The Continued Detention of Masih Alinejad's Brother and his Friend

The parents of a jailed filmmaker have been allowed to see their son after 40 days of incarceration, IranWire has learned.  

Navid (Reza) Mihandoost, a 47-year-old Iranian film director and scriptwriter, was arrested in Tehran on December 4, 2019, by intelligence ministry agents and is currently being held at Evin Prison’s Ward 209 [Persian link]. Although he has been charged with activities against national security, Mihandoost has stated that his arrest might be linked to his friendship with Alireza Alinejad, the 45-year-old brother of well-known US-based journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad. Alireza Alinejad is also in jail, after being arrested on September 24, 2019.

“I am a movie director and, considering my acquaintance and friendship with Alireza’s family since 2008, I provided some help after Alireza was arrested,” Mihandoost said prior to his arrest in December. “Because of this I have been summoned and I am afraid that I will be arrested. As a friend to Alireza, I would help him in any way I can. Now if this is a crime then it must be handled in an unbiased place where justice has some meaning.”

Agents told Mihandoost he had been summoned “to provide some explanations,” and was, as he expected, arrested when he arrived at the intelligence ministry office as instructed.

[Text to the video: 

Hello, Dear Masih, I am Navid Mihandoost, film director and scriptwriter.

A simple Google search shows what I have made and what I have done in Iranian cinema.

Considering my friendship with Alireza and yourself since 2008, I provided some help after Alireza was imprisoned.

For this I am afraid that I will be arrested.

In this video I wanted to let you know that you have my permission to publish any information in this regard that you might find necessary.

As a friend of Alireza, even before I knew you, I would help him in any way I can.

Now if this is a crime, then it must be handled in an unbiased place where justice has some meaning.]

 

Almost 40 days after his arrest, there were questions surrounding Mihandoost’s whereabouts, though his sister, Neda Mihandoost, says they knew where he was being held after his initial arrest on December 4. “The same night Navid called our home and told my father that he had been arrested by the intelligence ministry and had been taken to Evin Prison,” she said.

“The first week of his arrest, Navid was allowed to call home,” Neda Mihandoost said. “Of course, it appears that for a week all the phones at Ward 209 were cut off and nobody was allowed to call. Navid is now held in the communal ward but probably he has spent a total of 15 days in solitary confinement.”

His sister says that since his arrest, Navid Mihandoost has had only been allowed one visit from his family: “My parents met Navid in person on Thursday, January 16. They said that his morale was very good. Navid told them that he was still at Ward 209 and interrogations were still ongoing.”

 

Charged Without Evidence

The intelligence ministry has had a somewhat routine approach to arrests. Normally, when someone is arrested, agents search the detainee’s home and workplace at the same time in order to gather evidence that will support the charges against them. But it appears that in the case of Navid Mihandoost, the reverse has happened. They first tried to find an “appropriate charge” against him and then searched for evidence that would support the charge. So their search of his home and workplace took place a long time after his arrest — about three weeks later, according to Neda Mihandoost. “They came with a search warrant. They told my mother to call my father because they knew that either Navid’s father or his uncle had the key to the apartment where he works and they wanted to search the place. They searched both places and took away some CDs and Navid’s laptop.”

His sister says that when his parents visited Navid in prison, he told them that he had been charged with “activities against national security,” but it was still unclear why this charge has been brought against him. “Ten days after they searched Navid’s home and workplace, they called my father from the intelligence ministry and told my father the exact location of the DVD of a documentary made with Navid’s cooperation and asked him to bring them the DVD,” she said. My father found the DVD and took it to them. We suspect that his arrest might have something to do with that documentary, although I am not sure about the content and the subject of [it].”

According to a relative of Alireza Alinejad, after Alireza Alinejad’s arrest, Mihandoost repeatedly accompanied Alinejad’s family to the courthouse, prison and the offices of judiciary authorities. Mihandoost apparently believes that his arrest might be because of his friendship with Alireza Alinejad and the help that he rendered his family after his arrest.

A source close to the Mihandoost family said: “Navid could have been arrested for his part in making a documentary about the life of a journalist.” [Persian link] The documentary mentioned is likely to be the same one that the agents could not find in their initial search of Navid Mihandoost’s home and workplace and which they had to instruct the prisoner to tell them exactly where it could be found.

Mostafa Azizi, a TV producer and screenwriter, says that as far as he knows the documentary is about Masih Alinejad: “I do not know the specifics of the documentary and I do not know whether it has been posted somewhere or has been privately screened. But as far as I know this film is not about Masih’s activities in recent years but about her activities in years past when she could still travel to Iran.”

