Shekila Manfred, Civil Activist, Beaten by “Common Crime Prisoners”

The human rights website Hrana reported that Shekila Manfred, a civil activist, was beaten by a number of common crime prisoners in Qarchak Prison in Varamin.

The news agency wrote that this incident occurred due to “failure to implement the prisoner classification plan” and the lack of separation between political prisoners and common crime prisoners in Qarchak Prison in Varamin.

An informed source told the Hrana human rights agency that the beating of this civil activist occurred on June 7 “following the instigation of one of the prison officials, after which a number of prisoners verbally abused Ms. Manfred and severely beat her, injuring her with the lid of a tuna can.”

Ms. Manfred, born in 1993, was arrested in September of last year while leaving her home by security forces in Tehran and was transferred to one of the Sepah Intelligence Organization detention centers in Tehran.

She was initially sentenced by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to 6 years in prison and 4 months of forced labor in agricultural jihad on charges of “propaganda activity against the system and insulting Islamic sanctities,” but this sentence was reduced to 4 years and 2 months in prison by Branch 36 of Tehran’s Court of Appeals.

Ms. Manfred was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin on April 2 of this year.

Previously, Hossein Hashemi, a prisoner from the November 2019 protests, was also beaten by prisoners in the dangerous prisoners ward after being transferred there on May 31 of this year.

Transferring political and civil prisoners to the dangerous prisoners section or common crime wards is one of the methods used to punish and increase pressure on these individuals in Iranian prisons.

Previously, some political and civil prisoners, including Mr. Hashemi and Arash Sadeghi, criticized the failure to implement the prisoner classification plan in their letters.

Source: Radio Farda