Afkari Brothers' Lives Are in Danger After Eight Months in Solitary Cell

Eight months after the execution of 27-year-old wrestler Navid Afkari, concerns have intensified about the condition of his brothers, Vahid and Habib Afkari, who were arrested during the 2018 Shiraz protests; Vahid and Habib Afkari, who have been held in solitary confinement for the past eight months, They have been repeatedly beaten and tortured, and have received death threats from judicial authorities. The severity of the torture and the insistence of judicial authorities to extract confessions from these brothers against each other caused Vahid Afkari to attempt suicide twice.

Throughout the imprisonment of these two brothers, security and judicial authorities exerted psychological pressure and severe restrictions on the Afkari family in various ways and means, from continuously restricting the family's visits with their children to not being informed about the health status of the detainees.

In recent days, after two high-ranking judicial officials met with the Afkari brothers and threatened to kill them, concerns have grown about a repeat of Navid Afkari's fate for Vahid and Habib Vojd.

Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Human Rights Campaign in Iran, warned about the situation of the Afkari brothers, saying: "Given the increasing all-out pressure on these two brothers in prison and the insistence on illegally keeping them in solitary confinement despite the legal prohibition, it seems that the government is concerned about exposing the crime against Navid Afkari, which only these two brothers, as the two main witnesses, know about in prison. Therefore, concerted and all-out efforts by all human rights activists and institutions to save the lives of the Afkari brothers are very necessary."

Emphasizing the status of legal action in the Islamic Republic's constitution as a fundamental right of citizens, Ghaemi said: "The repeated violation of fair trial in the Afkari brothers' case, the absolute disregard for legal prohibitions on torture and solitary confinement, as well as the threat and prosecution of litigants, show that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran does not even adhere to the laws and regulations it has enacted."

The Human Rights Campaign in Iran holds the Iranian government directly responsible for the health and lives of the Afkari brothers. While condemning the method and process of the trial, the lack of transparency of the judicial authorities in this case, and the treatment of the Afkari brothers and the pressure they put on their family, it expresses its concern about the situation of the Afkari brothers and the pressure they are putting on them.

Spending more than eight months in solitary confinement, their poor physical and mental condition, and lack of proper treatment, imposing severe restrictions on family visits, and continuing mental torture of the Afkari brothers with threats of execution by judicial authorities are clear examples of the severe, coercive, and illegal pressures against the Afkari brothers. On the other hand, the erosion of the trial process, the countless contradictions in the case, the authorities' prevention of publishing details of the case, and the difficulty for lawyers in accessing its details have led security and judicial authorities to seek to normalize the circumstances of the case and force the Afkari brothers to confess by applying pressure and threats.

Previously, two high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic, who were directly assigned by the head of the judiciary, met with the Afkari brothers; these officials had asked Vahid to confess to the murder and "be released from prison after one year and provided with living conditions inside or outside Iran."

These officials have threatened Vahid that "if this request is not accepted, he too will be executed."

Saeed Afkari had previously tweeted, after 230 days of his brothers' solitary confinement, that the reason for their continued imprisonment and the continued pressure from judicial authorities was "fear of the truth being revealed." He also wrote that "the judiciary continues to harass their relatives and those who sympathized with his family and has started to file cases."

According to the Afkari family, over the past eight months, the conditions of the brothers imprisoned in solitary confinement have become more difficult and worrying than before, and even the conditions for visiting Vahid and Habib have become much more difficult than before, to the extent that the designated visiting hours are basically outside the usual visiting hours in the prison, making it impossible for the Afkari family to have even the slightest meeting with other families of prisoners or for Habib and Vahid to have any contact with other prisoners.

Not long ago, a short audio file of Vahid Afkari, recorded in prison, was leaked, in which he condemns the behavior of judicial and security officials in the arrests, trials, and executions of many innocent people, justifying it as maintaining security, and proclaims his innocence and his appeal for justice.

Vahid and Habib Afkari Sangari have been sentenced to long prison terms on charges of Moharebeh and participating in the August 2018 protests in Shiraz. Vahid Afkari, a 36-year-old citizen, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges of aiding in Moharebeh, and Habib Afkari was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison and 74 lashes on charges of aiding in Moharebeh.

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign