Prisoners whose freedom was at the cost of their lives

Behnam Mahjoubi, a prisoner of conscience, died six days after being transferred to the intensive care unit of Loghman Hospital. Saleheh Hosseini, Behnam Mahjoubi's wife, told Radio Farda that ignoring doctors' advice that he could not bear the confinement, not receiving timely medical attention, and delaying his transfer to the hospital caused the prisoner of conscience's physical condition to deteriorate and eventually fall into a coma.

Mr. Mahjoubi was sentenced to two years in prison after participating in a gathering of Gonabadi dervishes in Tehran in February 2017, and his sentence was carried out on July 1, despite a medical opinion that he could not bear the imprisonment.

The process that took the life of Behnam Mahjoubi within a few months has been repeated for many other political and ideological prisoners, and over the past years, dozens of these prisoners have lost their lives in prison.

According to the laws of the Islamic Republic, the responsibility for the health of prisoners lies with the judiciary and prisons organization. However, officials of these institutions, along with security agencies, refuse to accept any accountability or responsibility through secrecy, fabrication of narratives, and pressure on the families of prisoners and the deceased.

From Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani, the writer who was kidnapped on the street on March 13, 1993 by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and, after 9 months of being unaccounted for, was killed in prison on December 24, 1994, and his death was declared natural, to Behnam Mahjoubi, who the General Directorate of Prisons claims "with his own will and decision and without consulting a doctor, he arbitrarily took several medications for himself and others in prison simultaneously."

Saeed Emami, a high-ranking intelligence official and a prime suspect in the serial murders, said in a speech in the city of Hamedan, the audio of which was released, that in prison, Ali Akbar Saeed Sirjani was given one of his favorite foods, Ardeh, and because this food causes stomach cramps and constipation, the interrogators gave him a "suppository made of potassium" instead of a laxative suppository; a suppository that caused Saeed Sirjani's heart to stop working and took his life.

The cause of his death was stated to be a heart attack. However, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the then President, wrote in his memoirs that "Mr. Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Judiciary, said the forensic report on Mr. Saeedi Sirjani's death in prison was that it was a natural death."

There are no accurate statistics on the number of prisoners who have died in the prisons of the Islamic Republic, but in the early years of the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic government and the 1960s, no explanation was given about the cause of death of prisoners, and of the prisoners who were killed under torture, only a sack was handed over to their families, without them having the right to ask about the fate of their children.

In recent years, however, in many cases, the Islamic Republic's authorities have claimed that prisoners committed suicide or attempted to make their deaths appear natural. This is despite the fact that families have repeatedly spoken in media interviews about the systematic removal of their children by the judicial and security systems due to torture or denial of access to medical facilities.

Akbar Mohammadi

During the clashes in Tehran University Quarter in July 1999, student activist Akbar Mohammadi was arrested along with his brother Manouchehr Mohammadi and initially sentenced to death. Although his death sentence was commuted to 15 years in prison, Mr. Mohammadi died in Evin Prison in 2006.

Explaining the process of her son's death in prison, his mother, Goljahan Ashrafpour, said: "Akbar was very badly treated in prison. He was tortured. He was crushed. He underwent three surgeries. The doctor said he should not return to prison and that the prison conditions were fatal for him. According to the doctor's testimony, my son's body had become infected in prison and he had to go abroad for treatment. But they returned him to prison. No matter how much we protested, we said he needed rest, he needed treatment, and the doctor gave a certificate, but they did not accept it. When they took Akbar away, I felt that Akbar would not return. When he returned to prison, he went on a hunger strike to protest this. They ignored him and did not let him receive treatment.

Prison officials stated that the cause of Akbar Mohammadi's death was a heart attack.

Hoda Saber

June 2011: The body of Hoda Saber was released from Evin Prison. The national religious activist who had gone on a hunger strike to protest the events that led to the death of Haleh Sahabi died of a heart attack caused by the hunger strike. Farideh Jamshidi, Mr. Saber's wife, announced that "my wife died because of the prison authorities' lack of care and attention to her condition."

