Iran: Release Maryam Akbari Monfared, political prisoner

Unjustly imprisoned since 2009, he should have been released in 2017.

May 20, 2019: The Iranian Human Rights Campaign and Justice for Iran announced in a joint statement that Iran must end the cruel and unlawful imprisonment of Maryam Akbari-Manfard, who has been in prison for nearly ten years on baseless charges and should have been released from prison in 2017, and immediately release her.

The two human rights organizations noted in the statement that not only were the charges against Maryam Akbari Monfared never proven, but that under new laws in Iran, her sentence should have been overturned. Even if Maryam had been re-convicted on new charges, she would have been eligible for release two years ago. But the Iranian judiciary refuses to enforce the law.

“For nearly ten years, Maryam Akbari Monfared has suffered in prison due to a sentence that even Iranian law says should have been overturned,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “A judge’s personal preferences should not prevail over the law.”

“As the judge herself has acknowledged, the heavy price Maryam is paying is not due to her actions, but rather the fact that her relatives were members of an organization opposed to the Islamic Republic,” said Shadi Sadr, Executive Director of Justice for Iran. “This is a clear case of collective punishment and a gross violation of the principle of individual criminal responsibility, which is recognized in both the Iranian judicial system and international law.”

Allegations that were never proven

Maryam Akbari Monfared was initially tried in June 2008 on charges of supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization, whose activities are banned in Iran, and convicted of the crime of "enmity against God," a crime that falls under the category of crimes related to Islamic law and carries specific and serious penalties according to Islamic Sharia law.

Maryam was sentenced to moharebeh simply for making phone calls to her relatives who are members of the MEK and for visiting them once in Iraq. She has always denied being a member of the MEK or following it; and there is no evidence to the contrary.

In June 2008, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Mohammad Moghiseh, the notorious judge of Branch 15 of Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court. In September 2008, the Supreme Court upheld her sentence. Maryam has been in prison since her arrest on January 29, 2009.

Under the new Islamic Penal Code, his charges could have been dropped.

Maryam Akbari Monfared's sentence was issued under the old Islamic penal laws, which were replaced by new laws in 2013.

Under Article 186 of the old laws, any member or supporter of an organization that took up arms with the intention of overthrowing the Islamic Republic was considered a war criminal, even if they had not personally participated in any of that organization's armed activities.

In the new laws enacted in 2013, the old Article 186 was revised and replaced with several articles, including Articles 279 and 278. These new provisions adopted a significantly narrower scope than the conventional understanding of the crime of moharebeh, including limiting moharebeh to situations where an individual is either a member of an armed group or personally takes up arms. As such, the crime does not apply to supporters of such an organization, nor can it be applied to those who contact members of such an organization or personally support their views.

For this reason, if Maryam Akbari Monfared were tried under the new law, she would not be convicted of the crime of war. Since visiting relatives in Camp Ashraf in Iraq (where her family members lived) is not evidence of membership in or adherence to the MEK,

Furthermore, according to Article 10 of the new law, when such changes to the law come into effect, and the new law is in favor of the accused, it should be applied retroactively, to all those convicted under the old law. Thus, Akbari Monfared should have been acquitted and released from prison immediately.

In late 2015, Maryam Akbari Monfared filed a petition with the Supreme Court to have her sentence rescinded from prison, arguing that under Articles 10 and 279 of the new law, her conviction should be overturned. In April 2016, the Supreme Court rejected her request to review her case, but explicitly referred to Article 10 of the new law and stated that Maryam Akbari Monfared could apply through the lower court to have her sentence reduced or reduced based on the new law that had been implemented and was in favor of the accused. Following this ruling, Akbari Monfared’s case was returned to Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran.

In complete disregard of the Supreme Court’s decision and the legal obligation under Article 10 of the new law, Judge Salavati refused to make any changes to Maryam’s initial conviction and upheld her original sentence without any reasoning or justification. If the court had followed the law and the Supreme Court’s ruling, Akbari Monfared’s conviction for the crime of moharebeh should not have stood and would have been acquitted or reduced to a lesser sentence for a lesser charge.

Eligible for release in 2017, according to Iranian law

Even if Maryam’s retrial request resulted in her conviction and the lower court did not acquit her, her conviction could have been based on a lesser charge under the Ta’zir category. Under the laws governing these crimes, she would have had to serve a lighter and shorter sentence; for example, under Article 499, a maximum of five years in prison.

Maryam should not have been sentenced to a severe sentence, such as the one she initially received for the crime of moharebeh. In the worst case scenario, if she had been sentenced to the same 15 years in prison under the laws related to Ta’zir crimes, she would now be eligible for parole. According to Article 58 of the new law, whenever a person is sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for committing Ta’zir crimes, they will be eligible for parole after serving half of their sentence.

Under Iranian law, Maryam’s pre-trial detention and the time she spent in prison before being sentenced are also counted towards her sentence. Therefore, in the case of Maryam Akbari Monfared, even if we consider the unlikely possibility that her 15-year prison sentence was re-issued as a Ta’zir punishment, she should have been released from prison after serving 7.5 years of her sentence, which is in Tirma 2017.

Deprivation of medical care and leave throughout the entire prison term

Maryam Akbari Monfared has endured harsh and punitive treatment throughout her imprisonment. Authorities have not granted her any medical leave, despite her serious thyroid problems and other medical conditions that require treatment. She has not even been allowed a single day off from prison. (Prisoners in Iran can take temporary leave from prison to visit their families.)

According to Hassan Jafari, Akbari Monfared’s husband, the authorities have ignored Maryam’s repeated requests for sick leave, even after she posted bail. In an interview with the Iran Human Rights Campaign in October 2017, Hassan Jafari said, “In 2013, we provided the amount of one billion and one hundred and fifty million tomans as bail that the authorities had requested for her release from prison. But so far, nothing has happened. They are not issuing her permission to leave prison and they are not saying why. They are just saying that the Ministry of Intelligence or the prosecutor is against her release from prison.”

Punitive treatment is the price that political prisoners in Iran routinely pay, especially prisoners who speak out about their unjust imprisonment or inhumane conditions in prison.

In an open letter, Akbari Monfared has protested both the daily deprivation of political prisoners from medical care and the extrajudicial executions of his siblings.

Maryam's three brothers and one sister were executed in the 1960s for their activities in opposition political groups. In an official complaint in October 2016, Akbari Monfared called for a judicial investigation into the execution of his siblings and their burial site.

He wrote: “My younger brother, Abdolreza Akbari Monfared, was arrested in 1970 while he was a student and only 17 years old. His crime was distributing the Mujahid magazine. He spent three whole years in solitary confinement in Gohar Dasht-Rajai Shahr prison, and despite being sentenced to three years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court, he was kept in prison until 1988, and finally, in August of that year, he was martyred with a large group of prisoners.”

In 1988, thousands of prisoners, mostly supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization (MEK), as well as other prisoners, were secretly and collectively executed by "death squads" formed by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini. To date, there has been no accountability for this mass killing, and any investigation or mourning for the victims is prohibited.

Akbari Monfared's letter continues: "Alireza Akbari Monfared, my other brother, was arrested on September 7, 1988, and executed in prison on September 19 of the same year. The entire process of arrest, trial, and execution of his sentence took place in 10 days. During his Shab Haft ceremony, the agents raided our house and arrested a number of guests and transferred them to Evin Prison and the Joint Committee. Among those arrested were my mother and sister, Roqiyeh Akbari Monfared. My mother was released from prison after five months. But my sister, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison by the court, was executed in August 1988, while she was serving the final years of her sentence."

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign