Protest action by Zahra Safaei and Parasto Moeini in Qarchak Prison, Varamin

Zahra Safaei and her son Parastu Moeini, political prisoners in Qarchak Prison, Varamin, held a sit-in on Tuesday, July 11, demanding to meet with Mohammad Masoud Moeini, another imprisoned member of the family. The family is denied visits despite the fact that the law provides for visits between imprisoned family members, even if they are serving their sentences in separate prisons.

According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, Zahra Safaei and her son Parastu Moeini, political prisoners imprisoned in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, staged a sit-in.

The protest action of these two prisoners was taken to demand a meeting with their son and imprisoned brother, Mohammad Masoud Moeini. The family is denied visits despite the fact that the law provides for visits between imprisoned family members, even if they are serving their sentences in separate prisons.

An informed source told HRANA: "Zahra Safaei and Parasto Moeini have been requesting to meet with Mohammad Masoud for three months. Their request for a meeting was met with indifference and opposition from the authorities until yesterday when they announced that this meeting was possible. For this reason, they sat in the prison corridor until 1:30 p.m. today."

The source added: "Ms. Safai, who suffers from heart problems, returned to the ward to take her medication and the prison guards locked the door on them. After Ms. Safai and the others protested, they only responded with insults. Finally, after an hour of protest, the prisoners opened the door and Zahra Safai joined her daughter to continue the sit-in. A number of other political prisoners also accompanied them in this sit-in."

Ms. Safaei was sent to the hospital several times last September due to a heart condition and underwent angioplasty. On April 13 of this year, despite a previous appointment, Zahra Safaei was denied admission to the hospital because she objected to being transported in handcuffs and restraints.

Zahra Safaei and her daughter Parastu Moeini were arrested by security forces in Tehran on March 25, 2019, and transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence detention center known as Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Ms. Safaei and her daughter were deported from Evin Prison to Qarchak Varamin Prison in late April 2019 after the interrogations ended. She was previously released from Qarchak Varamin Prison on July 25, 2019, after posting a bail of 300 million Tomans temporarily and until the end of the trial. On August 25, after appearing at the Evin Prosecutor's Office, her bail was increased tenfold (three billion Tomans), and as a result, she was arrested and transferred to Qarchak Varamin Prison on Monday, August 26.

Parastu Moeini, Zahra Safaei, and Mohammad Masoud Moeini were finally sentenced on February 23, 2020, by Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Mehdi Shahmirzadi, to five years in prison each on charges of gathering and colluding with the intention of acting against national security, and to one year in prison on charges of propaganda against the regime. Zahra Safaei was also sentenced to two years in prison on charges of insulting the Leader and founder of the Islamic Republic.

Parastu Moeini and Zahra Safaei also faced the opening of cases during their sentences.

Zahra Safaei has a history of arrest and imprisonment. She was arrested in 2006 and released shortly after. She also spent time in prison as a political activist in the 1960s. Ms. Safaei's father, known as "Haji Safaei," was a prominent Tehran bazaar owner who was executed in 2016 on charges of supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization.

Source: HRANA