Case preparation in prison; Keyvan Samimi refuses to attend interrogation session due to requirement to wear prison uniform
Keyvan Samimi, editor-in-chief of Iran Farda magazine and one of the International Workers' Day detainees imprisoned in Evin Prison, was summoned to the Evin Prosecutor's Office on Sunday, April 19, regarding a case opened against him while he was in prison. Mr. Samimi has refused to go to the prosecutor's office because he was forced to wear prison clothes during the transfer.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, on Sunday, April 19, 1402, Keyvan Samimi, editor-in-chief of Iran Farda magazine and one of the International Workers' Day detainees imprisoned in Evin Prison, was summoned to the Evin Prosecutor's Office regarding a case opened against him while he was in prison.
Mr. Samimi has refused to go to the prosecutor's office because he was forced to wear prison clothes during the transfer.
Keyvan Samimi has been serving his 3-year sentence in Evin Prison since December 7, 2019.
On Wednesday, May 1, 2019, coinciding with International Labor Day, dozens of participants in a protest rally in front of the parliament building were arrested after security forces entered the building and the rally turned violent. Security forces, accompanied by Keyvan Samimi, went to the Iran Farda newspaper on May 12, 2019 and searched the premises, taking with them many documents and evidence, including computer hard drives. Mr. Samimi was finally released from Evin Prison on Monday, June 17, 2019, after posting bail and temporarily awaiting the completion of the trial.
On May 26, Mr. Samimi was sentenced in absentia by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, to 6 years in prison on charges of “gathering and colluding with the intention of acting against national security” and “propaganda activity against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” After the verdict was issued and after Mr. Samimi’s objection to the procedure was acknowledged, the court rescheduled the hearing.
Keyvan Samimi was retried and sentenced to 3 years in prison by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Iman Afshari, on the charge of “gathering and colluding with the intention of acting against national security.” This sentence was upheld on appeal by Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal, headed by Judge Ahmad Zargar Aina.
Previously, the Association for the Defense of Press Freedom protested in a statement the imprisonment of Aaliyah Motabalzadeh and Keyvan Samimi, the vice president and president of the association.
Mr. Samimi was deprived of his right to visit and make phone calls and his phone card was blocked in February last year on the pretext of publishing articles about social movements on a Telegram channel. Prison officials argued that the journalist had incited people to riot in his articles.
Keyvan Samimi is the editor-in-chief of Iran Farda magazine and a member of the Iranian Writers' Association. He was previously arrested in 2009 and released from Rajai Shahr Prison after serving his sentence. During his previous arrest, Mr. Samimi was arrested at his home one day after the 2009 presidential election and sentenced to six years in prison by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of questioning the 2009 presidential election, participating in protest demonstrations, and writing critical articles. In December 2008, Samimi was deported to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj along with a number of other political prisoners from Evin Prison. He was finally released from Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on the morning of Saturday, May 16, 2015, after serving his six-year sentence.
This political activist has a history of imprisonment under both the current and former regimes. One of Keyvan Samimi's brothers was executed during the Pahlavi era and the other in the 1960s by the Islamic Republic.
Source: HRANA
