Letter from 4 female political prisoners about severe security and judicial clashes with civil activists
In a letter written from Evin, four female political prisoners say that the judiciary and security forces have been harsh in their treatment of labor activists and their supporters. They hope for justice.
Four female political prisoners currently held in Evin Prison have written a letter dated September 1399, addressing the roots of the labor protests in Iran, and then criticizing the harsh treatment of social activists, labor activists, and journalists by security forces and the heavy sentences issued against them by the Islamic Republic's judiciary. They also compared the sentences issued to civil society activists with those issued to defendants in economic corruption cases, calling the sentences issued by the judiciary discriminatory.
At the beginning of the letter written in Evin, Sanaz Alhayari, Asal Mohammadi, Marzieh Amiri, and Neda Naji pointed out the pressures that are ultimately placed on the shoulders of workers due to economic corruption in Iran and global sanctions. They said that the labor protests were a response to the economic impasse that the workers saw before them. And “we, as a part of society that was affected by these economic conditions, considered the workers’ legitimate demands as our own and supported them.”
Four female political prisoners write that the security forces’ treatment of workers and their supporters has been more severe than before, on the pretext that the labor protests are against “national security.” They cite, for example, long-term detentions (for example, the temporary detention of Sanaz Alhayari and Amir Hossein Mohammadifar, which has been in place for more than eight months), solitary confinement after interrogation, and the transfer of Atefeh Rangriz and Sepideh Qolyan to Qarchak prison as further punishment or exile, setting high bails of two billion and not enforcing them, and ultimately issuing heavy sentences.
The letter from Ms. Al-Hayari, Mohammadi, Amiri, and Naji continues by stating that Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court did not pay the slightest attention to their defenses and those of their lawyers, and issued heavy sentences of ten and a half to eighteen years in prison against them on the recommendation of the case officers, who are the same security officials.
In their thesis, the authors expressed hope that the judiciary would hear the voices of the people demanding justice, referring to the response of Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the judiciary, on September 8 to the increasing criticism of the sentences totaling 110 years in prison for several civil and labor activists and his order to review the sentences issued by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court.
Sanaz Alhayari, along with her husband Amir Hossein Mohammadifard and Amir Amirgholi, were journalists for the student publication Gam who were arrested last winter after the publication covered news related to labor protests.
Neda Naji is a civil activist and one of those arrested on International Workers' Day. Marzieh Amiri is a journalist for Sharq newspaper, and Asal Mohammadi is one of those arrested during the Haft Tappeh protests.
Source: DW