Firuzeh Saber, Hoda Saber's sister, explained: "My brother became unwell at 4 am on Friday. He had severe chest pains. Whatever he said, his cellmates said, the prison authorities did not pay attention. He had two heart attacks and they did not pay attention. After about six hours, they took him to Modarres Hospital, but it was too late. They took him too late, and this delay caused my brother to lose his life."

64 political prisoners who were held in Ward 350 with Mr. Saber testified in a letter that “Huda Saber was severely beaten on the eighth day of her hunger strike in the clinic by officers who were presumed to be security and intelligence officers.” Mr. Saber’s family also filed a complaint with the judiciary, stating, “Gentlemen, you must explain how you take someone who is on a hunger strike and is sick to the clinic and beat them instead of treating them? This is a tragedy and we will not let it pass.”

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the then spokesman for the judiciary, however, on the eve of the first anniversary of Hoda Saber's death, claimed that she died of natural causes and that the latest forensic medical opinions had been announced, according to which no one was to blame in this matter.

Alborz Ghasemishal

According to his family, the first captain of the Iranian Navy and deputy head of training for the Rasht Special Unit was in perfect health when he was arrested on May 13, 2008, but his body was released from prison. Hamid Ghasemishal, Alborz's brother, who witnessed his brother's blindness and then death in prison, said: "During a visit, he told my sister that his eyes were blurry. We said it was the effects of prison and his eyes were weak. At the table, I asked Alborz, what are you doing? He said I can't see anything. I said what do you mean? He said it's all black, I can't see anything. We took Alborz to the prison infirmary and they brought an eye specialist, he looked at him and said there was nothing wrong. I said he couldn't see. He said he was faking it. From that day on, my brother's health had been on a steep decline, to the point where he couldn't even take a bath. He had completely lost his sight, and he couldn't control his urine. They had taken him to the Evin Prison infirmary several times, but they could no longer find his vein. The doctor had written that he could not bear prison and that he should be with his family. But they refused. They claimed that he had cancer and needed chemotherapy. Jafari Dolatabadi (then prosecutor of Tehran) refused. They had kept my brother in the infirmary for so long that he had fallen into a coma. Then they had taken him to the emergency room of the Tajrish Martyrs Hospital and he died. They said he had stomach cancer that had spread to his brain and caused a brain hemorrhage. We do not know this claim, we only know that if they had allowed and allowed treatment, he might have been alive now.

The Ghasemishal brothers were accused of espionage and sentenced to death, but upon re-examination of the case, they were acquitted of the charges and Hamid Ghasemishal was released from prison.

Amir Hossein Heshmatsaran

On March 6, 2008, Amir Hossein Heshmatsaran, who had been imprisoned in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj for more than four years, died at Rajai Hospital in Karaj.

Mohammad Reza Faghihi, Mr. Heshmat Saran's lawyer, said in an interview with Radio Farda that "the prison has not made a serious effort to treat its sick prisoner, and given that the prison is responsible for the health of the prisoners, the negligence of the prison authorities is undeniable."

According to Mr. Heshmat Saran’s lawyer, the political prisoner had been suffering from a heart condition for months and “had been in bad health many times.” However, the Shahriar Revolutionary Prosecutor ignored the requests of Mr. Heshmat Saran’s wife, Elaheh Nazjoo, for treatment for the prisoner.

Amir Hossein Heshmatsaran was tried in 2004 on charges of founding a group called the "National Unity Front of Iran" and sentenced to eight years in prison by the Shahriar Revolutionary Court.

Mohsen Dagmechi

On April 28, 2011, a prominent marketer who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison died, despite his wife saying that he had no problems at the time of his arrest and was completely healthy.

