Despite passage of one month after her apprehension, political prisoner Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi remains in limbo in Qarchak Prison of Varamin.
Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi was arrested on Sunday night, January 12, 2020 in the protests against the downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner by the IRGC anti-aircraft missiles. Protesters expressing sympathy with the families of the victims were badly brutalized by security forces in and around Tehran’s Azadi Square.
The case of Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi was referred to Tehran’s Public and Penal Court after she was informed of her charges at the Courthouse of Evin. The branch and judiciary complex for her case have not been designated yet.
Ms. Mohammadi was initially held in Tehran’s Vozara Detention Center. After her interrogations started, she was taken to the detention center’s yard and forced to sit down on the ground in front of the toilets in the freezing cold weather. Then, three agents started interrogating her. They gave her papers containing 30 questions she had to answer, but she said she would not do so in the absence of her lawyer. For 24 hours after her arrest, they did not give any food to Ms. Mohammadi.
Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi was badly beaten up and brutalized by male and female agents of the State Security Force at the time of arrest in Azadi Square of Tehran. After being arrested and transferred to the Vozara Detention Center, Ms. Mohammadi was again beaten by agents there. Some of the bruises and scars could still be detected on her body after three weeks.
In an unusual practice in the Vozara Detention Center, agents frisked her body twice. They forced her to take off all her clothes and do squats while female agents stood in front of and behind her. The agents threatened her that if she refused to do as they said, they would take off her clothes by force and certainly, she would rather not be touched.
After spending one day in the Vozara Detention Center, Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi was taken first to Branch 6 of Evin Courthouse Interrogation Center, and after being informed of her charges, she was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin.
The charges levelled against Ms. Mohammadi was “disruption of public order and calm by participating in illegal gatherings.”
Although, a bail bond of 30 million tomans was set by the Evin Courthouse, but Ms. Mohammadi continues to remain under an undecided status in prison.
