100 protesting prisoners threatened with execution
NCRI – More than 2,000 inmates protesting over group executions at Ghezel Hessar prison have been threatened with death themselves if they do not end their hunger strike,
Regime officials warned the strikers on May 22 that 100 of them would die if they did not end their three-day stand-off with prison guards.
During the protest, several prisoners were also bound by the hands and feet and taken to the office of prison chief Hosseini, while others were sent to solitary confinement.
The prison shop – which sells mostly date-expired goods at massively inflated prices – has also been closed down as punishment to the convicts.
But prisoners – who are also demanding a massive improvement in their inhumane living conditions – have vowed to continue their strike until their demands are met.
Inmates are also demanding the replacement of prison head Moradi, who ordered the shooting of a large number of prisoners during a March 2011 riot.
Ghezel Hessar is the largest prison in Iran and one of the largest in the Middle East, with around 22,000 inmates.
Ward 2 is allocated to 6,000 prisoners charged with drug trafficking, with many of them are condemned to death. Afghan prisoners are kept in Hall 4, and most there are condemned to death.
The prison has been likened to a concentration camp, where prisoners are denied even the most basic sanitary and medical services. Massive over-crowding also means many sleep in hallways, bathrooms, toilets and staircases.
Drugs are sold by mafia-like gangs inside the prison who work for prison authorities, and prisoners who protest against the squalid conditions have been murdered by these gangs.
Every week, Khamenei’s hangmen execute a group of prisoners from this ward, collectively and generally in secret. News and information about those killed never leaks outside the prison. With shameless hypocrisy, many prisoners charged with drug-trafficking are being executed on the orders of the IRGC and Intelligence Ministry, which both control the smuggling of drugs into Iran.
Regime judicial official Mohseni Ejei admitted to the state-run media in 2010: “Some people found with drugs are not the main smugglers. The main smugglers have recruited and deceived these people while they are sitting in a safe place, and someone else is being tried and even executed in their place.”
The Iranian Resistance calls on international authorities and human rights organizations to refer the dossier of this inhuman regime to the UN Security Council and to try its criminal leaders before international tribunals.