Rahim Afravi Denied Leave after 22 Years Imprisonment

Political prisoner Rahim Afravi has not been allowed a single day of leave in his 22 years of imprisonment in Sheyban Prison in Ahvaz.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, he has faced serious medical neglect in this time, and suffers from heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and pulmonary problems. Afravi recently contracted COVID-19, but was not dispatched to any medical center outside prison upon receiving a positive test.

53-year-old Rahim Afravi is married and the father of two children. In June 1999, security forces arrested Afravi when he was returning home from his workplace in the outskirts of Ahvaz City. Initially, the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on a charge of “enmity against God” (Moharebeh) and “acting against national security”. On appeal, the verdict was reduced to 25 years imprisonment and exile to Jiroft Prison.

According to an informed source, while he was in exile jail in Jiroft, his mother passed away. Family visitations were few and far between because of the great distance between the jail and the residence place of his family. After 13 years imprisonment in exile, he was relocated to Karun and then to Sheyban prison in Ahvaz City.

In August of this year, his request for release on parole and leave on furlough was dismissed by Branch 12 of the Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz.