Recently, following the broadcast of a shocking footage of the clerical regime’s tortures against prisoners at Karaj’s Gohardasht prison, agents from the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), transferred one of the victims featured in the video, Mohsen Bikvand, to solitary confinement where they placed him under torture and cruel treatment.
The MOIS agents have been dispatched from Tehran to Gohardasht prison in order to identify those responsible for leaking the video to outside the prison. 20 prisoners have been transferred to the Protection Office of the facility.
It has been reported that Hassan Akharian has been involved in the cruel tortures carried out against political prisoners, including Mohsen Bikvand.
Separately, at an appeals court, the regime sentenced another political prisoner to 10 years of imprisonment. Prior to the ruling, Seyyed Zia Nabavi was banned from continuing his university education.
Nabavi’s charges include participation in anti-regime protests and cooperation with the main opposition, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). He was arrested along with a number of other people during an MOIS raid at a friend’s house on June 15, 2009. He spent months in solitary confinement at Ward 209 of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where he was placed under torture.
On Saturday, May 29, another political prisoner and student activist, Majid Tavakkoli, who had been on a hunger strike for the past 6 days, was transferred from solitary confinement to the public ward. This was considered a setback for prison officials and a victory for Tavakkoli, who had launched a hunger strike demanding to be transferred out of solitary confinement.
Tavakkoli, who has been weakened considerably after his hunger strike, contacted his family by telephone and gave them the news of the transfer.
Separately, two other imprisoned student activists, Hossein Ronaqi and Kouhiar Goudarzi are still on a hunger strike, while Mansour Osanlou, the Head of Tehran’s Bus Drivers’ Union, was recently transferred to the so-called Methadone Ward of Gohardasht prison in Karaj where dangerous prisoners are held. Mr. Osanlou has been in prison since the summer of 2007.