Ali Nourizad's mother: Instead of prosecuting the perpetrators of the passenger plane crash, they have imprisoned those who expressed sympathy
Fatemeh Maleki, the wife of Mohammad Nourizad and the mother of Ali Nourizad, says that her son was sentenced to prison and summoned to serve his sentence solely for participating in the January rallies last year to protest the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the Revolutionary Guards.
Fatemeh Maleki, whose husband Mohammad Nourizad is also a political prisoner, told the Persian service of Voice of America about their son's prison sentence: "Ali was summoned to Evin Prison in recent days after receiving a notice to execute his sentence of 3 years and six months in prison, and he has until Sunday, August 16, to present himself to the Evin Prosecutor's Office."
Referring to her son's prison sentence on charges of "gathering and colluding to commit a crime against national security by participating in the January 2019 rallies," "propaganda activity against the regime," and "insulting the leadership," Ms. Maleki told VOA: "I feel sorry for the system we have before us. It is still unclear who the perpetrators and culprits of the Ukrainian plane crash are, and the necessary follow-up has not been carried out in this regard. But our children, who took to the streets only out of a sense of sympathy and solidarity, lit candles, and chanted slogans, were arrested and now must serve their sentence in prison."
Ms. Maleki says that by issuing such decrees, the Islamic Republic authorities want to send the message that gatherings and protests should not be held, they want the people of Iran not to be "together and side by side" even out of sympathy; but "when we look at the course of the protests in 2017 and 2019, we realize that their thoughts were wrong and that the protests have spread in Iran and the number of protesting citizens has increased."
Ms. Maleki believes that the Islamic Republic wants to create an atmosphere of fear and terror among citizens, an atmosphere that will be effective but will not last.
Ali Nourizad, the son of Mohammad Nourizad, a political prisoner in Iran, was one of thousands of protesting citizens who participated in the protests in January of last year following the downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 by a missile attack by the Revolutionary Guards. He was arrested on January 12 and sentenced by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court to 4 years and 2 months in prison and 2 years of disqualification from membership in political parties, groups, and factions; a sentence that, based on Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, which allows for the concatenation of sentences, will only be enforceable for 3 years and 6 months.
Fatemeh Maleki, the wife of Mohammad Nourizad, also spoke to VOA about her husband's condition, saying that it has been a year since Mr. Nourizad's illegal detention and that he has been transferred from Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad to Ward 6 of Evin Prison for about two months. Ms. Maleki said that Mr. Nourizad has recently faced many problems due to the revelations he made while in prison.
According to Ms. Maliki, Mohammad Nourizad is currently not allowed to access the telephone. The political prisoner has also boycotted his visits for two weeks in protest against this ban and the disconnection of the telephone, and family members have no reliable information about Mr. Nourizad's condition in prison.
Mohammad Nourizad, one of the signatories of the resignation letter of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, who has been in detention since August 12, 2019, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Sunday, April 1, by a verdict issued by Branch 35 of the Khorasan Razavi Province Court of Appeals on charges of "membership in groups opposed to the regime with the intention of disrupting the country's security," "propaganda activity against the regime," and "establishing and managing a Telegram channel with the intention of disrupting the country's security." He is currently serving his sentence in Evin Prison.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that the Islamic Republic has sentenced one of the detainees of the January 2019 protests to prison. Previously, the Voice of America had announced in a report that five citizens of Amol, named Shura Fekri, Meysam Khalili, Mohsen Rezaei, Salman Farrokhi, and another person with the surname Raei, who were arrested during the January 2019 protests, were sentenced by the Revolutionary Court to a total of 30 months in prison.
On Friday, April 10, the 100th day since the crash of the passenger plane in Iran, US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a Twitter message: "100 days ago, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted and shot down Flight PS752, killing 176 passengers and crew."
Source: Voice of America
