United Nations and European Union Urged to Take Urgent Action for the Freedom of Political Prisoners and Prison Visitation
Political prisoner Ali Mo’ezi, a 70-year-old individual who was arrested on October 1, 2022, without any specific charges during a raid by intelligence agents on his residence, is in urgent need of medical care due to cancer and severe arthritis, as well as the tortures he has endured over the past four decades. He had recently undergone surgery before his arrest and was in the recovery period. He is deprived of minimal medical care and treatment, and he is also denied permission to be transferred to a hospital.
Ali Mo’ezi refrained from participating in the court proceedings earlier this year due to his failure to recognize the legitimacy of the regime’s court. However, yesterday (July 16), he was forcibly taken to court under threats and coercion. According to reports, he refused to answer the questions of the criminal judge, Salavati. Salavati ordered him to remain incarcerated in Evin Prison, specifically in Ward 209. Ali Mo’ezi has previously been imprisoned three times in the 1980s, 2000s, and 2010s due to his support for the MEK, serving approximately 12 years in prison.
Furthermore, the regime’s judiciary has transferred political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, from her place of exile in Semnan Prison to Evin Court on Sunday, July 1, after serving 13 and a half years without a single day of furlough for medical treatment. After serving with five new charges, she was returned to Semnan Prison. The goal is to prevent her release after completing her sentence. In this new case, Maryam Akbari is accused of “propaganda against the regime, conspiring against national security, spreading falsehoods, insulting the Supreme Leader, and inciting public disorder.” Her crime, as a mother of three, is seeking justice for her martyred brothers and sister.
On Tuesday, July 11, the regime’s judiciary in Mashhad sentenced teacher Hashem Khastar to an additional two and a half years in prison, accusing him of sending his memoirs outside the prison, insulting Khamenei, and propaganda against the regime, according to the so-called Revolutionary Court in Mashhad. This political prisoner was arrested in August 2019 by the Intelligence Ministry in Mashhad, and Judge Mansouri, a criminal judge, sentenced him to 16 years in prison, a three-year travel ban, and three years of exile to Nikshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Once again, the Iranian Resistance calls upon the United Nations, the European Union, and member countries to take immediate and effective action to put an end to the torture and mistreatment of political prisoners and secure their freedom. The Iranian Resistance also demands the visitation of United Nations investigative delegations to prisons and the torture chambers of the mullahs’ regime, as well as meetings with political prisoners accompanied by representatives of the Iranian Resistance.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
July 17, 2023