Prisoners' families stage protest in front of Prosecutor's office

GVF -- This morning, a group of families of political prisoners in Iran staged a protest in front of the office of Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor in response to the ongoing maltreatment of their loved ones in prison. The families expressed their concerns over the fate of the inmates following their hunger strike and demanded an end to their mistreatment in prison. 

According to the Kaleme opposition website, at 10:30am on Saturday, families of the prisoners gathered outside the capital’s prosecution office in complete silence for two and a half hours and requested to meet with Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor in order to express their concerns over the fate of their relatives in prison who had gone on hunger strike. However, in the end, the prosecutor declined to meet with the families. 

After losing all hope of holding a meeting with the prosecutor, the families began chanting “Allah-O-Akbar” (God is Greatest) and marched towards the head office of Tehran’s judiciary in order to draw attention to the plight of the political prisoners.

On Monday, a number of prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison protested their mistreatment. subsequently, seventeen of those prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement and have been on hunger strike ever since. The seventeen as well as the rest of the inmates in ward 350 are now completely isolated from the outside world and Since then, none of the prisoners has been allowed to make any phone calls or to receive any visitors at the prison.

The families of political prisoners—who mainly represented inmates held in ward 350—gathered outside the Chief Prosecutor’s office holding pictures of their loved ones and banners calling for an end to the abuse against their family members in prison. 

Mousavi's official website Kaleme described the worried look on the face of prisoner Hamed Rouhinejad's father who also took part in the gathering today. When asked about his son’s condition, he replied, “his physical and mental condition are not good at all and his eye sight is on the decline every day.” Rouhinejad suffers from multiple sclerosis. He was initially sentenced to death but his sentence was then reduced to ten years in prison after appeal.
 
“They are torturing Hamed to death. I cannot bear this any longer. I cannot bear his suffering any longer. Even can’t take it anymore. They are torturing him to death,” he said.
 
The mother of Hossein Ezami, who was arrested after the rigged presidential election of June 2009, also complained about the harsh conditions prevalent in Evin prison’s ward 350. “Every day and for ten hours, our children are deprived of water. They are told to take a bottle of water to use throughout the day and for a week now, we have no news of our kids. We don’t know about the conditions they’re in.”
 
“The officials put pressure on the families of the prisoners by cutting [the prison’s] phone lines and [not allowing family] visits. The families are under pressure. These days and with the continuous lack information, they [the families] assume many [terrible] things [about their loved ones’ conditions] and not knowing our children’s situations makes us suffer,” said the mother of Ali Parviz, a prisoner in ward 350 who is on hunger strike.

The wife of one of the prisoner is holding a banner which reads “Set my husband free”.

The protestors also carried pictures of the seventeen prisoners currently on hunger strike: Keyvan Samimi, Bahman Ahmadi Amooei, Abdollah Momeni, Hossein Nouraninejad, Kouhyar Goudarzi, Ali Malihi, Babak Bordbar, Peyman Karimi Azad, Hamidreza Mohammadi, Gholamhossein Arshi, Nader Babaei, Mohammad Hossein Sohrabi and Jafar Aghdami are among the seventeen prisoner currently in solitary confinement.

It should be noted that the families of the prisoners who had gathered outside the office of Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor Jafari Dolatabadi signed a letter to the prosecutor calling for the prisoners’ demands to be met immediately. In their letter to Dolatabadi, they also demanded that prison officials apologise for their inappropriate and insulting treatment of prisoners. The families also requested to be informed about the inmates’ physical and mental condition and for urgent medical attention to be given to Peyman Karimi Azad who has been hospitalised after the deterioration of his health.

“As families of political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison, we would like to once more, issue a warning about the inappropriate treatment of our loved ones and to announce that if you do not investigate the situation as soon as possible, we reserve the right to use all other peaceful means and even joining them in their hunger strike in order to protest the unlawful behaviour of prison officials and the violation of their legal rights as citizens.”

