Mohammad Davari spent six years at Evin Prison for his work in politics and as a journalist. During this time, he was frequently tortured and pressured to confess, which he refused to do.
Name: Mohammad Davari
Born: 1972, Bojnord, Iran
Career: Journalist and political activist; editor-in-chief of Saham News website; member of the reformist National Trust Party.
Charges: Activities and conspiracy against national security and propaganda against the regime.
Charges: Activities and conspiracy against national security and propaganda against the regime.
Mohammad Davari is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, having volunteered to serve while he was a student; he was wounded in the eye and leg during his military career.
Davari worked on the campaign of Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist candidate, in the run-up to the disputed 2009 presidential campaign. In the protests that followed the elections, numerous protesters were taken to Kahrizak Detention Center, where they were beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted. Karroubi demanded the incident be investigated and wrote to former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, announcing that he possessed documents and video footage validating the accusations.
Kahrizak was closed down in July 2009 following the death of a conservative politician’s son and parliament’s decision to carry out an investigation. On September 8, 2009 security agents raided the National Trust Party offices, which had supported Karroubi. Davari was arrested and the authorities confiscated his interviews with protesters who had either witnessed the violence that followed the election or had been tortured in various detention centers.
He was taken to Evin Prison, where he was told he must confess his crimes and testify against Mehdi Karroubi on television. When he refused to do this, his sentence was extended. Though it was reported that a bail had been set for him, he was not allowed to contact his family, so he was unable to even attempt to pay the required amount.
International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders condemned the arrest. He was consequently awarded the 2010 International Press Freedom Award.
During his interrogation he was repeatedly threatened with capital punishment. “The most challenging part of it was when they told me to explain the contents of the videos and the CDs [that contained interviews with detainees who’d been tortured and raped] and I refused,” he wrote in a note that was smuggled out of Evin. “This is when their illegal and immoral behavior started. Threats of the death penalty, threats of flogging, beating and kicking, detaining me in the interrogation room for extended periods of time — these were among the methods they used to force me to comply. This went on for ages and every day I grew more worried they’d resort to more dangerous methods.”
“The second phase involved them pressuring me to confess,” he recalled. “They insulted Karroubi and Mousavi and other Green Movement activists and emphasized how the movement had failed and its illegal nature to try and convince me to confess. They interrogated me every day and fully expected solitary confinement would eventually make me surrender. But I repeated the same answers over and over again, which made them insult and beat me until I was eventually sent back to solitary confinement. In the end they gave up and sent me to a four-inmate cell in Cell Block 209. I spent a total of two months in solitary confinement.”
Davari’s trial took place in May 2010 at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary court presided over by Judge Pir Abbasi, who sentenced him to five years in prison. Davari later reported that before the indictment was even read the judge had insulted him.
Despite the verdict, he was kept in cell blocks 209 and 240 for 11 months before being moved to a common ward. During his incarceration he went on hunger strikes several times.
In August 2011, Davari was told his sentence had been extended by another year because in 2007, he’d participated in a teacher protest rally. He was given the option to pay a cash fine instead of extending his detention time but he refused.
On November 20, 2011, having spent 730 days in jail, he sent a letter from prison saying, “I’ll never ask for a pardon. It’s the law-breaking officials that put innocent people in jail who should be asking for forgiveness from the prisoners. It’s the oppressor who needs amnesty, not the oppressed.”
After serving his full sentence, Mohammad Davari was released from Evin on September 8, 2014 in the middle of the night.
This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.
For more information, visit Journalism is Not a Crime, documenting cases of jailed journalists in Iran.
This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.
Please contact [email protected] with comments, updates or further information about cases.
Read other cases in the series:
visit the accountability section
In this section of Iran Wire, you can contact the officials and launch your campaign for various problems
Interested in writing for IranWire?
Share your stories.
comments