Political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison have been on hunger strike since February 16 as a show of protest against Mr. Zamani’s execution. The regime’s henchmen have threatened a number of Mojahedin and other political prisoners with execution.
A prison interrogator named Hosseinzadeh is reported to have tortured a number of the political prisoners in retaliation for their hunger strike. Family visits of many of the prisoners have been cancelled and prisoners have been denied any contact with the outside. The action has caused extreme anxiety among the families of the prisoners about their safety.
At the instigation of prison authorities, the regime’s agents posing as ordinary prisoners assembled in front of the wards housing political prisoners on Wednesday night (February 16) and shouted, “death to political prisoners,” “death to counter-revolutionaries,” and “Mojahedin prisoners must be hanged.” The threats are a prelude to possible executions and a psychological warfare aimed at breaking the resolve of the prisoners. The threats and shouting continued past midnight. The political prisoners kept awake until morning to guard themselves against any possible attack. The prison’s security chief told the political prisoners that if ordinary prisoners were to attack and stab them to death, prison officials would not be responsible.
The Iranian Resistance once again draws the attention of the United Nations Security Council, the Secretary General, the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and all international human rights organizations to the crimes committed by the clerical regime against political prisoners. It also calls for urgent action to save the lives of Iranian political prisoners. Silence and inaction in the face of the anti-human crimes of the mullahs in Iran will only embolden them in the suppression, killing and torture of the Iranian people.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 18, 2006