A prisoner who had been a cellmate of Navid Mihandoost for a few days says that Navid had told him that he had not been arrested for committing an illegal act but only for his friendship with Alireza Alinejad who, in turn, was arrested because of his sister Masih Alinejad.

Mostafa Azizi agrees.“Navid was never a political person in the strict sense of the word and never engaged in political activities, but he was Alireza’s friend, and after his arrest he publicly, and within the framework of the law, was helping him in his affairs. Apparently security authorities did not like this.”

 

A Duty to Support Friends

Before his arrest, Navid Mihandoost sent a video to Masih Alinejad and asked her to post it online if he was arrested. “Navid’s arrest is to punish me and to destroy the sense of empathy with the families of the prisoners,” she wrote in a Telegram post. “Navid said that he had been interrogated on the phone and had been asked about his relations with Masih and her brother Alireza Alinejad. Navid had told them that ‘I was friends with Alireza years before Masih and being gracious requires that I must take care of the affairs of my friend who is now in prison.’”

Alireza Alinejad was arrested on September 25, 2019, and has been held at Evin Prison since then. It is not clear on what charge he has been detained, but in the video Masih Alinejad posted on September 30, he says that the pressure on his family had increased and intelligence ministry agents want their parents to speak against his sister on television [Persian link]. “Don’t be silent. Speak,” Alireza Alinejad told his sister in the same video.

[Video subtitles: 

Hello Masih,

Pressure on the family is growing.

They keep calling and trying to convince Mom and Dad to speak against you on TV.

They use both threats and enticements.

A team from the intelligence ministry went there.

Mom said that she was very scared and cried.

Mom pleaded with the intelligence agents. “You know our family,” she told them. “They were in the war and on the frontlines.

“Now two of our children think differently from us.

“Why do you come to our house and disgrace us in the neighborhood?”

Mom said she pleaded with the agents not to come to our house again.

“What my daughter outside the country does is her own business,” she told them.

These days the pressures have increased and I am afraid that Mom will break.

Last week she told me while crying, “Perhaps, for the sake of our children, we might be forced to go and speak against Masih.”

“If we did that you and Masih must not get upset with us,” she said twice.

Mom thinks that by speaking against you she will be protecting the family and would reduce the chances that I would get arrested.

Well, she is a mother and thinks like that.

Anyhow, be prepared that today or tomorrow, this week or this month, the pressure would get results and Mom and Dad will go on TV to denounce you.

I am not at all worried about getting arrested and going to prison.

The only thing that would bother me is if the family stands against each other.

That is it. Take care.

I recorded this video because throughout your career you advised families who were harassed by the regime not to stay silent.

And now you have my permission to speak freely and not to worry about anything the moment that I am arrested!

Continue your work with determination and strength.

You are doing the right thing and I love your work.

Go on with your work.

Love you. Goodbye!]

 

On July 29, 2019, before Alireza’s arrest, a judiciary official had announced that sending pictures and videos to Masih Alinejad would be considered a crime [Persian link] and it would punishable according to Article 508 of the Islamic Penal Code that sets a prison sentence of one to 10 years  for anybody “who cooperates by any means with foreign states against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

 

Denounce Your sister on TV or Else!

In the late summer of 2019, the state-TV “20:30” news program broadcast an interview with Masih Alinejad’s sister Mina Alinejad, during which she spoke against her sister. So it is possible that Alireza Alinejad has been arrested because he has refused to speak against his sister Masih.

On September 25, 2019, Amnesty Internal issued a statement, calling the arrests of Masih Alinejad’s family members “a despicable and cowardly move.” The arrests, said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, “are another illustration of the Iranian authorities’ chilling determination to crush women’s rights activism. The fact that they have resorted to going after the family members of an activist is an indication of just how threatened the authorities feel by the growing support for the women’s rights movement in Iran and how desperate they are to put a stop to it.”

In an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (ILNA) on October 13, 2019, Saeed Dehghan, the lawyer chosen by the Alinejad family to defend their son, said that he had been disqualified under Article 48 of Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure [Persian link]. According to this article, which was amended in June 2015, defendants held on national security-related charges can only choose a lawyer from a shortlist approved by the judiciary chief. Dehghan added that this makes it clear that Alireza Alinejad had been arrested because he is Masih Alinejad’s brother and not because of his own activities.

 

Punishment for Acts Committed by Another

When asked about charges brought against Alireza Alinejad, Dehghan said, “I do not consider the charge against him as relevant because any punishment must be based on personal conduct. We recognize personal responsibility in penal law and criminology and it is an international principle as well. Basically, the charge brought against Mr. Alireza Alinejad is not a valid charge and, in my opinion, is the result of a misunderstanding.”

