NCRI – In the run-up to February 11 uprising, inmates of Ward 1 of Gohardasht prison threw out the prison guards from their ward on Wednesday, took the full control of Hall 1 on the ground floor and Hall 3 on the 2nd floor and shot the gates, keeping the suppressive forces out. This was in reaction to suppressive forces’ brutal attack and inhumane pressures of the prison henchmen and torturers.
Ali Haj Kazem, Prison Warden and his deputy Ali Mohammadi, and Kermani, head of intelligence in prison and his deputy Faraji are currently negotiating with the inmates.
The riot in prison started when the inmates refused to go out to the open air area which was forced upon them everyday in the cold weather. When the Special Guard was called in, the inmates confronted them forcing the prison warden, Akharian, and his agents to leave the ward. The suppressive forces are preparing for an attack.
Ward 1 is where ordinary prisoners are held but the regime has brought in some of the political prisoners into this ward to increase pressure on them. Currently, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, a political prisoner who has been arrested and put under brutal torture on a number of occasions since July 9, 1999, is held in this ward. His eye sight has been damaged due to severe torture and violent blows to the head by heavy objects such as fire extinguisher capsule and chair.
The Iranian Resistance warns against attacks on this prison by the regime’s suppressive forces which would endanger the lives of prisoners, in particular the political prisoners, and calls on all international human rights organizations, especially the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to condemn barbaric tortures used in mullahs’ prisons and the appalling medieval prison conditions. It also calls for referral of the regime’s human rights dossier to the UN Security Council.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 10, 2010