Ali Younesi's sister threatened with sexual harassment and arrest; Amnesty International calls for the release of this imprisoned student in Iran
While it has been about a month since the arrest of Ali Younesi, a student activist and one of the elites of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Ali Younesi's sister has reported receiving death threats, sexual harassment, and arrest after responding to the claims of the Iranian judiciary.
Aida Younesi, the sister of Ali Younesi, a student detained in Iran, told VOA Persian on Tuesday, May 13, that most of the threats came in private messages or comments on Twitter “after I posted a short video in response to the judiciary spokesman.” She said that “these threats included threats of arrest, sexual harassment, and even some soldiers threatened to kill and execute me with open fire.”
He added that even before and after publishing a video in response to the Sharif University student mobilization official on his Twitter account, some people had contacted his parents and said, "Tell your daughter to delete this video."
Ali Younesi's sister stated that she had followed up on these threats through the British police.
He also said regarding his brother's latest condition that he last made a brief call home on Wednesday of last week in a "weak" voice, stating that he was fine.
He added that the call was made a day after the judiciary spokesman's statements and his "false accusations" against his brother.
According to Ali Younesi's sister, this student still does not have access to a lawyer after a month of his detention and his case is in the sixth branch of Evin Prison's investigation department.
Referring to the judicial official's claim about "Ali Younesi's connections with all opposition groups, including the People's Mojahedin," Ms. Younesi said that the judiciary spokesperson had referred to their family history to make this claim credible.
He said: "After I denied all the accusations and fabrications in a short video and said that my parents' distant history cannot be used to prove [this] claim, we have not yet received any further explanation from the authorities."
Pointing out that another claim by the judicial authority was the "discovery of explosives" from their homes, he said: "As both my older brother and I explained last week... this claim is completely false and the investigator did not say anything like this to my father at all."
Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student, were arrested by plainclothes officers on Friday, April 12, without a warrant and beaten at their residence and taken to an unknown location.
Amnesty International also issued a statement on Tuesday, May 13, regarding the "arbitrary detention" of Ali Younesi, noting that he is at risk of "torture and other ill-treatment" in prison, and called for the release of the imprisoned student.
The arrest of students by security forces in Iran comes at a time when human rights activists and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran have called for the release of political and ideological prisoners from Iranian prisons in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said in a press conference on Wednesday, April 26: "We have asked not only Syria, but also the Islamic Republic of Iran to release not only American citizens, but all those who have been unjustly imprisoned in these circumstances. This is a humanitarian act, and apart from the fact that these people have been illegally imprisoned, the principle of humanitarianism prevails in these circumstances."
International human rights organizations and the United States government have accused the Islamic Republic of violating freedom of expression and suppressing civil activists.
Source: Voice of America
