Continued Detention: A Report on the Latest Status of Hamadan Power Plant Engineers

Javad Ashrafai and Amin Ashrafai, engineers at Hamadan Power Plant who were arrested by security forces on December 21st of the current year, have been transferred to an unknown location in recent days under the pretext of “completing interrogation procedures,” despite the announcement that interrogations had concluded and they had been transferred from a security detention center to Hamadan Prison.

Relatives of these individuals say they are being pressured to make false confessions. Despite 14 days having passed since the detention of these individuals, no information has been obtained regarding the legal status of these two power plant engineers, including the reasons for their arrest.

According to a report by Hrana news agency, the news organ of the Human Rights Activists in Iran collective, 14 days after the detention of two Hamadan engineers, no information remains regarding the status of these individuals.

Javad Ashrafai and Amin Ashrafai, two Hamadan engineers who were arrested by security forces at their workplace on December 21st of the current year, were transferred to the general ward of Hamadan Prison last week after days of interrogation.

A source close to the families of these individuals told a Hrana reporter: “After days of interrogation and enduring psychological torture, which was sometimes accompanied by beating, during a brief contact with their families, they spoke of pressure from interrogators to make forced, false confessions.”

The informed source continued: “Only a few days after they had been transferred from the detention center to prison, they were again transferred this same week by an unknown entity under the pretext of complementary interrogation to an unknown location.”

According to this source close to Javad and Amin Ashrafai, “during this period, the families of these two prisoners have visited the prison and court every day but have received no response. Only once when they managed to meet with one of the judges of the Revolutionary Court were they told that we have released whoever was innocent, but the file of these two individuals is serious and we are dealing with them.”

Given the reports published regarding serious charges such as “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth” being leveled against a large number of those detained in the December events in Hamadan, the statements of the Revolutionary Court judge have caused severe concern among families.

Given that the entity that detained these individuals is unclear, the repeated follow-ups by the families of these individuals in their daily visits to the judiciary have continued to date, although they have not yet yielded any results.

Relatives of these two Hamadan engineers say that Javad and Amin Ashrafai are the only source of income and support for their families due to financial poverty and poor economic conditions.

It has been reported that Javad Ashrafai’s mother suffers from heart trouble and in the absence of information about her son’s condition, she has faced several serious health crises due to distress.

Regarding the arrest of these two Hamadan engineers, Hrana had previously reported that “on the morning of Thursday, December 21st, these two power plant engineers were arrested at 8 a.m. at their workplace without the presentation of an arrest warrant or any explanation regarding the reason for their detention by security forces and were transferred to an unknown location.”