A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for December 10, 2018

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on December 10th,2018 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists NewsAgency (HRANA).

(1) Four Workers Were Injured or Died in Their Workplaces

(2) An Execution in Urmia

(3) Five Citizens Were Saved from Execution in Shushtar

(4) The Businesses of 17 Baha’i Citizens Were Shut Down

(5) The State’s Welfare Organization has requested to monitor Fashafoyeh prison.

(6) An activist in Adel Abad prison was deprived from getting pharmaceutical drug

(7) Political Prisoners in Ardabil Prison Went on Strike

(8) Child Maltreatments in Mahabad and Harsin

(9) Atena Daemi’s open letter on Human Rights Violations in Gharchak Prison

(10) More from Iran

                                                       

(1) Four Workers Were Injured or Died in Their Workplaces

Inthe last two days, four workers were injured or died in their workplaces in Iran. Two workers who were 35 and 40 years old and citizens of Afghanistan, were injured in a construction incident in Tehran. According to Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA), in Rasht, a 45 years old worker of a dairy company, died by electrical shock in the workplace. Moreover, Baloch activists campaign reported the death of a 35 years old construction worker in his workplace in Iranshahr.

(2) An Execution in Urmia

In the morning of December 10, 2018, a prisoner in Urmia prison was executed.Younes Azizi was transferred to a solitary confinement earlier. He was from Naqadeh a city in West Azerbaijan and was accused of drug crimes.

(3) Five Citizens Were Saved from Execution in Shushtar

Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported that five individuals who were arrested with a murder charge, finally were saved from execution in jail by the help of judicial authorities and victims’ families’ consent. They had spent the last 4 years waiting for the execution in prison. The murder took place in 2014 in a tribal fight. Four people died, and more than 40 people were injured in that incident in second district of Zouyie village which is in Shadravan district in Shushtar County in the Khuzestan province.

(4) The Businesses of 17 Baha’i Citizens Were Shut Down

The businesses of 17 Baha’i citizens were shut down in Kerman. Their appeal was rejected in the Administrative Justice court. They requested to cancel the minutes which was issued by the Governor General of Kerman. Due to the aforementioned minutes of limiting financial activities of Baha’i citizens,their businesses were shut down in 2016 because they closed their businesses temporarily for their religious rituals.

(5) The State’s Welfare Organization has requested to monitor Fashafoyeh prison.

Farid Baratisadeh, Deputy Director of Prevention state’s Welfare Organization has requested to monitor Fashafoyeh prison. He emphasized that although the supervising of the addicted facilities is included in the state’s Welfare Organization’s responsibility, but this organization never got the chance to supervise on Fashafoyeh prison.

(6) An activist in Adel Abad prison was deprived from getting pharmaceutical drug

Majid Azizi, a civil activist from Shiraz who is in Adel Abad prison was deprived from getting pharmaceutical drug by prison officials. His family are concerned about his health. On November 19, 2018 he was transferred to Adel Abad in Shiraz for his one-year imprisonment.

(7) Political Prisoners in Ardabil Prison Went on Strike

Political prisoners in Ardabil prison went on strike from December 9, 2018. They are protesting the transfer of an infected contagious prisoner to their prison without informing the other inmates, and the other limitations such as cutting off the phone in prison.

(8) Child Maltreatments in Mahabad and Harsin

The head of State Welfare Organization’s office of Harsin confirmed that a five-year-old girl who does not have any birth certificate and gathers garbage’s was transferred to the state Welfare office of this city. In another case in Mahabad, a six-year-old who had been abused by her mother and was hospitalized for her injuries, was transferred to the city’s State Welfare office. Mahabad and Harsin are in Azarbaijan and Kermanshah provinces.

(9) Atena Daemi’s open letter on Human Rights Violations in Gharchak Prison

Atena Daemi, an imprisoned activist wrote an open letter for international day of Human Right about human rights violations in Gharchak prison. She wrote about sanitary in this prison “there is not any spot clear from blood and vomit”. She also mentioned that the quality of water is low, there is no dental health, and prisoners’ hands and legs are swollen. Overall, there is a very limited access to the medical care and it would be humiliating and offensive.

(10) More from Iran

Ghasem Shole Sa’adi and Arash Keykhosravi, attorney at laws were sentenced to six years in prison by branch 15 of Islamic Revolutionary Court.

Hamidreza Rahmati,a teacher activist, has ended his sit-in by the Shahreza’s Ministry of Education office. He was protesting the arrest of the teachers during teachers’ strikes since December 1st, 2018.

The 21st day of detention of Ismael Bakhshi, laborer activist and Sepideh Gholian, civil activist.  They were arrested in course of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Business protests.

Arman Ghafouri, the resident of Marivan, was released on bail temporary on December 10, 2018. 

On Sunday, December 9th, the Human Right Committee of Lawyers, organized a conference for the international “Human Rights Day” which marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the subject of“celebrating the differences”. Mohammad Hashemi, Afshin Ala, Hatam Ghaderi and Saeed Madani were some of the lecturers of this conference.

A Dismal Prison: a Brief Report on Conditions at Dezful

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – The gnawing pang of hunger, the festering of dirty sores, and the dread of what might happen if you look at the warden sideways. For the 1,300 people currently detained in Dezful Prison, these are private, everyday torments to which authorities there are less than sympathetic.

Indeed, one of Dezful’s most darkly effective forms of punishment, a former prison functionary told HRANA, is an administration seemingly devoid of humanity. “A while ago, Mr. Postchi, the general manager of the Khuzestan Province Prison system, came in for inspection,” the functionary said. His response to the complaints of malnourished prisoners about the deplorable sleeping conditions? “He told the prisoners, ‘You’re wearing out the beds with how much you eat and sleep.’”

The cruel irony of the system manager’s comments could not be lost on prisoners’ family members, who expressed distress at the nutritional deficits of the Dezful canteen. “For a period of one week, rice was omitted from their diet, and during that time they didn’t even have bread to eat,” one family member said. A former Dezful prisoner elaborated, “the prison food is very low-quality, and the prison store doesn’t even stock bread that the prisoners can buy themselves to stave off their hunger.”

Currently populated at a few hundred inmates above its maximum capacity, Dezful lacks more than adequate food stores. Without a medical professional on site, it packs the medical consultations of its 1300 prisoners into half-hour windows every two days in which medical professionals swing by the prison. Hygienically, conditions are ripe for disease: each ward houses 300 people for every five showers and six toilets, and when night falls ward floors are crowded with the sleeping bodies of those who weren’t lucky enough to get a bed.

According to eyewitness reports, one rare vestige of prisoner autonomy is their power to appease, as best they can, those who have authority to make their bad conditions worse. “No one dares complain in this prison,” the former Dezful prisoner related to HRANA, revealing that the sense of humanity in Ward 6 was particularly tenuous. “If a prisoner disagrees with Ward’s internal administrator [Mr. Daneshyar], he will be beaten by prisoners, who are goaded by the administrator […] then the prisoner will be moved, on Daneshyar’s orders, to another Ward.”

Still, prisoner’s control over their day-to-day fate is ultimately limited: beatings ordered on prisoners because of their legal charges, or even their general disposition, are reportedly routine.

These conditions have driven so many to self-harm that authorities have removed the bathroom mirrors, making shaving difficult, the former inmate said; one more mundane task of self-care that from within the walls of Dezful seems a faraway luxury.

Dezful Prison has nine wards. It is located in Khuzestan Province on the outskirts of Dezful. The current head of the prison is Mr. Azadeh, and his deputy is Mr. Noghrehchi.