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Search for tag "Prisons"
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| 2010 8 Aug |
The sentence of 20 years in prison was announced for members of the "Yaran-i-Iran" or "Friends of Iran" in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Moqayesseh (or Moghiseh)*. The charges were several: "espionage", "collaborating with enemy states", "insulting the sacred", "propaganda against the state" and "forming an illegal group". The prominent civil and human rights lawyer who defended them was Mr Abdolfattah Soltani. He would later serve a 13-year sentence in the Evin Prison for engaging in his profession. Another member of their legal defense team was the attorney Hadi Esmailzadeh who died in 2016 while serving a 4-year prison term for defending human rights cases. After the sentencing the seven Bahá'í leaders were sent to Raja’i prison in the city of Karaj (Gohardasht) , about 50 kilometers west of Tehran. [BWNS789]
Raja’i prison in Mashhad has frequently been criticized by human rights advocates for its unsanitary environment, lack of medical services, crowded prison cells and unfair treatment of inmates by guards. [Wikipedia; Iran Press Watch 6315].
Soon after their arrival four of the Yaran were transferred to room 17 in Section 6 of this notorious prison. Section 6 is infamous in human rights circles. It has often been the scene of bloody fighting among prisoners and it is considered extremely dangerous. It is where certain political prisoners have been sent to vanish. At first the Mafia-like gangs incarcerated in the same facility began to refer to the Yaran as “infidels”. The authorities also tried to pressure other prisoners to insult and belittle the newly-arrived Bahá'ís, but it appeared that most other prisoners refused to comply with this suggestion. In fact, it was reported that most other prisoners were showing considerable respect to the Bahá'ís and tried to be hospitable. [Iran Press Watch 667]
* For a profile of Judge Mohammad Moghiseh see Iran Press Watch 17764 .
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Tihran; Mashhad; Iran |
Yaran; Persecution, Iran; Persecution, Court cases; Persecution; Court cases; Evin Prison; Gohardasht prison; Abdolfattah Soltani; Hadi Esmailzadeh; Moghiseh; Human rights; Prisons; BWNS |
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| 2010 Sep |
Following the reduction of his sentence, Vahid Tizfahm was transferred to Rajai-Shahr prison, where he remained until his release. Rajai-Shahr is located in the Alborz Province, and was at the time a maximum-security prison, a place for the “dangerous” individuals. According to Iran’s Department of Prisons, Security and Corrections’ Regulations, and based on the principle of Segregation of Crimes, Tizfahm’s transfer to Rajai-Shahr was not legal. [Iran Press Watch 29 March, 2018] |
Karaj; Iran |
Yaran; Vahid Tizfahm; Rajai Shahr prison; Prisons; Persecution, Iran |
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| 2011 20 May |
Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet were returned to Evin Prison in Tehran. They had spent a brief time in the appalling conditions at Qarchak prison, (from 3 May) some 45 kilometers from Tehran. [BIC Evin; BWNS826]
The five men were still being held under close scrutiny in a wing of Gohardasht prison, reserved for political prisoners.
[BIC Report] |
Tihran; Iran |
Yaran; Evin Prison; Gohardasht Prison; Qarchak prison; Persecution, Iran; Persecution, Other; Persecution; Prisons; BWNS |
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| 2014 Nov |
Fariba Kamalabadi, after having her fourth request to join her daughter Taraneh for her wedding denied, wrote her a letter from Evin Prison. [Iran Press Watch]
See Iran Press Watch 11274 for Taraneh's story of how she grew up without her mother. |
Tihran; Iran |
Yaran; Persecution, Iran; Persecution, Other; Persecution; Evin Prison; Prisons; Human rights; Taraneh Kamalabadi; Fariba Kamalabadi |
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| 2016 24 Nov |
From her cell in Evin prison, In a open letter to her six-month old granddaughter, Bajar, Fariba Kamalabadi one of the members of the imprisoned Yaran of Iran, wrote about the suffering of the Bahá'í citizens and of her dreams for humanity. [Iran Press Watch 16140] |
Tihran; Iran |
Yaran; Evin Prison; Prisons; Persecution, Iran; Persecution, Other; Persecution; Human rights |
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| 2017 19 Sep |
Mahvash Sabet, one of the seven members of the former leadership group of the Bahá'ís in Iran known as the Yaran, was released after 10 years of confinement in Iran's notorious Evin and Raja'i Shahr prisons.
She had been arrested in March 2008 and was now 64 years old. Mrs. Sabet distinguished herself by the loving care and kindness she extended to her fellow prisoners. As has occurred with prisoners of conscience, writers, thought-leaders, and poets who have been wrongly imprisoned throughout history, the power of Mrs. Sabet's ideas and beliefs was only amplified by her persecution. The plight of its author attracted attention to this deeply moving collection of poetry, inspiring PEN International to feature Mrs. Sabet in a campaign to defend persecuted writers. Her poems also inspired a musical composition by award-winning composer Lasse Thoresen, performed at an international music festival in Oslo earlier this year. [BWNS1198]
See Prison Poems. For this publication she was recognized by PEN International at its 2017 International Writer of Courage.
See CNN article Writing to survive: Bahá'í woman's poetry was her best friend in Iranian jail. |
Karaj; Iran |
Yaran; Persecution, Iran; Persecution, Court cases; Persecution, Other; Persecution; Court cases; Human rights; Evin prison; Rajai Shahr prison; Prisons; Poetry; Music; Lasse Thoresen; BWNS |
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| 2018 23 Apr |
Afif Naeimi, the seventh and last imprisoned member of the Yaran, returned to Rajaee Shahr Prison (also known as Gohardasht Prison) near Tehran at the end of his medical leave despite suffering from life-threatening ailments.
On May 1 the judiciary’s medical experts had ruled that the 57-year-old was too ill to be incarcerated.
Naeimi, who had completed his 10-year prison sentence, should have been released by that time but the judiciary extended his term by more than nine months—the period he was out of prison on furlough receiving medical treatment. He had hypertrophy, a condition where the heart muscle thickens and he was afflicted with Syncope disease, which causes temporary losses of consciousness. [Iran Press Watch 18975; Iran Press Watch 18975]
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Karaj; Iran |
Yaran; Rajai Shahr prison; Prisons; Persecution, Iran |
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from the main catalogue
- Chihriq, by Juan Cole and Amir Hassanpour, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Volume 4 (1990). Brief excerpt, with link to article offsite. [about]
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