“Complete Lack of Information” About the Condition of Afarin Chitsaz, Imprisoned Journalist
According to FCN, Afarin Chitsaz, a journalist who was detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization in November 2015, has been missing for five and a half months with no clarity on her condition.
An informed source, who requested anonymity, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: “She has had no lawyer since her detention until now.”
The source added: “Unfortunately, we have no information about her condition and we don’t even know why she hasn’t chosen a lawyer for herself in these five months. We only know that she is being held in Evin Prison.”
According to this source, Afarin Chitsaz’s family is also “unwilling to disclose information about her condition.”
It is also unclear which cell exactly she is being held in at Evin Prison, what her charges are, and when her trial date is.
Isa Saharkhiz, Ehsan Mazandarani, Saman Safarzaei, and Afarin Chitsaz are four journalists who were detained on November 11, 2015 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization. Davoud Asadi is another journalist for whom no information is available about the time of his detention, his activities, and the manner of his arrest.
Ehsan Mazandarani, Davoud Asadi, and Saman Safarzaei were tried in late March 2016 in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court on two charges of “propaganda activities against the system, insulting the leader and society, and conspiracy to act against national security” and are now awaiting the court’s verdict.
Isa Saharkhiz, in addition to the two charges of “propaganda activities against the system, insulting the leader and society, and conspiracy to act against national security,” has been accused of two other charges of “spreading false information and insulting the head of the judiciary,” but his trial date has not yet been set. Saharkhiz was transferred from prison to a hospital due to continuous convulsions from March 19, and is currently being held there.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization says these journalists were members of a “network of infiltration affiliated with the governments of the United States and Britain.”
Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said on November 19, 2015 in a press conference: “The release of journalists will not take long.”
However, after five months, they are still in detention and have not even been allowed to be released on bail. They have been charged with multiple accusations and tried.
Iran, with 36 imprisoned journalists and citizen reporters, is one of the five largest prisons in the world for media activists. This country ranks 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index.
Source: Radio Zamaneh
