“Stop the Injustice”: Iranian-American’s Plea From Prison

Siamak Namazi, who has been jailed in Iran since 2015, has appealed to President Rouhani's vice president for science and technology, asking him to put an end to the injustice Namazi and his family continue to endure.

Siamak Namazi has been accused of collaborating with the "hostile" United States government and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. His father, Baquer Namazi, was jailed in February 2016 after traveling to Iran to visit his son. He remains under house arrest in Iran. 

 

SIAMAK NAMAZI’S OPEN LETTER TO VICE PRESIDENT SORENA SATTARI

November 22, 2020

 

Let us wash the shirt of regret with tears of blood

For the heavens guide me not to the cry of justice!

The heart in hope of a voice reaching you

Sobbed such stony cries as Farhad did not know.

 

(part of Hafez’s Ghazal number 138)

 

 

Dr. Sorena Sattari, Vice President in Charge of Science and Technology

Greetings,

My name is Siamak Namazi and though we have never met in person, you know me and are aware of the miscarriage of justice to which my family and I have been subjected. I am the person who has suffered unimaginable hardships because of the plans of your organization. The person who, for over half a decade, has asked that you simply tell the truth. Your response? Silence, silence, and more silence. You have washed your hands of responsibility towards me.

If you refer to your conscience, you will confirm that I helped to implement your organization’s plan to invite members of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders (YGL) to Iran. Acting in good faith, and upon repeated requests from your program’s coordinator, I used my contacts as a YGL alum to extend these invitations, without asking for any compensation or recognition. Although your plan did not materialize due to opposition from the “parallel” security apparatus, I paid a heavy price for having supported it. After I visited my parents in Iran in 2015, I was barred from leaving the country, subjected to interrogations and solitary confinement, and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. On top of that, my father was arrested, an event that exposed my family to unthinkable pain.

The security apparatus that opposed your plans of the YGL visit completely mischaracterized your programs as well as the I-Bridge conference that took place in Germany in 2015. They claimed that both events threatened to establish the network for a social movement aimed at toppling the regime in coordination with the US government. They also claimed that I was the mastermind behind the scenes of these programs and that my ultimate goal was to “approach” and “influence” your organization.

The security apparatus treated me harshly, with zero regard for my legal rights or reputation. In the investigative phase, which included more than one year of interrogations, they fabricated and added tens of new, immoral accusations to my file. At the same time, hardline media and the state broadcaster were spreading lies about me with impunity, dragging my name through the mud. Eventually, at a hearing behind closed doors, the Revolutionary Court sentenced me to 10 years in prison based on these false accusations. These actors’ complete disregard for the law continued as they kept me in security detention, not only after the initial trial, but also after my Appeals Court. They also continued their interrogations well beyond my trial sentencing. In fact, it took 27 months before I was granted my legal right of being moved to a public ward inside the prison. 

Mr. Sattari, can you imagine what more than two years’ detention under quarantined conditions in a security facility does to body and soul?

It is now more than five years that I have been in prison without furlough. Apart from a few instances where the medical examiner was involved, I have not been allowed to leave for medical care or treatment, nor even to visit a doctor with guards.

My view of the world has changed dramatically thinking of my exhausted mother, my ailing father, and my own miserable condition. The irony of our story is bitter: a vice presidency in charge of science and technology invites a number of influential young global elites to familiarize them with Iran. The planned trip is cancelled, and, in the end, I am the one whose eyes are opened every day to the realities of this land. It is true that prison is the best university!

I expected far more courage from Dr. Sorena Sattari, whose first name reflects a historical legend of Persia and who is named after the son of a hero who loved Iran above everything else. I expected that out of humanity, and based on your conscience, you would feel responsibility to stop the injustice to which I was and am still being subjected.

If not out of human decency, you should have intervened in order to sustain your credibility as a person tasked with inviting elite members of the Iranian diaspora to cooperate with Iran. At the very least, you could have issued a statement dismissing the intelligence officers’ assessment of your planned programs and my personal role in them as incorrect and inaccurate.

Mr. Sattari, are you still in denial of your responsibility in this matter?  You must state the truth, not only to undo the injustice that has befallen me and my family, but also to have a clear conscience and maintain the dignity of your position. 

Is it not true that honesty is a savior to us all?

 

O you who show no mercy in killing us 

You burn your profits and capital without hesitation

It is unfair of you not to address our suffering

Which could be taken away with a glance

 

(part of Hafez’s Ghazal number 480)

 

Wishing you well,

Siamak Namazi

Evin Prison 

November 2020