Maryam Elangi, Mr. Dagmechi's wife, said: "The illness began in September 2008, exactly one year after his arrest and in prison. They delayed taking him to the doctor for three months and no treatment was given, and when they decided to take him to a specialist, it was too late. They took him to the hospital and performed abdominal surgery. They removed part of his pancreas and diagnosed him with cancer right away. But the problem is that no one loses their life in such a short period of time, and with medication and medical care, the disease is controlled, but my husband was deprived of treatment and died within 95 days of the onset of his illness. With the medical care, such a tragedy could not have happened at all."

Mr. Dagmechi's wife said: "I went many times and said, no matter how much bail you want, just give him a few days' leave. Leave on a hospital bed to receive treatment and then take him back to prison, but they didn't agree to that extent either. My wife only had six months of chemotherapy. If it had been done, this wouldn't have happened."

Vahid Sayadi Nasiri

On December 11, 2018, Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who was accused of insulting the sacred and the leadership, as well as propaganda against the regime, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his activities on Facebook, died while his sister, Elahe Sayadi Nasiri, told Radio Farda that he had been on a hunger strike for several days.

Vahid Sayadi Nasiri had gone on a hunger strike to protest the failure to implement the principle of separating prisoners according to their crimes.

Mansour Radpour

In June 2012, Mansour Radpour died in prison. According to his wife, he had no history of illness, but during his time in prison, he suffered from stomach problems and complained about why he was not being transferred outside the prison for treatment.

His daughter Mahsa Radpour, who had met her father two weeks earlier, said: "The medical examiner said the cause of death was a stroke, but when we saw my father's body, he did not look at all like someone who had died from a stroke. His whole body was bruised and bruised, and there were visible signs of beatings on his body. I am sure they killed him because the body, arms and legs of someone who has a stroke do not become disfigured like this."

Mr. Radpour was arrested in May 2007 and sentenced to five years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Karaj on charges of collaborating with the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, which was later increased to eight years.

Shahrokh Zamani

Shahrokh Zamani, a building painter and labor activist who had been imprisoned since 2011 on charges of attempting to form labor organizations, including the Painters' Workers' Union, and sentenced to 11 years in prison, died on September 12, 2015 in Rajai Shahr Prison.

Prison officials said the cause of death was a stroke, but Nina Zamani, Mr. Zamani's daughter, stated that her father "had no physical problems and was completely healthy."

Afshin Osanloo

The cause of Afshin Osanloo's death was announced by prison officials on June 21, 2013, as a heart attack. However, his sister, Fereshteh Osanloo, stated that her brother had no history of heart disease and was healthy during his last visit.

Fereshteh Osanloo told the International Campaign for Human Rights that hospital nurses said they brought her to the hospital around 8 p.m., but she had died long before reaching the hospital.

Afshin Osanloo, 42, a labor activist and brother of Mansour Osanloo, was a member of the union of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. In 2009, he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of collusion and gathering to act against national security.

Taleb Basati

A nursing student and emergency room employee in Malekshahi County, Ilam, who was arrested in connection with the January 2017 protests and died in prison. Jalal Mirzaei, then-Ilam MP, stated that the cause of death was a heart attack.

Mr. Basati was arrested at his home on February 19, 2017, and his body was returned to his family on March 26 of the same year. The BBC reported that Mr. Basati's death certificate stated that he died of "brain trauma" and that there were visible signs of assault on his body.

Mohammad Raji

In an interview with Radio Farda, the daughter of Mohammad Raji, one of the Gonabadi dervishes, confirmed that law enforcement officers had announced that her father had fallen into a coma and died as a result of the beatings.

Tayyaba Raji said that her father had been severely beaten and was in critical condition when he was arrested on March 1 of that year, but he waved his hand and had had no contact with his family after that.

The Majzooban Noor website, which covered news related to the Gonabadi dervishes, reported that Mr. Raji had been killed as a result of beatings he received during interrogation in a police detention center.

Mohammad Raji was a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and was injured chemically in the Iran-Iraq war.

