NCRI – Ms. Zahra Asadpour Gorji (Joushan), 52, a political prison held in women’s ward of Karaj’s Gohardasht prison, has suffered from a heart attack due to appalling prison conditions and pressures exerted by the regime’s henchmen at the prison. She had already had an operation on her heart. She is in critical state.
Ms. Asadpour was arrested on December 7, 2009, during a raid by suppressive forces on her residence. Before that, she was imprisoned for 16 months alongside her daughter, Fatemeh Joushan, for visiting her child in Ashraf City. Her son, Reza Joushan, 25, who is also imprisoned, suffers from severe asthma and leg pains. He was arrested on December 1 and has been placed under cruel physical and psychological tortures.
After their arrests, both mother and son were transferred to solitary confinement at Ward 8 of Gohardasht prison, which is controlled by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and placed under torture in order to coerce them into forcing their relatives to return to Iran from Ashraf.
Ms. Asadpour and her son were recently sentenced to one year prison term in Zanjan prison and four years of exile in Qilar village near Zanjan on charges of having family contacts with PMOI members residing of Ashraf. In an unprecedented inhumane act, the regime’s henchmen have pressured the Joushan family to pay money for the transfer of Ms. Asadpour and her son, Reza, to Zanjan prison.
The Iranian Resistance brings the deteriorating situation of political prisoners, especially the older and ill prisoners, to the attention of all international human rights organizations, and demands the immediate release of Ms. Asadpour who is in a critical condition.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 23, 2010