Prominent Activists Suffering in Prison As Authorities Ignore Family Pleas

The families of political prisoners have expressed serious concern about the physical health of their loved ones. Zahra Rahimi, the wife of charity founder and worker Shermin Meyminejad, Reza Khandan, the husband of lawyer and human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Saleheh Hosseini, the wife of Gonabadi dervish Behnam Mahjoubi, say their loved ones face significant risks to their health. 

The lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi has also spoken out about the dire situation of his client, Mohammad Nourizad, in prison.

 

Shermin Meymandinejad, the founder of the Imam Ali Charity Association, has been in detention since July 2020. On Tuesday, September 15, his wife Zahra Rahimi said on Twitter that her scheduled visit with her husband had been canceled. "They called from Evin Prison court and canceled the appointment scheduled for tomorrow. This was supposed to be my second meeting since Shermin was detained. He was in good health at the time of his arrest and walked into detention of his own free will."

The day before, she wrote about Meymandinejad's deteriorating health. After 19 days of not having any news about him, her husband finally called, and said he needed a walking frame. "I am on my way to the hospital to get Shermin's medical and hospital records,” she posted. “He called yesterday asking for a walker. The pain in his neck has paralyzed him. He also might have septicemia. We have to beg and follow up a thousand times for him to have a simple test to confirm his condition. He doesn’t have any hope for a cure and was asking for forgiveness, as if he was dying." 

A medical specialist told IranWire more about septicemia, or blood poisoning. “Septicemia, which is caused by an infection, is an inflammation that affects the whole body," the doctor said. “So if there is a chronic infection in the body that is not treated, that infection can enter the bloodstream and cause blood poisoning."

Shermin Meymandinejad has been in temporary detention since June 21, 2020, and yet authorities have given no reason for his arrest and the charges against him have not been clarified.

Zahra Rahimi has also been summoned to the prosecutor's office several times. 

 

Nasrin Sotoudeh on Hunger Strike

On September 14, Reza Khandan, the husband of lawyer and imprisoned human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, said on Twitter: "Nasrin has been on a hunger strike for 35 days. Yesterday we were due to meet. She has had her meetings stopped for four weeks. I talked to Rezvaneh's husband [another political prisoner], who had met her. I learned from him that Nasrin's condition was alarmingly bad. It's much worse than what she has been trying to show during online chats in recent days." 

But an hour on from posting his tweet, Sotoudeh called from prison to say she was going to the hospital for an injection to deal with her physical weakness. "She called an hour after the first call. Her blood pressure was at five and she was very weak. Serum injections did not help to reduce the frailty. I found out from one of her cellmates that she was in a worse condition than what she told us on the phone."

Nasrin Sotoudeh began a hunger strike on August 11, calling on authorities to release political prisoners. Following Iran’s coronavirus outbreak, many prisoners were pardoned or released by order of the head of the judiciary. The order, however, applied to a small number of political and prisoners of conscience, and Sotoudeh was not among them. 

Khandan said that a delegation from the Bar Association went to see Nasrin Sotoudeh on Saturday, September 12 to talk to her about ending her hunger strike. "The delegation made an appointment on Wednesday to meet Nasrin on Saturday,” he said. “ But Nasrin would not agree to end her hunger strike because she said none of her demands had been met. She presented a list of her demands to the delegation."

Reza Khandan says her demands are few. Chief among them is that the laws be implemented for all political prisoners.

"Nasrin says the law of conditional release, which is granted to prisoners who have completed a third of their sentence, and the law of exemption from a sentence due to age or disease and other similar laws should be enforced for everyone,” Khandan says. 

Sotoudeh has been in prison since June 13, 2018. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison on a range of charges, including promoting corruption, for representing the case of the Women of Enghelab Street, among other reasons.

 

The Case of Behnam Mahjoubi

Saleheh Hosseini, the wife of imprisoned Gonabadi dervish Behnam Mahjoubi, protested against her husband's imprisonment on Twitter on September 15. "In the last certificate issued by the doctors, Behnam Mahjoubi stated that he could not bear imprisonment. He remains in detention, and the prison guards continue to find an excuse not to deliver Behnam's medication."

