18 Jailed dissidents at Raja’i Shahr Prison of Karaj wrote an open letter on March 21, protesting the exile of political prisoners and opening new cases against them.
The letter by the 18 political prisoners in Gohardasht (Rajaishahr) prison is as follows:
“Letter of Political Prisoners of Karaj Rajaishahr Prison on the intensification of the intimidation of political prisoners:
Over the past months, despite the allegations of the highest judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic surrounding the rights of political prisoners, something that is actually and every day is occurring, is not the improving of the conditions of the prisoners, but also the intensification of repression and antagonism, while increasing the price of the prison, people who lost their patience and political actors at the political level in the community to be intimidated and felt subdued because of their repressive policies.
Transferring to solitary confinement, insulting and humiliation, beating, forming new cases, and issuing new sentences and exile to prisons away from the habitat and, etc. are among the methods of exercising pressure on prisoners and harassing their families, which has become more severe and wider in recent months.
The security institutions and judges affiliated with these institutions have clearly found that prison has not only failed to prevent political prisoners from struggling for their rights, but instead it has turned into the site and the place for continuing their struggles and resistance. And from behind its tall walls, every time the voice of their rights will be heard clearly, and the ignominy of the totalitarian rule can be seen.
They thought that with the aggravation of systematic abuse of prisoners and their families, and violating more their rights, they can force them to be silent and become passive. It is based on this, that they have decided with more harassment to exile the political prisoners to prisons far away from the place of their residence to prisons with crimes such as drugs, murder, and robbery etc.
Obviously, such actions will not lead us as political prisoners to retreat from the defense of our human rights, and it is showing the fear and horror of the rulers over our cries of justice, and it is the result of their political, economic, and social deadlocks.
Certainly, just as the use of repressive policies by the government has led to nothing, this time, these policies will lead to nothing too, and in advance, this policy is destined to fail.
Matlab Ahmadian, Mohammad Banazadeh Amir Khizi, Afshin Baymani, Jafar Azimzadeh, Arsham Rezaii, Arash Sadeghi, Hassan Sadeghi, Soheil Arabia, Abolqasem Fuladvand, Nasrollah Lenshi, Behnam Mousivand, Reza Mohamad Hosseini, Saeed Masouri, Ali Mousanejad, Farhad Maysami, Mohammad Ali Mansouri, Mehdi Meskinnavaz, and Arash Nasri.”
Iranian authorities have a history of sending political prisoners and prisoners of conscience to exile in remote locations far from their residence.
In the past month the Iranian judicial system has sent several political prisoners to exile as a form of additional punishment in the middle of their prison terms.
The banishments of political prisoners violate Note 3 of Article 513 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which states that prisoners should serve their terms in prisons close to where they live.
Iran Human Rights Monitor has documented several cases of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience being sent to exile in recent months.
On March 22, civil activist Saeed Eqbali was transferred from Evin Prison to Raja’i Shahr Prison in Karaj, west of the capital Tehran.
Political prisoner Atena Daemi was abruptly banished to Lakan Prison of Rasht on March 16, 2021. The forcible relocation of Atena Daemi took place on the eve of the Persian New Year on March 20.
Atena Daemi was among the signatories of a letter protesting forcible relocation and banishment of political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared to the Prison of Semnan.
On March 9, Maryam Akbari Monfared was abruptly relocated from the women’s ward of Evin Prison and banished 110 miles east to the central prison in Semnan.
On January 24, 2021, political prisoner Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi, was transferred from Qarchak Prison to the central prison in Amol, Mazandaran province in northern Iran, far from her parents.