Alireza Shirmohammadi

On Monday evening, June 10, 2019, two prisoners attacked and killed Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali in Fashafoyeh Prison. Mr. Shir Mohammad Ali was arrested during the August 2018 protests and sentenced to eight years in prison.

This political prisoner was killed in prison while he was on a hunger strike, mostly to protest the lack of security and inhumane conditions in Fashafoyeh Prison.

Mohammad Hadi Erfanian Kasab, Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali's lawyer, stated in an interview with ILNA news agency that in the same ward as his client, two murderers were also held in solitary confinement, where he was always locked, but it is not clear how those two people dragged Mr. Shir Mohammad Ali into the cell that night and murdered him.

Prisoners who allegedly committed suicide

Dozens of prisoners have died in the Islamic Republic's prisons over the past few years, and the cause of their deaths was stated as suicide by judicial and security officials.

Omidreza Mirsayafi

A young blogger who was imprisoned on February 9, 2008, died 42 days later in Loghman Hospital, and prison officials attributed the cause of death to drug poisoning.

Omidreza Mirsayafi was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on charges of propaganda against the regime and insulting the founder and leader of the Islamic Republic.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Mr. Mirsyafi's lawyer, told his family that the autopsy report stated the cause of death as "taking 30 to 40 propranolol pills."

Amir Parviz Mirsayafi, Omid Reza's brother, said in an interview, "I saw the body myself. His left ear was bleeding profusely. His nose was full of blood clots. His face was bruised. The back of his shoulders was bruised and the back of his back. His skull was fractured. So much so that the area under his head, the sheet in which they had wrapped the body, was completely covered in blood. We were told that he had taken pills, his blood pressure had dropped, and he had died. This cannot be true, and he was definitely beaten, I am sure of that. I know that he became ill from the beating and was not treated, and he is in the past."

Dr. Hesam Firouzi, a fellow inmate of Omidreza Mirsayafi, also testified that in the prison infirmary, despite Omidreza's insistence on treatment, he was "beaten and told that he was faking it."

Kavoos Seyed-Emami

On February 11, 2017, Ramin Seyed Emami, the son of Kavous Seyed Emami, announced on his Twitter page that his father had died in prison two weeks after his arrest, and that prison officials had declared the cause of death to be “suicide.” Mr. Seyed Emami’s family denied this claim.

Kavous Seyed Emami, a PhD in sociology and a faculty member of the Faculty of Islamic Studies and Political Science at Imam Sadeq University, was also the CEO of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Institute.

Ebrahim Lotfollahi

On January 6, 2007, Ebrahim Lotfollahi, a student at Payam Noor University in Sanandaj, was arrested in front of the university and died eight days later in the city's detention center.

Saleh Nikbakht, the lawyer for Lotfollahi's family, said: "The court confirmed the investigator's decision that he committed suicide and announced that there was no murder. We protested and said that since the forensic medical report mentioned signs of trauma and bleeding in the nose, we want to investigate again and request an exhumation. Unfortunately, neither the investigator nor the Sanandaj prosecutor agreed and said that the forensic medical report had already been issued and that exhumation had no religious validity. They said that he committed suicide by hanging himself with a showerhead in the prison bathroom, under his shirt. While we believed that the issue should be clarified and the family should also be assured of what exactly happened, unfortunately, no agreement was reached."

Valiullah Faiz Mahdavi

Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi was arrested in October 2001, and on September 5, 2006, Evin Prison officials officially announced his death, claiming that he "hanged himself in his cell and died there after being transferred to the hospital."

He was arrested and sentenced to death on charges of membership in the People's Mojahedin Organization (PMOI). According to his fellow inmates, he had been on a hunger strike for two weeks in protest of the treatment he received from Gohardasht prison authorities. After falling into a coma, he was transferred to Shariati Hospital.

