15-month sentence for revealing virginity tests of imprisoned women
The Tehran Provincial Court of Appeals sentenced Parisa Rafiei, a student imprisoned in Evin Prison, to 15 months in prison for a letter she wrote about taking virginity tests from female prisoners. She had previously been acquitted.
Parisa Rafiei, a 24-year-old art student and union activist at the University of Tehran, was sentenced to one year and three months in prison in a new case on charges of “propaganda against the regime.” The case was filed by the prosecutor and was based on a revealing letter Rafiei wrote about her experiences of detention and pressure on female prisoners.
After being arrested in March 2017 at a student rally, he was sentenced to seven years in prison in the summer of 2018 on charges of “acting against national security and propagandizing against the regime.” This sentence, which included 74 lashes, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and a ban on membership in groups and parties, was upheld by the Supreme Court in November 2019, but was reduced to one year in prison in December under a “case-by-case pardon.”
On April 9, 2019, Rafiei wrote a letter describing the conditions of solitary confinement and taking virginity tests from female prisoners. However, this letter was the basis for a complaint by the prosecutor and the Evin District Court, and Branch 36 of the Court of Appeals sentenced him to 15 months in prison on charges of “propaganda against the regime” through this writing.
This ruling was issued on January 20, and the court cited Article 137 of the Islamic Penal Code to issue the new sentence, which states that in the event of a repeat offense, the judge can issue a sentence that exceeds the maximum penalty.
Mostafa Nili, Parisa Rafiei's defense lawyer, said: "The letter for which she is accused of propaganda against the system was in a previous case before her conviction was finalized."
The last interrogation session of Parisa Rafiei in this case was held on September 5, 2020, in Branch 2 of the Evin Prosecutor's Office, presided over by Judge Haji Moradi, and the defense attorney was not present.
In that revealing letter, Parisa Rafiei asked, among other things: "What does virginity testing, a completely personal matter for female prisoners, have to do with the security apparatus and the content of the interrogation, that shamelessly case experts are allowed to impose such sentences through official forensic authorities, and a judicial verdict is even issued for it?"
He also asked how solitary confinement is not a clear and complete example of psychological torture?
Parisa Rafiei has been arrested since July 8, 2020, following a summons to the Evin Prosecutor's Office's Sentence Execution Unit and is being held in the women's ward of Evin Prison.
Source: DW
