NCRI – Iranian political prisoner Afshin Baymani has written an open letter from inside Iran’s notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison exposing the activities of the agents of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS or VEVAK) against members of Iran’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), in Camp Liberty, Iraq.
In his letter, Mr. Baymani ridicules MOIS agents for pretending that they have gone to the gates of Camp Liberty to ‘liberate’ family members who are PMOI (MEK) members. He points out that if these Iranian intelligence agents, posing as relatives of PMOI members, are indeed genuine in seeking people’s freedom, then rather than travelling thousands of kilometers to Camp Liberty, they could make a short trip to Gohardasht Prison where Mr. Baymani is held and ask the regime to free him instead. Mr. Baymani further exposes the treacherous suggestions of the MOIS agents who are urging Camp Liberty residents to return to Iran to live under the ‘compassion of the regime,’ pointing out that his own mistreatment by the mullahs’ regime has brought him to the point that he would even wish execution for himself rather than continuing to languish in Iran’s notorious dungeons.
Mr. Baymani, in his mid-forties, suffers from a serious heart condition and is being held in Ward 4 of Hall 12 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran. Last week he was refused hospital treatment by the authorities after suffering what appeared to be a heart attack.
Mr. Baymani, a father of two, has been imprisoned for some 16 years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and Gohardasht Prison for allegedly helping his brother evade arrest. Mr. Baymani was originally sentenced to execution on September 6, 2000, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment six years later.
The following is the text of his open letter which has been smuggled out of prison:
Your friend is in prison, and yet you are looking in the other corners of the world…
One of the prisoners told me about an article, after which I was quite baffled for hours. My God, what is going on?! It mentioned that a number of family members of PMOI (MEK) members had gone to the gates of Camp Liberty and demanded their freedom. I saw it necessary to write a few sentences and tell them that if there is the slightest honesty in their souls, they should come to their senses. Why have you gone through all the trouble and travelled thousands of kilometers to free an individual from Camp Liberty? Why instead don’t you come and see me, Afshin Baymani, who hasn’t been a PMOI member or experienced their way of life and ask the Iranian regime to have me released? If this is asking too much, at least ask them to give me a few days furlough after 16 years behind bars. If this is also asking for too much, repeal my court ruling and have me executed quickly. With all this I would be relieved from the pressures and sufferings of prison life, and my family and two dear children would no longer be hoping in the lies fed to them by the Ministry of Intelligence. To all those ‘families’ who introduce themselves as saviors of the Ashrafis [PMOI members], do you also consider asking for my execution to be asking for too much? I am also asking you to call on the regime that if it agrees to my request, it would also donate all my body parts to those in need when it executes me. I should add that I am not speaking to you from abroad for you to have to go to all the trouble of going around the world to save people in need. In fact, I am in the same country that you claim its people enjoy freedom and welfare, and whose people you claim to support with all your heart without seeking any remuneration. My address is very simple: Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, Hall number 12.
Is it truly not ridiculous? After 16 years in prison because of the MOIS’ lies, an individual in the Iranian regime’s custody has reached the point of seeking his emancipation in the gallows. His only accusation is that he has been with his brother, a PMOI member, for a few days, and yet you would instead want to have the real PMOI members returned to [Iran] to ‘continue a free and dignified life under the compassion of the regime’?! Whoever reads this letter and thinks I am lying or mistaken, feel free to guide me. Finally, I want to address those individuals living in Camp Liberty. On my behalf tell those [Iranian intelligence] people gathering at Camp Liberty’s gate that if you want to liberate a dove, first start with those you have caged for years, and those who you are killing each day, so that you would actually prove your honest intentions for everyone. Then you can go for the doves who are in their nests and speak of more freedom.
