Summons of Yasmin Haneifeh Tabatabaei; This Political Activist Goes to Prison for Participating in Cyrus Day Commemoration
Yasmin Haneifeh Tabatabaei, a political activist and member of the Council of the Democratic Front of Iran, who was sentenced to one year in prison by the Revolutionary Court in late Tir month, has been summoned to carry out her sentence.
An informed source who requested anonymity due to security concerns told Voice of America that this member of the Council of the Democratic Front of Iran was summoned on Monday, September 15 (24 Shahrivar) by receiving a notification from Branch One of the Criminal Sentences Execution Division, located in Evin Prison, to carry out her prison sentence. According to this informed source, Ms. Tabatabaei was given five days to report to the prosecutor’s office, and was warned that she would be arrested if she failed to do so.
Yasmin Haneifeh Tabatabaei, a political activist and member of the Democratic Front of Iran, was arrested on November 28, 2019 (7 Aban 1398) on Pasargad Road in the city of Abadeh and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. After at least 21 days, she was temporarily released from prison upon posting a bail of 200 million tomans until the completion of legal proceedings.
The informed source said that Yasmin Haneifeh Tabatabaei was sentenced on July 19 by Judge Iman Afshari, head of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, to one year in prison, four months of forced labor at a nursing home, two years of deprivation from political activity, membership in parties, and associations.
This informed person states that this prison sentence was issued and put into execution while Ms. Tabatabaei was deprived of the right to have a lawyer and to appeal the issued verdict.
Also, according to this informed source, when Yasmin Haneifeh Tabatabaei went to the Revolutionary Court to receive her verdict, she was confronted with harsh and threatening behavior by the office director of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. There, this political activist was threatened, saying: “If this verdict goes to appeals court or you get a lawyer or it even becomes a media issue, your sentence will be increased.”
This informed source, calling the issued verdict unfair, told Voice of America: “In Iran, there is no fair hearing and justice. The arrest of Yasmin Haneifeh Tabatabaei was illegal and amounted to abduction. She was subjected to psychological and physical torture during interrogations, and the treatment of her was insulting and distressing.”
On the other hand, this informed source, who describes the issuance and execution of this verdict as hasty, told Voice of America that Ms. Tabatabaei, who has no hope of changing the execution time given the outbreak of the coronavirus and its spread in Iranian prisons, will report herself to Evin Prison to carry out her sentence before she is unexpectedly arrested.
This informed source called on human rights organizations and the international community in a conversation with Voice of America to “stop the systematic killing of political prisoners and come to the aid of political prisoners who are defenseless and imprisoned in Iran.”
Although there is no official commemoration called Cyrus Day in the official calendar of the Islamic Republic of Iran, November 7 (7 Aban) has unofficially been designated for Cyrus, and every year some Iranians pay respects to the founder of the Achaemenid Empire by being present at Pasargad.
The authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran try every year, as the date of November 7 (7 Aban) approaches, to prevent the celebration of Cyrus Day and the gathering of Iranian citizens at Pasargad by closing the road leading to it. However, in recent years, large crowds gather around the tomb of Cyrus at Pasargad on that day and keep the memory of that Achaemenid king alive.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned violent crackdowns and widespread suppression of protesters, as well as the repeated and continuous violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime of that country.
Source: Voice of America
