NCRI – The mullahs’ regime refuses to settle cases involving political prisoners by repetitively delaying court hearings. To that end, the prisoners’ cases are referred to the 15th branch of the mullahs’ “revolutionary courts” headed by a henchman identified as Salavati.
Thus far, Salavati has deliberately neglected cases involving Arjang Davoudi, Ali Saremi, Mohammad-Ali Mansouri, Misagh Yazdan-Nejad, Hoad Yazerlou, Mohammad Sedigh Kaboudvand, and numerous other political prisoners. As an example, a hearing for Farhad Haj Mirzai, already delayed for more than a year, was scheduled to take place on January 31, 2009, but Salavati prevented it from happening. Haj Mirzai was arrested on January 18, 2008 in Sanandaj, and after being subjected to interrogation and torture there, he was transferred to the notorious ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison. He has fallen victim to heart and other health complications after enduring brutal tortures including electric shock. Regime agents refuse to provide him with medical treatment despite his condition.
Agents of the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) have also increased pressure on Hoad Yazerlou, a 23-year-old student. In recent days, the dominant gang of prisoners in the ward has repeatedly attacked this young student without any justification whatsoever, severely beating him. The ward’s chief, Vakili, had promised positive changes to the sentences and situation of the ward’s dangerous gang members in return for their harassment of Hoad Yazerlou. In order to increase pressure on him, the regime has added many more prisoners to his cell, subjecting him to intolerable conditions in a small cell with 18 other prisoners.
The Iranian Resistance warns about the increase in the amount of pressure and torture of political prisoners, and calls on all international human rights organizations and authorities to refer the mullah regime’s crimes to the UN Security Council and to send a special UN rapporteur to investigate the cruel human rights abuses in Iran, while adopting internationally binding and immediate measures to stop the brutal suppression of prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 17, 2009