Mohammad Javad Parandakh

Mohammad Javad Parandakh was a chemical engineering student at Isfahan University of Technology. After participating in a student gathering at the university during the June 2009 protests, he was summoned to the Isfahan Intelligence Department, and his lifeless body was found two days later.

Farhad Tajari, a member of the parliament's follow-up committee, along with the head of Gilan-e Gharb intelligence, had visited Mr. Parandakh's home and asked him to declare that his son had died in an accident. However, the state-run IRNA news agency claimed that Mohammad Javad Parandakh was one of the main perpetrators of the riots in Isfahan and had committed suicide.

The Parandakh family, rejecting these claims, filed a complaint demanding clarification of their son's murder; the complaint was not accepted and the case was closed without being opened. Sadeq Parandakh, his brother, said: "We are an ethnic minority. They don't even take us in. They don't even accept the complaint. What can we do? How should we follow up? My parents also say that now you are the only one left and we are afraid that something bad will happen to you. That is why we have left the case to God. God himself will judge."

Vahid Heydari

Vahid Heydari, 22, a street vendor and protester from Araki, was arrested on January 1, 2017, and his body was buried on Saturday, January 6.

Judicial officials accused him of buying and selling drugs and claimed that he committed suicide in detention, a claim that was denied by Vahid Heydari's uncle, civil activists, and lawyers in Arak.

Mohammad Najafi, a lawyer, was arrested for pursuing the murder case of Vahid Heydari in prison.

Sina Ghanbari

Sina Ghanbari, a 22-year-old young man and another detainee of the January 2017 protests, was arrested in Tehran on January 10 of that year, and his body was handed over to his family on January 19.

Judicial authorities claimed that he committed suicide in the quarantine bathroom of Evin Prison, but the Committee to Follow Up on the January 2017 Arrests, citing two "eyewitnesses," announced that Sina Ghanbari was interrogated two days before her death and "after her arrest, she told her roommates that they had been beaten up (she was beaten) in such a way that some parts of her body were severely bruised."

On January 11 of that year, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the country's attorney general, claimed that Sina Ghanbari was an addict and had committed suicide, a project and scenario that was implemented for other deaths in prison that same year.

Nasser Albushokeh Darfashan, Mohammad Kaabi and Reza Moghamsi

Nasser Albushoke Darfashan, Mohammad Kaabi, and Reza Moghamsi, three young Arabs who were arrested in Ahvaz in February 2011 during the unrest in the cities of Shush and Hamidieh.

Nasser Albushoka was a 19-year-old young man who, according to his family, had no political activity or connection to the unrest in Shush and Hamidieh: "They said he killed himself, while there were signs of beatings on Nasser's face, chest, and body. His neck was bruised and it looked like a rope had been around his neck before. Then they said you don't have the right to hold a ceremony. My uncle protested and they didn't give him the body. They took Nasser's body to the morgue of Golestan Hospital in Ahvaz and it stayed there for 11 days. Then they gave him the body on the condition that the family keep quiet and don't say anything and take it outside of Ahvaz. They took the body to the city of Ramshir (Khalafabad) and buried it there."

Mohammad Kaabi, another Arab citizen, was 35 years old, and just one phone call from the intelligence agency closed his case and his death in the judicial and security apparatus: "They just made a phone call and told the family that we buried his body ourselves, don't follow up, you don't have the right to hold any ceremonies."

Mohammad Kaabi was a law student and an Arab activist in Khuzestan province. According to his family, “Mohammad was arrested at home with his father and sister. His father and sister were released, but Mohammad was taken away, and we had no further news of him until about 20 days after his arrest, an unknown phone call with no number was made to the family. The person on the line said, ‘I’m calling from the Intelligence Department. Mohammad has died and we’ve buried him somewhere. Don’t follow up on him.’ This person said, ‘You don’t have the right to have any ceremonies and to keep quiet.’”

Reza Moghamsi is another Arab citizen who lost his life in the Ahvaz Intelligence Detention Center; little information has been released about him so far, and his family has remained silent.

