Fariba Asadi Arrested and Sent to Qarchak Prison to Serve One Year Sentence

On January 10, Fariba Asadi, resident of Tehran, was arrested at home and transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin City to serve her sentence. She has been sentenced to one year in prison by Shahriar’s Revolutionary Court.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, Asadi was arrested by security forces in February 2021, along with Mehran Delfan Azari, Meysam Gholami and Masoud Vazifeh. They were arrested on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “membership in an anti-regime group”

On October 2, 2021, Branch 2 of Shriar’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Vazifeh to six months on the charge of “abetting in propaganda against the regime” and the three others to one year on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”

From them, Asadi was released on bail. The other three were sent to Greater Tehran Prison at the end of legal proceedings. Perviously, Masoud Vazifeh and Meysam Gholami were released from jail after completing their sentences.

14 Political Prisoners Punitively Transferred to Locked-Door Ward of Greater Tehran Prison

Following a beating of political prisoners by a mob of fellow inmates of violent crimes in the Greater Tehran prison, the official authorities forced 14 of these political prisoners to relocate to a ward with locked doors and inadequate conditions.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, these political prisoners were housed in section 1, type 2 of the Greater Tehran prison. They were said that if they refuse to relocate, Special Prison Guards would take action to relocate them by force.

The inmates have been identified as Hossein Ghasghaie, Mehran Delfan-Azari, Meysam Gholoami, Hojatollah Rafei, Reza Salavati, Morteza Olangi, Shahab Soltanian, Dawood Abdollahi, Shapur Ehsani-rad, Pouya Ghobadi, Ismail Gerami, Akbar Bagheri, Alireza Farshi and Akbar Faraji.

The day after this incident, in response to this news, the head of state prisons and Security and Corrective Measures Organization, Muhammad Mehdi Haj-Mohammadi confirmed the news.

“In regard to inaccurate news of beating in the Greater Tehran prison, I would say that not intellectuals but criminals belong to the prison,” Haj-Mohammadi wrote on his personal page on social media. “Despite all controls, tensions and quarrels happen.”

On Friday, October 8, the above-mentioned prisoners were beaten by a mob of prisoners of violent crimes. Contrary to the laws of the prison, these political prisoners were being housed in the same ward as the prisoners of violent crimes. Reportedly, Pouya  Ghobadi and Akbar Bagheri were severely injured.