Reporters Without Borders: UN Should Force Islamic Republic to Respect Prisoners’ Rights

The Reporters Without Borders organization, while expressing concern over the health conditions of imprisoned journalists and civil activists in Iran, called on the United Nations to “immediately take action to force the Islamic Republic to comply with international human rights obligations regarding the treatment of prisoners.”

Reza Moini, head of the Afghanistan and Iran office at the human rights organization, in a report released on Wednesday, May 27, regarding the situation of imprisoned journalists in Iran, declared the judicial officials and prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran “solely responsible for the health, life and wellbeing of prisoners through proper, appropriate and fair treatment.”

Mr. Moini, referring to Iran’s membership in the “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” called on Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, to use all his powers and capabilities to end the deprivation of prisoners’ right to treatment and inhumane and tyrannical treatment in the prisons of the Islamic Republic.

Among the cases of prisoner rights violations that recently faced widespread criticism is the detention of Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist, and Alia Molatozadeh, a photojournalist, in the middle of their prison furlough following a security raid on their homes on April 12. This can be noted.

Days after these arrests, the families of these civil activists reported their inability to access their medications. This came after Ms. Mohammadi recently had heart surgery, and her lawyer and Ms. Molatozadeh’s family had warned of the severity of their physical condition without immediate access to medication.

Meanwhile, on May 23, Narges Mohammadi and Alia Molatozadeh were informed that they were respectively deprived of six and three months of furlough, and it was announced that a case had been opened against them at the complaint of security and judicial officials.

This is while according to existing laws, Ms. Molatozadeh should be released after serving one-third of her prison sentence.

Among other imprisoned journalists serving their sentences under inappropriate physical conditions is Alireza Soughafi, editor of the suspended publications “Rah-e Ayandeh” and “Nagh-e No” and member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, who on May 21 this year was transferred to a hospital in Karaj with heart problems and high blood pressure, but after a few tests was returned to Karaj’s Kachouei Prison.

Mr. Soughafi was arrested on March 5 of last year at a memorial ceremony for Samad Shebani, a critical writer, and after being summoned again to serve a one-year sentence was transferred to prison.

Reza Khandan Mahabadi, a writer, journalist and member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, who had been transferred to hospital in December 2021 following deterioration of his condition due to COVID-19, was forced to return to prison on April 6.

The disregard for the physical condition of imprisoned journalists and civil activists and the intensification of pressure on them comes as Baktash Abtin, a writer, filmmaker and another member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, died in December 2021 due to neglect of his physical condition following coronavirus infection in prison and delayed action by prison authorities to grant him medical furlough.

The recent report from Reporters Without Borders and the call to the United Nations to intensify monitoring of the performance of the Islamic Republic’s authorities in prisons, especially regarding civil and political activists, comes days after dozens of lawyers, former and current political prisoners and their families in a second letter over the past few months addressed to the President and Head of the Judiciary of Iran demanded a “halt to the dominance of security institutions over the judiciary” and the cancellation of a “secret” decision by the Supreme National Security Council regarding political prisoners.

Based on a decision by the Supreme National Security Council in 2006, to grant furlough to those convicted on security (political) charges, security officials, namely the Ministry of Intelligence or the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, must first give their opinion.

The letter stated that the current procedure shows that “judicial independence and justice, in the formal and informal structure of the Islamic Republic’s government, are presented only as slogans and in practice are merely lip service by its senior officials, and these officials want the judiciary to be merely an executor of orders from security and military institutions.”

According to the signatories of the letter, this resolution has resulted in “the dominance of security institutions over the judiciary with interference in case-building and details of matters and the manner of detention and life of political prisoners.”

The UN General Assembly in December of last year condemned systematic and gross human rights violations in Iran in a resolution.

The resolution referred to an alarming number of death sentences, widespread and systematic arrests and arbitrary detentions, deliberate deprivation of prisoners’ access to treatment and medical services, mistreatment of prisoners in Evin Prison, harassment and intimidation of opponents and human rights defenders, the use of torture to extract confessions and suspicious deaths of prisoners.

Source: Radio Farda