Kobra Banazadeh Amirkhizi: Prisoner of the day

RAHANA: Kobra Banazadeh Amirkhizi is a 56-year-old citizen who was arrested along with 18 other individuals in January 2008 at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport when they intended to travel to Iraq. Security forces then transferred Banazadeh and the others to the Intelligence Ministry’s Ward 209 at Evin Prison. The reason for the arrests was that the group were heading to Camp Ashraf in Iraq to visit with their children. Kobra Banazadeh has two sons in Camp Ashraf. Two of her brothers, Hamid and Asghar Banazadeh previously also served prison terms for visiting with their children at Camp Ashraf.

On 11 May 2009, Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Moghisseh sentenced Kobra Banazadeh Amirkhizi to five years in prison in exile inside Rajaee Shahr Prison on charges of cooperation with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization. In September 2009, a Tehran Province Appeals Court upheld Banazadeh’s sentence.

During her detention, Kobra Banazadeh has been subjected to severe physical pressure, including beatings that led to her loss of vision as a result of eye hemorrhaging. She received eye surgery in November 2011, but despite her family’s repeated requests, Banazadeh has not been granted any furlough since her arrest.