The deceased were recognized.

Among those who died in prison, only a few were recognized by the government and their families' lawsuits were brought to court, although according to the families, a fair trial was never held. The lawsuits of many families who died in prison were closed or silenced at the very early stages of the families' lawsuits.

Zahra Kazemi

On July 2, 2003, while taking a picture of a gathering of families of a number of political prisoners in front of Evin Prison, Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi was arrested and died 18 days later, on July 10 of that year, in Tehran's Baqiyatollah Azam Hospital.

Mohsen Armin, the then Vice Speaker of the Sixth Parliament and a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, pointed the finger of accusation at Saeed Mortazavi from the official rostrum of the parliament and said: "Zahra Kazemi tells the police interrogators that she was beaten during interrogation at the prosecutor's office, especially in the head. On July 25, at midnight, she was transferred to the hospital, and at 6 am on the sixth day, her condition deteriorated and she fell into a coma due to cerebral hemorrhage and suffered brain death. The cause of the hemorrhage was diagnosed as a concussion and skull fracture. Zahra Kazemi was kept on a ventilator until July 9, despite being brain dead, and after this date her death was declared. After his death, Judge Mortazavi, outside the scope of his responsibility and without informing the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, summoned the director general of the ministry's foreign media (Mohammad Hossein Khoshvak) and asked him to announce in an interview that the cause of his death was a stroke.

The special presidential commission at the time stated that Ms. Kazemi's cause of death was "skull fracture, cerebral hemorrhage, and its complications resulting from a hard object hitting the head or head-on collision with a hard object."

According to Shirin Ebadi, the lawyer for Zahra Kazemi's family, "They finally announced that the murderer would not be identified. While we know that filming is done 24 hours a day in Evin Prison, in solitary confinement rooms, and Zahra Kazemi was also in solitary confinement. While the case file also stated that Mr. Mortazavi, as the prosecutor, was interrogating her in her room until 3 a.m.."

Ali Younesi, the former Minister of Intelligence, announced in an interview 14 years later on March 27, 2017, that Zahra Kazemi, allegedly during the process of inspection, handing over her belongings, and transfer to the detention center, and not during interrogation, "was beaten because she resisted handing over her belongings, and her head hit the street curb, leading to a brain hemorrhage. If she had been transferred to the hospital in time, she would have definitely been saved."

Sattar Beheshti

Sattar Beheshti was arrested by the Cyber ​​Security Police in 2012 for publishing critical material about the Islamic Republic on his blog and died from injuries sustained during his detention.

The court ruled Sattar Beheshti's death a "premeditated murder" and sentenced his killer, a police officer, to three years in prison.

In the court's final verdict, Akbar Taghizadeh, a Fata police officer and the main suspect in the Sattar Beheshti murder case, was sentenced to three years in prison, 74 lashes, and two years of forced residence in Borazjan.

Sattar Beheshti's mother and her defense attorney, who believe that this incident was premeditated murder and protested that Sattar Beheshti's murder was considered "premeditated," did not attend the trial.

After Sattar Beheshti's death, 41 political prisoners in Evin Prison testified in a letter that he was in Ward 350 of Evin Prison on November 10 and 11, while he was severely tortured and the effects of various tortures were visible all over his body.

Kahrizak casualties

Amir Javadifar, Mohammad Kamrani, and Mohsen Rouholamini are three of the victims of Kahrizak detention center who lost their lives under torture and mistreatment by officers. The Islamic Republic accepted responsibility for their deaths. According to the verdict of the Kahrizak court, two of the defendants in the case were sentenced to retribution for the murder of these three people who were arrested after the protests against the election results began.

Nine other defendants were also sentenced to imprisonment, payment of blood money, a fine, temporary dismissal from service, and flogging, and another defendant was acquitted of the charges due to lack of evidence of guilt.

