Political prisoner Saeed Masouri wrote a letter to the UN Secretary-General, warning against the launch of another Kahrizak in Iran. Saeed Masouri wrote in part:
“Dear Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres,
Thank you for your concern and attention to the street protests of the Iranian people. Since I started my 18th year of prison as of January 9, and I am very familiar with prison conditions in Iran and know very well the probable hardships detained young protesters go through.
I urge you to do everything in your power to protect the lives of the detainees and the rights of the demonstrators.
Especially since all government officials present these political, social, and popular demands that are the byproduct of years of suppression, and the plundering and deprivation from basic human rights, as turmoil, chaos, sedition and affiliation with foreigners, and these labels, as you know, are the prelude to suppression, pressure, and heavy sentences …
The government, which is the very reason young people have stood up, sits in the place of the judge and calls everyone seditionists and their demands, riots and conspiracies.
This is why, I ask you, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to use all possible international means to stop the repression of these young people before a human disaster (such as Kahrizak) is repeated. Especially when the country’s prosecutor announced from before that the ‘seditionists’ would be sentenced to moharebeh (enmity with God which carries the death sentence).
Thank you,
Saeed Masouri, Gohardasht (Rajaie Shahr) Prison in Karaj – January 2018
