Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action on 13 January calling for the release of Maryam Shafi’ Pour, who has been banned from pursuing higher education, has been detained since 27 July 2013.
“She spent over two months in solitary confinement in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, with no access to a lawyer, before she was transferred to the prison’s general ward,” the rights group said.
Maryam Shafi’ Pour received a one-year suspended prison sentence from a Revolutionary Court in Qazvin, south-west of Tehran, in 2010 for “spreading propaganda against the system”.
Since the disputed presidential election in June 2009, scores of students have been arrested, summoned to serve prison sentences after being convicted in unfair trials on vaguely-worded charges not amounting to recognisably criminal offences, or otherwise banned, permanently or temporarily, from pursuing their education.
Amnesty International urged that the charges against Maryam Shafi’ Pour be dropped as they appear to be linked to her peaceful exercise of her rights, and release her immediately and unconditionally.
