nevertheless filed a short complaint to the authorities of Evin’s ward 350, describing his condition and the manner in which he had been treated at the hands of the security agents, demanding that they follow up on his case.

Given that his physical condition was far from normal, Sattar was taken to the prison infirmary on two occasions where the physician at the infirmary was also able to witness his condition first hand.

On November 1st, 2011, Sattar a young and true activist of the Green Movement was once again transferred from Evin’s ward 350 to the security police headquarters. He was extremely concerned when leaving the ward and told other detainees: “They intend to kill me.”  Four days after his transfer, his family was informed of his death.

Those who claim to be the followers of Imam Ali must be reminded of his response to the news of a Jewish women’s torture under his reign, her legs bruised, when he stated: ” If a victim dies, they are not to blame.”

They witness the cruelty, injustices, atrocities, torture and murder and remain indifferent, without losing even a night’s sleep. In recent years and following the 2009 presidential elections we have repeatedly witnessed this type of torture of detainees at the hands of the security and cyber police. There are individuals currently at Evin’s ward 350 who have personally been subjected to such torture.  We hereby testify that we have witnessed the existence of numerous cases of torture of detainees at the hands of the agents of the security police at Evin’s ward 350.

We believe that if the criminals at Kahrizak prison and the torturers at Evin prison whose accounts of torture have been repeatedly published and are known to the authorities of the ruling establishment, would be punished rather than encouraged and promoted,  such heinous Kahrizak style tortures and cases of murder would no longer be repeated.

It has now been proven to all of us that when it comes to the current ruling establishment our cries will only fall on deaf ears.  While offering our condolences to the family of the late Sattar Beheshti and the oppressed Iranian nation, we remind everyone that the current ruling establishment, whether they like it or not, are responsible for the cruelty, torture and unjust bloodshed of innocent victims.

Signatories:

Mohammad Ebrahimi

Hossein Asadi Zeidabadi

Amir Eslami

Reza Ansari Rad

Ibrahim (Nader) Babai Zeydi

Emaad Bahavar

Seyed Ali Reza Beheshti Shirazi

Amid Behroozi

Amin Chalaki

Siyavash Hatem

Omid Kharazmiyan

Mehdi Khodaii

Mohammad Davari

Amir Khosro Dalirsani

Seyed Mohammad Ali Dadkhah

Ali Reza Rajaii

Mohammad Rezaii

Farzad Rouhi

Hossein Zarini

Abdolfatah Soltani

Adris Seyedin

Pouriya Shahpari

Mohsen (Bahman) Sadeghi Nour

Mohammad Farid Taheri Ghazvini

Bahador Alizadeh

Afshin Karampour

Hamid Reza Karvasi

Amir Garshasbi

Jafar Ganji

Siyamak Ghaderi

Abolfazl Ghadyani

Ali Akbar Ghoti

Farshi Lahouti

Abdollah Momeni

Mohsen Mirdamadi

Mostafa Nili

Mohammad Ali Velayati

Farshid Yadollahi

Mohammad Hassan Youssef Pourseyfi

Mohammad Amin Hadavi

Seyed Ahmad Hashemi