The families of the Kahrizak victims, however, after the retribution of two of the perpetrators of these murders passed, demanded accountability for the main perpetrators of this case, namely Saeed Mortazavi, Hassan Zare Dehnavi (known as Judge Haddad), and Ali Akbar Heydarifar. Ultimately, Saeed Mortazavi was sentenced to permanent dismissal from judicial services and five years of dismissal from government services, as well as a fine of 200,000 Tomans.

The Islamic Republic refused to accept responsibility for the deaths of Ramin Aghazadeh Ghahremani and Ahmad Nejati Kargar, who died from complications resulting from mistreatment after being released from Kahrizak detention center.

Unknown fates

What is common in all cases of detainees and prisoners who have died in the prisons of the Islamic Republic is the lack of responsibility of the judicial and security officials of the Islamic Republic for their fate and the efforts of officials at various levels of the government to conceal and falsify the true narrative of what happened to these prisoners.

In some cases, however, there is no news of even a fabricated narrative, and none of the government officials have been willing to provide any explanation about the fate of the detainees, to the point that after more than two decades, there is no news about the fate of Pirouz Davani, Saeed Zeinali, and Fereshteh Alizadeh.

Pirouz Davani, a writer, translator, and owner of Pirouz magazine, has been abducted for 22 years and his body has not been found. He left home on September 28, 1998, and his brother, Hossein Davani, says: “They made sure that no trace of my brother remained, to the point that they did not even file a case for Pirouz’s kidnapping. In May 1998, four months before Pirouz Davani disappeared, Mr. Razini had told my brother to stop writing, “Brother, you will disappear without a trace of you.” That is exactly what they did. No trace of my brother remained.”

Saeed Zeinali, a computer science graduate from the University of Tehran, was arrested in his home during the protests in the 78th University Quarter, and 21 years later, his family has no news of his fate. Akram Niqabi, Saeed Zeinali's mother, stated that "three officers came with guns and said they would question Saeed for 10 minutes. Saeed was 22 years old at the time of his arrest. Two or three months after his arrest, he called from prison and said I was fine and to look after my affairs. After that, I have not heard from my son."

According to Saeed Zeinali's mother, Fereshteh Alizadeh is one of the other detainees in the 78th University Quarter, and it is not clear what happened to her. Ms. Niqabi says that until a few years ago she used to see Fereshteh Alizadeh's mother, who was following up on her daughter's fate, but after her death she does not know whether other members of Ms. Alizadeh's family are following up on the case.

Zahra Bani Yaqoub and Mehrdad Taleshi

But it is not just political and ideological prisoners who face such fates. Zahra Bani Yaqoub and Mehrdad Taleshi are just two examples of non-political detainees who died in detention.

Zahra Bani Yaqoub, a medical student who had gone to a remote village in Iran to volunteer for a medical service project, was arrested on October 10, 2007, in a park in Hamedan by officers from the Office of the Chief of Staff for Virtue and transferred to the Detention Unit on charges of “committing an obvious crime.” Two days later, detention center officials claimed that she had committed suicide using a cloth placard in the hallway of the second floor of the detention center.

Ms. Bani Yaqoub's family and lawyers have denied this claim, but their follow-up and complaint ultimately led nowhere. According to her father, "they have stolen the file, destroyed the evidence and traces of the crime, including my child's clothes."

The family of Mehrdad Taleshi, a 21-year-old young man from Divandareh, whose body was handed over to his family a few days after his arrest in February 2020, also called the police statement that he died of cardiac arrest a complete lie. One of Mr. Taleshi's relatives told Radio Farda that his family received their son's body while there were signs of injuries and stitches on his head.

These names are only those of the prisoners whose deaths in prison have been reported to the media. The names of many of the deceased have not yet been released to the media due to security pressures on their families or the families' lack of access to the media. Families who buried the bodies of their imprisoned children at night due to security pressures and were denied the right to mourn.

 

Source: Radio Farda