GVF -- This morning, a group of families of political prisoners in Iran staged a protest in front of the office of Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor in response to the ongoing maltreatment of their loved ones in prison. The families expressed their concerns over the fate of the inmates following their hunger strike and demanded an end to their mistreatment in prison.

According to the Kaleme opposition website, at 10:30am on Saturday, families of the prisoners gathered outside the capital’s prosecution office in complete silence for two and a half hours and requested to meet with Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor in order to express their concerns over the fate of their relatives in prison who had gone on hunger strike. However, in the end, the prosecutor declined to meet with the families.

After losing all hope of holding a meeting with the prosecutor, the families began chanting “Allah-O-Akbar” (God is Greatest) and marched towards the head office of Tehran’s judiciary in order to draw attention to the plight of the political prisoners.

On Monday, a number of prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison protested their mistreatment. subsequently, seventeen of those prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement and have been on hunger strike ever since. The seventeen as well as the rest of the inmates in ward 350 are now completely isolated from the outside world and Since then, none of the prisoners has been allowed to make any phone calls or to receive any visitors at the prison. 

The families of political prisoners—who mainly represented inmates held in ward 350—gathered outside the Chief Prosecutor’s office holding pictures of their loved ones and banners calling for an end to the abuse against their family members in prison.
 
Mousavi's official website Kaleme described the worried look of the father of one of the prisoners Hamed Rouhinejad who also took part in the gathering today. When asked about his son’s condition, he replied, “his physical and mental condition are not good at all and his eye sight is on the decline every day.” Rouhinejad suffers from multiple sclerosis. He was initially sentenced to death but his sentence was then reduced to ten years in prison after appeal.

“They are torturing Hamed to death. I cannot bear this any longer. I cannot bear his suffering any longer. Even can’t take it anymore. They are torturing him to death,” he said.

The mother of Hossein Ezami, who was arrested after the rigged presidential election of June 2009, also complained of the harsh conditions prevalent in Evin prison’s ward 350. “Every day and for ten hours, our children are deprived of water. They are told to take a bottle of water to use throughout the day and for a week now, we have no news of our kids. We don’t know about the conditions they’re in.”

“The officials put pressure on the families of the prisoners by cutting [the prison’s] phone lines and [not allowing for the family] visits. The families are under pressure. These days and with the continuous lack information, they [the families] assume many [terrible] things [about their loved ones’ conditions] and not knowing our children’s situations makes us suffer,” said the mother of Ali Parviz, a prisoner in ward 350 who is on hunger strike.

The wife of one of the prisoner is holding a banner which reads “Set my husband free”.

The protestors also carried pictures of the seventeen prisoners currently on hunger strike: Keyvan Samimi, Bahman Ahmadi Amooei, Abdollah Momeni, Hossein Nouraninejad, Kouhyar Goudarzi, Ali Malihi, Babak Bordbar, Peyman Karimi Azad, Hamidreza Mohammadi, Gholamhossein Arshi, Nader Babaei, Mohammad Hossein Sohrabi and Jafar Aghdami are among the seventeen prisoner currently in solitary confinement.

It should be noted that the families of the prisoners who had gathered outside the office of Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor Jafari Dolatabadi signed a letter to the prosecutor calling for the prisoners’ demands to be met to immediate effect. In their letter to Dolatabadi, they also demanded that prison officials apologise for their inappropriate and insulting treatment of prisoners. The families also requested to be informed about the inmates’ physical and mental condition. In addition, the letter called for urgent medical attention for Peyman Karimi Azad who has been hospitalised after the deterioration of his health.

“As families of political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison, we would like to once more, issue a warning about the inappropriate treatment of our loved ones and announce that if you do not investigate the situation as soon as possible, we reserve the right to use all other peaceful means and even joining them in their hunger strike in order to protests the unlawful behaviour of prison officials and the violation of their legal rights as citizens.”

The following images are related to today's protest: