File-Making in Prison; Keyvan Samimi Refuses to Appear at Interrogation Session Due to Requirement to Wear Prison Clothes
Keyvan Samimi, editor-in-chief of Iran Tomorrow publication and one of those arrested on International Workers’ Day, was summoned to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday, April 19, 2021, regarding a case opened against him during his detention. Mr. Samimi refused to be transferred to the prosecutor’s office due to being forced to wear prison clothes during the transfer.
According to the Hrana news agency, the news outlet of the human rights activists coalition in Iran, on Sunday, April 19, 2021, Keyvan Samimi, editor-in-chief of Iran Tomorrow publication and one of those arrested on International Workers’ Day who is imprisoned in Evin Prison, was summoned to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office regarding a case opened against him during his detention.
Mr. Samimi refused to be transferred to the prosecutor’s office due to being forced to wear prison clothes during the transfer.
Keyvan Samimi has been serving his three-year prison sentence in Evin Prison since December 8, 2020.
On Wednesday, May 1, 2019, coinciding with International Workers’ Day, dozens of participants in a protest gathering in front of the Parliament building were arrested after security forces entered and the gathering turned violent. Security forces, along with Keyvan Samimi, went to the Iran Tomorrow publication office on May 22, 2019, and while searching the premises, took away many documents and records including computer hard drives. Mr. Samimi was ultimately released on June 17, 2019, temporarily and pending the completion of legal proceedings from Evin Prison after posting bail.
On April 21, Mr. Samimi was tried in absentia by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Iman Afshari and was sentenced to six years imprisonment for the charges of “assembly and conspiracy with intent to act against national security” and “propaganda activity against the Islamic Republic system.” After the ruling was issued and following Mr. Samimi’s objection to the legal proceedings being accepted, the court set a new hearing date.
Keyvan Samimi was retried and by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Iman Afshari was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the charge of “assembly and conspiracy with intent to act against national security.” This ruling was upheld exactly by Branch 36 of the Tehran Province Court of Appeals under Judge Ahmad Zargar during the appeal phase.
Previously, the Press Freedom Defense Association objected in a statement to the imprisonment of Aliyeh Motallebzadeh and Keyvan Samimi, the vice chairman and chairman of the association.
Last November, Mr. Samimi was deprived of visitation and phone contact rights and had his phone card blocked under the pretext of publishing materials about social movements on his Telegram channel. Prison officials had argued that this journalist had incited people to riot in his posts.
Keyvan Samimi, editor-in-chief of Iran Tomorrow publication and one of the members of the Iranian Writers Association, was previously arrested in 2009 and after serving his sentence was released from Rajaei Shahr Prison. Mr. Samimi, in his previous arrest, was arrested at his residence one day after the 2009 presidential election and was sentenced to six years imprisonment by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of questioning the 2009 presidential election and participating in protest demonstrations and writing critical articles. Samimi was exiled from Evin Prison to Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj in December 2010 along with several other political prisoners. He was finally released on Saturday, May 16, 2015, after completing his six-year sentence from Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj regarding this arrest.
This political activist has a history of imprisonment under both the current and previous regimes. One of Keyvan Samimi’s brothers was executed during the Pahlavi era and another in the 1980s by the Islamic Republic.
Source: Hrana
