Prosecutor's Office Opposes Conditional Release of Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi
In addition to opposing the conditional release of Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi, the Tehran Prosecutor's Office also opposed granting them leave. Zaghari, a dual citizen, and Mohammadi, a civil activist, have been in prison for nearly four and seven years, respectively.
According to Mahmoud Behzadirad, the defense attorney for Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi, the Tehran Prosecutor's Office, in addition to opposing the conditional release of these two political prisoners, has also opposed granting them leave.
Nazanin Zaghari, a dual Iranian-British citizen, has been in prison for nearly four years, and Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist, has been in prison for about seven years.
Behzadi Rad announced this news yesterday, Saturday, December 21, and said about the Narges Mohammadi case: "My client was supposed to be given leave, and even the Ministry of Intelligence, as the case officer, had agreed, but unfortunately the prosecutor's office opposed it."
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Narges Mohammadi's lawyer said about her client's treatment process: "Fortunately, the prosecution agreed some time ago and my client was released from prison for treatment and examination by specialist doctors. However, the doctors had said that she should be examined continuously and at least once every 6 months, but now she has not been examined for several months."
Mahmoud Behzadirad also said about his other client: "Nazanin Zaghari has been sent to a psychiatrist for examination several times, and she also has a similar condition to Narges Mohammadi."
The lawyer added: "We had requested conditional release and leave for both Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi, but the prosecutor's office has opposed both, while my clients are eligible for conditional release according to the law."
Narges Mohammadi, a mother of two, suffers from pulmonary embolism and muscular paralysis, which, according to medical experts, are exacerbated in prison and stressful environments and can endanger the patient’s life if left untreated. The civil activist was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of “forming the Legam group” (a campaign to gradually abolish the death penalty) and “propaganda against the system, society, and collusion and action against national security,” and is currently serving her sentence in Evin Prison.
According to Ms. Mohammadi's defense lawyer, this civil activist has served six years and eight months of her 10-year sentence and will be eligible for parole under the "parole" law.
International human rights institutions and organizations have repeatedly called for Narges Mohammadi's immediate release, especially given her physical condition. However, Iranian authorities and the Iranian judiciary have not responded to any of these requests.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has a young child, was arrested at Imam Khomeini Airport on April 5, 2016, while attempting to leave Iran, and sent to prison. The Islamic Republic's judiciary has sentenced her to five years in prison on charges of participating in a "soft coup."
This dual Iranian-British citizen criticized the Islamic Republic's performance in his case in early October, stating that "my country auctioned me off for a huge sum of money" and that "politicians" were using him and his daughter as "tools" to achieve their goals.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister, told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that he was supposed to mediate for the release of Nazanin Zaghari in exchange for the settlement of “London’s 40-year debt to Tehran.” According to Zarif, former British foreign secretary Philip Hammond had offered to pay off the debt for the purchase of Chieftain tanks in exchange for Ms. Zaghari’s release. But Hammond left the Foreign Office in July 2016. According to Zarif, the proposal was that Britain would pay off a £400 million debt owed to Iran and that he would work to free Nazanin Zaghari from prison.
Nazanin Zaghari, who worked in the UK as a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been charged in Iran with “collaborating with Western intelligence agencies” and is currently serving her sentence in Evin Prison. Ms. Zaghari, her family, the British government and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity independent of Thomson Reuters and the Reuters news agency, have all denied the charges against her as baseless.
The United States and some European countries accuse the Islamic Republic of using dual-nationality prisoners as “hostages” to achieve its political goals. On January 28, former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt accused the Iranian government of holding Nazanin Zaghari “hostage” to use her to exert diplomatic pressure on London.
Source: DW
