Mother of Sanaz Allahyari, Imprisoned Activist of Conscience, on Hunger Strike: “My Daughter is Innocent, Release Her”
The mother of Sanaz Allahyari, a labor activist who, since July 4, has begun a dry hunger strike along with her husband in protest of the continuation of temporary detention at Evin Prison, told the Human Rights Campaign in Iran that her daughter is in poor physical condition after six days of hunger strike and was transferred to the prison clinic on Monday, July 8, due to “severe drop in blood pressure and body tremors.” Gol Khanoom Norouzi also said that after two days of being unable to contact her family, her daughter was able to speak with her briefly on the morning of July 9: “She said I’m fine, but I know she’s lying. She just said to tell everyone that I refused to have an IV inserted at the clinic yesterday because I have to be released.”
By order of Ali Chaharmahali, the head of Evin Prison, Sanaz Allahyari was deprived of contact with her husband Amirhossein Mohammadifar at Evin Prison and contact with her family on July 8. The prison head issued this order as punishment and to force her to break her hunger strike, but according to Sanaz Allahyari’s mother, on the morning of the next day she was allowed to contact her mother for a few minutes.
Gol Khanoom Norouzi told the campaign: “I was without news of my daughter yesterday. But they allowed Sanaz to call me this morning (July 9): Sanaz knows me and how worried I am. I have four sons and one daughter. This one daughter is all I have in the world and I don’t even live in Tehran so I can quickly go to the prison or the prosecutor’s office. I live in Hamadan, far from Tehran. My husband also had an accident two weeks ago after visiting Sanaz in front of the Evin Prison gate and has not been well since. Since I heard Sanaz is on a hunger strike, I’ve gone mad. From yesterday until now I’ve been crying non-stop about what happened to my daughter. This morning Sanaz told them that my mother is worried about me, let me make one call. She called and said I’m fine but her voice was weak. I know she’s saying she’s fine so I won’t worry. She just said yesterday they didn’t allow them to insert an IV in the clinic. She said I didn’t do anything to deserve staying in prison this long, why should I break my strike. Sanaz was not in good condition in prison before either. We wanted them to take her to a doctor but I don’t know why they didn’t take my daughter.”
Ms. Allahyari had previously suffered from weakness and severe body tremors. An informed source told the campaign on June 11, 2019, that she had lost weight severely, but despite requests from her family to transfer her to a hospital for more specialized examinations, this has so far been prevented with the justification that “her illness is not something important and does not require follow-up.”
Sanaz Allahyari’s mother, stating that she has repeatedly gone to the Revolutionary Court and the Tehran prosecutor’s office and requested her child’s release on bail, said: “I went everywhere but they don’t give us any answer. I went to the prosecutor before the holiday, what can I do, my Turkish and Persian are not good. I cried, I pleaded with them, I said I have one daughter, for God’s sake release her. They said okay but she wasn’t released. Although her interrogations have been completed, they don’t agree to her and her husband’s release. Three times during this period they said okay we will release her but they didn’t release her. Not only have they remained imprisoned while innocent, but their living situation and home have also been left in limbo, they were tenants and I don’t know what happened to their job, house, and belongings.”
Gol Khanoom Norouzi, who lives in Hamadan and is forced to come to Tehran from Hamadan every week for a contact visit with her daughter, told the campaign: “With this situation every week with her father we come from Hamadan to Tehran to visit her. God knows how difficult it is. Now on Sunday I’m going to Tehran to see what condition my daughter is in after all this time on a hunger strike. I don’t know whether to go to the Revolutionary Court again, go to parliament… I don’t know.”
Ms. Norouzi says she wants her daughter and husband released: “Why should a young girl stay in prison this long? What has she done? I want her released. I can’t take it anymore. I’ve been crying for six months.”
Sanaz Allahyari and Amirhossein Mohammadifor are two labor activists and members of the internet publication “Gam” who, after participating in protests by workers at Haft-Tappeh sugarcane factory (November 2018), were both arrested at their home in Tehran on January 9, 2019, and taken to Evin Prison. Both have been in temporary detention for six months, and despite requests for release on bail until the issuance of a final verdict, these requests have been rejected for unclear reasons. On July 4, Amirhossein Mohammadifor wrote a letter to Ali Chaharmahali, head of Evin Prison, and Judge Mogaddasi stating that if they and the rest of the Haft-Tappeh detainees are not released by July 5, he and his wife will begin a hunger strike.
Mr. Mohammadifor wrote in part of his letter: “Nearly six months have passed since the temporary detention of myself and my wife, and more than five months since the interrogation and investigation phases have been completed, and despite the issuance of a bail order, we remain in temporary detention. During this time, the measures we took through our families have had no clear response, and we are in a state of uncertainty.”
In another part of the letter, it stated: “I and my wife Sanaz Allahyari were arrested simultaneously, and this has caused many problems in our personal life, including dismissal from work, cancellation of insurance, overdue housing rent, and overdue installments on several loans, imposing great hardships on our families. If the officials do not take any specific action in this regard by July 13 of the current year, to defend our rights and those of Sanaz Allahyari in protest of dealings that go beyond the law, I will use the only means I have at my disposal and refrain from eating solid food. Obviously, the consequences of this strike are directly the responsibility of security and judicial officials.”
This couple began their hunger strike on July 4.
Sanaz Allahyari and her husband are accused of three charges: “connection with opposition groups and parties,” “assembly and conspiracy against national security,” and “forming a group with the intention of undermining national security,” and in May 2019, their final statements were taken in Branch Seven of Evin Prison’s investigation section, but the date of their court hearing has not yet been set.
Sanaz Allahyari, born in 1987, a graduate of economics, was previously arrested once again in March 2009 due to her membership in the Free and Egalitarian Student Group (DAB) and spent 17 days in Evin Prison. She was later sentenced in the Revolutionary Court to five years of suspended imprisonment on charges of acting against national security.
Another member of Gam publication, which covers labor news more extensively, named Amir Amirgholi and Asal Mohammadi, were arrested after the Haft-Tappeh sugarcane workers’ protests. Ms. Mohammadi was released one month after her arrest on a bail of 400 million tomans, but Amir Amirgholi, along with Sanaz Allahyari and Amirhossein Mohammadifor, remain in prison.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