Mahjoubi suffers from anxiety disorder and is currently taking neuroleptic medication. On August 27, Saleheh Hosseini announced that her  husband's condition had deteriorated. In an open letter, she said she held the Islamic Republic responsible for her husband's life. "Behnam is not in a good physical condition,” she wrote. “The prison doctor has given him 14 strong sedatives every day to help him sleep, pills that we know, after consultation with his doctor outside the prison, are to detrimental to his health and put his physical condition and, consequently, his mental condition, at serious risk. But the prison doctor warned him that if he did not take sedatives, he would be transferred to Aminabad Mental Hospital."

Behnam Mahjoubi was arrested and tortured several times after what was dubbed "the Seventh Golestan street incident," when a number of dervishes were physically assaulted by authorities in Tehran, and finally went to prison on June 20, 2020 to serve a two-year sentence. He has been on a hunger strike twice during this time: once demanding that he receive medication and then to support Nasrin Sotoudeh and call for the release of all political prisoners.

In an audio file sent to IranWire on Friday, September 11, 2020, Mahjoubi read out a letter from prison in support of fellow political prisoner Alireza Mousivand and protesting against his illegal transfer to Rajai Shahr Prison. Mousivand was transferred to Evin Prison Medical Center following the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, but was then transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison without any notice or further information. In the audio clip, Mahjoubi's voice is frequently interrupted by him coughing and an obvious shortness of breath. This audio file is solid evidence of the prisoner's serious physical condition and suggests he may have contracted Covid-19.

Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer representing Mohammad Nourizad, also reported on September 15 that his client was in critical condition in prison. "Mr. Nourizad does not appear to be recovering," he wrote on Twitter. "I went to Evin today to see him. They said he had been sent for treatment. I waited for him to return, but apparently he could not leave his bed. I applied for a leave from prison to continue his treatment, but it certainly will not happen as quickly as it should. I am very concerned about his health."

Mohammad Nourizad was one of 14 people who signed a   statement calling for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and for a change to the Constitution. On February 2, 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, three years in exile in Izeh, and a three-year ban from leaving the country in connection with his support for the statement.

Nourizad's lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi told IranWire that his client was suffering from a loss of balance and suffered a fall because he was unable to walk. "He was taken to hospital, but he was not treated,” he said, adding that he went to the prison on Tuesday, September 15 to see him, but that he had sent him a message saying he was not feeling well and that he could not get out of the ward to see him.

Aghasi spoke to the court supervisor for the prison and asked for his client to be given leave for treatment outside the prison. "I was told to ask the prison's medical staff. I explained that medical treatment had not been effective. They confirmed in writing that the necessary investigations will be carried out. I reminded him that if something happened to Mr. Nourizad, prison authorities would be responsible because they ignored the situation.”

 

A Poor Record on Prisoner Health

The Islamic Republic has a bad record when it comes to protecting the lives and health of prisoners. It has repeatedly ignored prisoners' medical problems, including preventing prisoners from being transferred to medical centers that are properly equipped. Prisons have poor nutrition and a lack of health facilities. All of this causes severe physical problems for prisoners.

Political prisoners Omid Kokabee and Alireza Rajaei both contracted cancer during their imprisonment. Kokabee, a PhD student in physics at the University of Texas who went to Iran to visit his family in 2010, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 2017, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer in prison and was released, but only after having surgery to remove one of his kidneys.

Alireza Rajaei is a journalist and political activist imprisoned in 2012 on charges relating to membership to national-religious groups and “propaganda against the regime.” He was diagnosed with sinus cancer while in prison. "The progress of cancer and his disease began in March 2015,” Rajaei's brother told Etemad newspaper. “Alireza initially felt pain in his upper jaw, which was partially resolved by going to the prison health center and taking painkillers, but in June 2015, a lump developed in his sinuses.”

The prison health service ordered Rajaei to be sent for medical treatment, scans and X-rays outside of prison five times, but the requests were denied until November 2015, when he was released from prison.

In November 2015, after his release from prison, doctors diagnosed Alireza Rajaei with sinus cancer. He underwent four rounds of intensive chemotherapy, followed by 35 sessions of radiotherapy. However, his illness kept reoccurring. "Eventually doctors operated on him on Sunday, August 27, 2017, a major 14-hour operation, in which one of his eyes was taken out and part of his face and jaw were removed,” his brother said. 

Today the families of Shermin Meymandinejad, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Behnam Mahjoubi and Mohammad Nourizad wait, worried about the physical condition of their loved ones, worried what will happen, and hoping that the authorities will listen to them.