Soheil Arabi’s Mother Expresses Concern Over Son’s Condition: I Know Something Terrible Has Happened to Soheil
Soheil Arabi, a civil activist imprisoned in Iran, received a new sentence of three years imprisonment and exile in Mehr of this year, while he has been serving a seven-year prison sentence since 2013. His relatives, including his mother, are unaware of his condition, and efforts by human rights and civil activists continue to protest the sentence handed down to Soheil Arabi.
Faranguise Mazloom, Soheil Arabi’s mother, told Voice of America about her lack of information regarding her son’s condition: “It has been about three weeks since I have had any visit with Soheil, and I do not know what conditions he is in, but one of the prisoners informed me that Soheil has been placed in quarantine again.”
Soheil Arabi’s mother, who visits her son at Evin Prison every week, has been unable to obtain visiting permission in recent weeks, while Evin Prison officials prevent her from visiting her son with various excuses.
Ms. Mazloom said about this: “The last time I went to court, to the prosecutor supervising the prisoners, he assured me that this time I could see my son, but Evin Prison still did not allow me to visit, and the prison officials said they had sent Soheil to court, even though my son’s sentence had been given to his lawyer and there was no need to take him to court.”
Expressing concern about her son’s condition, she said that she has gained enough experience over these years to know that whenever something terrible happens to Soheil, they intend to hide it from her so that the news does not leak to the media.
Soheil Arabi, a photographer, blogger, and civil activist who was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in December 2013 and was sentenced to death on charges of “insulting the Prophet and desecrating sacred values,” had his death sentence overturned by one of the branches of the Iranian Supreme Court in June 2015.
Following retrial and overturning of the sentence, he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, but again in Mehr of this year, in addition to the previous conviction, by a ruling of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Ahmadzadeh, he was sentenced to three years of disciplinary imprisonment and forced exile with mandatory residence in Borazjan.
A group of political activists, civil activists, and families of those killed and political prisoners issued a statement in support of Soheil Arabi in September of this year.
Reporters Without Borders also awarded the “Citizen Journalist” section of the award to Soheil Arabi, imprisoned Iranian photographer and blogger, in 2017.
Previously, Ed Royce, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, wrote in an article that Soheil Arabi’s conviction is a symbol of the suppression of freedom of speech on the internet.
Source: Voice of America
