Prisoner of conscience, Behnam Mahjoubi, passed away on Sunday in Iran, after suffering at the hands of the prison authorities. Mr. Mahjoubi died since the regime prevented him from receiving proper medical care. His death, although heartbreaking, is another example of the regime’s systematic human rights violation.
Since his detention earlier this year, Behnam went under severe physical and psychological tortures. He was diagnosed with epilepsy, and according to doctors, he was unable to endure prison. But the authorities refused to release him. Instead, they deprived Behnam from his medication, and they injected him with unknown drugs and aggravated his illness until he went into a coma and had to be taken to Loghman Hospital.
A video of Behnam Mahjoubi's burial in the city of Kerman, #Iran#BehnamMahjoubi a member of the Sufi Gonabadi order died in custody after authorities failed to care for his medical condition.
He suffered months of torture including through being denied medical care in prison. pic.twitter.com/bB4CH4dHKg— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) February 22, 2021
The regime has killed many other political prisoners by depriving them of medical care. In 2011, the Iranian regime killed Mohsen Dogmechi, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), who was suffering from pancreas cancer, by refusing to send him to hospital at the early stages of the illness or release him.
There are a number of other political prisoners inside the regime’s dungeons who suffer from various illnesses and who are denied proper medical attention by the regime. Political prisoner Arash Sadeghi suffers from Chondrosarcoma, but the regime has denied him medical care.
Ms. Fatemeh Mosanna, 53, is another MEK supporter who has been deprived of proper medical care. The doctor who has examined her several times in Tehran’s Taleghani Hospital said she cannot tolerate prison conditions and the prison authorities must confirm this so that she could receive medical leave. Yet the authorities refuse to give her furlough.
In a similar case, the authorities of the Central Prison of Tabriz denied medical treatment to political prisoner Massoumeh Senobari on February 10. She is suspected of having cancer.
There are dozens of other similar cases. Yet, the regime eliminates political prisoners in different ways.
EU leaders should impose sanctions on the regime’s officials for their role in terrorism and human rights violations. The Iranian regime’s dossier of arbitrary executions, massacres of political prisoners, and killings of demonstrators should be referred to the UN Security Council, and its leaders should be brought to justice for four decades of crimes against humanity.
As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the opposition’s President-elect, said regarding Behman Mahjoubi’s death: “What happened to Behnam Mahjoubi makes it imperative to send an international fact-finding mission to Iran to visit the prisons, political prisoners, and the detained protesters.”
What happened to #BehnamMahjoubi makes it imperative to send an international fact-finding mission to #Iran to visit the prisons, political prisoners, and the detained protesters. #FreePoliticalPrisoners
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 21, 2021
