The Iranian regime has placed six Baluch political prisoners under pressure by sending them to Ardabil Prison, northwest of Iran.
“Basically they have been completely isolated in a separate ward, facing harassment and other ill-treatment for their religion and ethnicity. Families visiting their loved ones are also forced to speak Persian,” according to a report.
These inmates were transferred to solitary confinement under interrogation, facing harsh treatment to confess to forged charges.
Authorities have mistreated and threatened some of them in a deliberate effort to obtain coerced confessions such as affiliation to the U.S. or Arab countries. They were all charged with alleged “measures threatening national security.”
These inmates’ names and sentences are:
- Mohammad Saber Malekreisi, 25, aged 17 at the time of his alleged crime, held in solitary confinement in an Intelligence Ministry detention for seven months and under interrogation, later sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
- Ali Pazhgol, 25, arrested in December 2010, aged 19 at the time of his alleged crime, later was sentenced to 16 years behind bars.
- Nourahmad Hassanzehi, 31, arrested in March 2011, held in solitary confinement in an Intelligence Ministry detention for nine months, sentenced to 26 years behind bars. He is married with two children.
- Abdolkarim Shahbakhsh, 55, has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
- Maher Kaabi, 24, arrested in February 2012, held in solitary confinement in an Intelligence Ministry detention for three months, has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Shirahmad Shirvani, 33, arrested in June 2010, has been sentenced to 22 years behind bars.