The principle of personal responsibility means that nobody can be punished for acts committed by another individual, so when the lawyer cites this principle as part of saying that he believes Alireza Alinejad was arrested due to a “misunderstanding,” he is implicitly outlining that he is being punished for somebody else’s actions. 

On November 14, 2019, quoting a source close to the Alinejad Family, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that Alireza’s interrogation was complete and the indictment against him was to be issued and sent to the Revolutionary Court to set a date for his trial [Persian link]. According to this report, his family were allowed to visit him in prison.

After the court rejected the lawyer chosen by the family and they were told that they had to choose a lawyer on the judiciary’s list, Alireza Alinejad announced that he did not want a lawyer. Under these conditions, it has become even more difficult for the family to learn about how his case is progressing or how he is doing in prison. In a short conversation with IranWire, Alireza Alinejad’s mother Zarrin said that she has had no news of her son and only knows that once in a while he is allowed to call his wife.

[Video subtitles:

- Hello, Ms. Zarrin.

- Hello.

- How are you?

- Thanks. How are you?

- My name is Shahed Alavi. Wanted to ask how Ali [Alireza] is doing. Any news of him? Have you talked to him?

- No, we have no news.

- You mean he has not been even able to phone you, tell you how he is doing and talk with his wife and his child?

- He calls his wife but he has not called us.

- Thank God.

- Goodbye.

- Farewell.]

 

It is still not clear what scenario security agencies have to justify their treatment of Navid Mihandoost and his old friend Alireza Alinejad. But what is certain is that both detainees’ families are in a state of continuous anxiety. Neda Mihandoost says the family is especially worried because of what Navid has told them about his illness in prison: “In at least two phone calls he told my family: ‘my blood pressure is high and they are continuously giving me aspirins and Losartan pills.’ I am worried, first because Navid never had a history of high blood pressure and I have no idea why they are giving him this medication and, second, the treatment of high blood pressure does not require aspirin. Navid has no history of illnesses.”

Mostafa Azizi believes that, under these difficult conditions, Khaneh Cinema (“Home of Cinema,” the Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds) must stand by all filmmakers, including Navid Mihandoost, even though he is not a member. “Navid is part of the motion picture family and Khaneh Cinema must not be a home only for its members. They themselves claim that this is a home for all artists who work in this field. But, unfortunately, sometimes they do not live up to this ideal. Khaneh Cinema must take a public position in such cases and now in the case of Navid. This is only a natural request to Khaneh Cinema.”

 

 

What is Masih Alinejad’s Brother’s Crime?

Subtitles:

00:10 — On September 25, 2019, intelligence agents arrested Alireza, brother of journalist and civil rights activist Masih Alinejad.

00:17 — On December 4, 2019, Navid Mihandoost, filmmaker, scriptwriter and a friend of Masih’s brother, was also arrested in Tehran.

Navid Mihandoost:

“Hello, Dear Masih,

“I am Navid Mihandoost, film director and scriptwriter.

“Considering my friendship with Alireza and yourself since 2008 I provided some help after Alireza was imprisoned.

“For this I am afraid that I will be arrested.

“As a friend of Alireza, even before I knew you, I would help him in any way I can.

“Now, I don’t know if this is really a crime or what.”

01:15 — Possible charge against Navid:

Participation in making a documentary about Masih Alinejad.

Newspaper headline: Reporter [Masih Alinejad] for Hambastegi newspaper is expelled from the parliament.

01:24 — These arrests are punishments for Masih’s activities and illustrate the Islamic Republic’s determination to crush women’s rights activism

[Picture of a woman holding a sign: “No to forced hijab.”]

01:33 — Judiciary official: Any kind of cooperation with Masih Alinejad can lead to a 10-year prison sentence.

01:44 — It is still not clear what scenario security agencies have to justify their treatment of Navid Mihandoost and his friend Alireza Alinejad.

01:53 — Some time ago three women’s rights activists in Iran were sentenced to a total of 55 years in prison for sending Masih Alinejad a video of them removing their hijabs.

 

Related Coverage:

Iran: Family of women’s rights activist arrested in despicable attempt to intimidate her into silence, 27 September 2019

Campaigner and Journalist Masih Alinejad's Meeting with Mike Pompeo, 6 February 2019

Rouhani and Zarif: How Can you Say There is No Problem with Hijab?, 15 September 2017

The Censorship of Forced Hijab, 22 June 2017

My Stealthy Freedom, First Part of the Series, 19 September 2015

How Iranian Culture Internalizes Self-Censorship, 21 August 2017

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Masih Alinejad, 16 September 2015

Iranian Woman Wins Rights Award for Hijab Campaign, 20 February 2015

Hardliners Make Rape Allegation to Smear Journalist, 2 June 2014