NCRI – The ruling religious fascism in Iran has intensified pressure on political prisoners in order to break them down mentally.
One political prisoner, Mr. Mansour Rodpour, was transferred last week to the solitary confinement ward known as Ward 8 at Gohardasht prison in Karaj (near Tehran). Last month, he tolerated solitary confinement in Ward 1 of the prison, known literally as the “dog pound.” After being severely tortured, he now has trouble walking, and remains under the supervision of the mullahs’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is also not allowed to talk to other prisoners.
The area known as the “dog pound,” which is equipped with cameras and eavesdropping devices, is considered as one of the most terrifying torture chambers of the mullahs’ regime, and is used to break down unyielding political prisoners.
Groups of henchmen from the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) attack the defenseless prisoners who are blindfolded and whose hands and feet are enchained. The henchmen use sticks and electric batons to beat the prisoners and carry out some of the most brutal forms of torture.
Prisoners are deprived of the most basic necessities and have no access to pharmaceutical drugs or medical care. They are only allowed to exit their cells three times a day for their personal needs.
Mansour Rodpour was arrested by MOIS agents on May 17, 2007 while travelling on Chalous road. He spent 25 days in safe houses under torture. Deprived of a lawyer and right of defense, on August 23, 2008, he was tried at the mullahs’ “Revolutionary Court,” Branch #1, by a MOIS agent identified as Asef Hosseini, and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Mr. Rodpour has been banned from family visits.
Another political prisoner, Hashem Shahin Nia, who has been exiled at the Central prison in Bushehr (southern Iran) for more than a year, is in dire physical condition after facing brutal torture and due to intolerable prison conditions. Despite the need to be treated by doctors, the regime’s henchmen refrain from providing medical attention to Mr. Shahin Nia. He is, in addition, currently suffering from a heart condition. He is accused of participating in the 2005 protest gathering outside the notorious Evin prison in Tehran as well as having ties to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), and has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
According to obtained reports, Ms. Hamideh Nabavi Chashemi, Ms. Shahnaz Gholami, Ms. Hanna Abdi, Ms. Zeinab Bayazidi, Ms. Ronak Safarzadeh, Ms. Zahra Assadpour, and Messrs Seyyed Zohour Nabavi, Mohammad Nikbakht, Yasser Majidi, Saeed Sangar, Jafar Eghdami, Farhad Haj Mirzaii, Hoad Yazerlou, Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili Fard, Ali Heydarian, Mohammad Sedigh Kaboudvand, Hamidreza Mohammadi, Hamidreza Borhani, Saeed Masouri, Saeed Shah Ghale, Gholamhossein Kolbi, Mansour Osanlou, Arjang Davoudi, Ebrahim Madadi, Mohammad-Ali Mansouri, Ali Zaremi, Misagh Yazdan Nejad, Abbas Khorsandi, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, Ahmad Danesh Pazir, Saleh Kohandel, Ali Moezzi, Ali Mohammad Hassani, Ayatollah Kazemeini Boroujerdi, and hundreds of other political prisoners who are incarcerated or exiled in the inhumane regime’s torture chambers, face some of the most grueling pressures and forms of physical and mental tortures.
In addition, Shiraz University students, including Saeed Khalaatbari, Arash Roustaii, Hadi Alam Li, Enayat Taghva, Ahmad Kohansal, Esmaeel Jalil Vand, Hamdollah Namjou, and Alma Ranjbar, who were summoned and arrested after widespread university protests marking the occasion of Student Day on December 6, 2008, are currently spending time at the mullah regime’s MOIS secret locations.
The Iranian Resistance warns about the intensification of pressures and torture on political prisoners, and calls on all international human rights organizations and bodies to refer the dossier of the inhumane regime’s crimes to the UN Security Council and adopt immediate and binding measures aimed at stopping the brutal suppression of prisoners in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 14, 2009