London, 12 October 2024: Maryam Akbari-Monfared, a political prisoner who has spent the last 15 years incarcerated in Iran, should have been released today, 12 October 2024. She has been relentlessly seeking justice for her siblings who were executed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. However, due to an additional two-year sentence imposed on unsubstantiated charges, she remains unjustly imprisoned.
Akbari-Monfared was arrested on 31 December 2009, following anti-government protests. Her family was kept in the dark about her fate for five months. During her initial 43 days of detention, she endured solitary confinement, intense interrogations, and was denied access to legal counsel.
In May 2010, Judge Abolghassem Salavati, known for his harsh sentencing, convicted her of “enmity against God” (Moharebeh) and sentenced her to 15 years in prison. The charge stemmed from alleged “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK),” an accusation she has consistently denied. Her conviction was based solely on phone calls to her relatives who are PMOI members and a single visit to them in Iraq.
She was never provided with a reasoned judgment outlining the evidence and legal reasoning used to convict her. During her trial, the judge reportedly told her that “she was paying for the activities of her brother and sister with the PMOI.” Her appeals were rejected without explanation. In August 2010, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld her sentence.
Akbari-Monfared displayed immense courage by filing an official complaint from inside prison on 18 October 2016. In her complaint, addressed to the Iranian judiciary, she demanded an investigation into the execution of her siblings during the 1988 massacre.
In response to her pursuit of accountability, she has faced increased pressure while incarcerated, including the denial of medical treatment and visitations and her forced exile to a remote location, far from her children. Authorities have informed Ms. Akbari-Monfared that her release is contingent on retracting her call for accountability regarding her siblings’ murder.
The Associate Prosecutor (dadyar) of Evin Prison told her family on 24 October 2016, that her health care arrangements had been cancelled because she had become too “brazen” (por-rou). Akbari-Monfared was also reportedly subjected to other forms of retaliation, including an order to stop prison visits from her family and threats of new criminal charges.
On 14 June 2017, five United Nations Mandate Holders, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, wrote to the Iranian authorities expressing concerns over “threats of additional prison terms and relocation to remote detention” of Akbari-Monfared. These actions were “allegedly to keep her from writing open letters about the fate and whereabouts of several thousands of political prisoners, including her siblings, who were extra-judicially executed in the summer of 1988.”
Earlier, on 30 November 2016, three UN Special Procedures had written to the Iranian authorities to raise concerns about denial of medical treatment to Akbari-Monfared and the “cancellation of her visitation rights, in possible retaliation against her following a complaint she lodged on 18 October 2016.”
Akbari-Monfared was abruptly transferred from Evin Prison to Semnan Prison on 9 March 2021. No legal authority has accepted responsibility for her transfer. She has faced unsuitable conditions in Semnan Prison, where authorities have increased restrictions on her and her family without legal justification.
In 2023, Akbari-Monfared wrote another open letter from inside prison, published by The Independent:
“As of December 29, 2022, thirteen years have passed since I was separated from my 4-year-old Sarah and my two 12-year-old daughters on that winter midnight.”
“Without giving me a chance to say goodbye to my loved ones, they took me to Evin prison to give some explanations, and made the ridiculous promise that ‘you will return to your children in the morning’.
“This is not a 4,000-page story, but the pure reality of a life under the domination of fascists who imposed it on us while we refused to give in. On this side of the bars, in the dark desert of torture and oppression, as far as one can see – even where one cannot see – there is just vileness and brutality.”
On 1 July 2023, Akbari-Monfared was summoned to the Evin Courthouse and arraigned on five new charges, including “propaganda against the state,” “assembly and conspiracy,” “dissemination of lies,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “inciting people to disrupt public order.” These charges stemmed from open letters and reports she smuggled out of prison and published on social media. She was sentenced to one additional year in prison.
On 27 August 2023, Branch 101 of the Semnan Criminal Court sentenced Akbari-Monfared in absentia to two additional years in prison and 150 million rials in fine for “publishing lies on social media,” based on articles 134, 137, and 746 of the Cyber Crimes Law.
Akbari-Monfared, born in 1975 and a mother of three daughters, has not had a single day of furlough (even during the COVID-19 outbreak) in the 15 years she has been imprisoned.
Akbari-Monfared’s sister and brother, Roqieh and Abdolreza Akbari-Monfared, were executed during the 1988 massacre. Two other brothers were executed in 1981 and 1984.
Akbari-Monfared is widely respected among Iranian communities for her resilience and resistance as a political prisoner, firmly adhering to her cause.
“We can feel the scent of spring in Evin, and I am sure this beautiful spring will one day grow and embrace our homeland. The spring of freedom is on its way.… Spring will come. It will pass through the barbed wires and land in our homeland,” she previously wrote from Evin.
In his landmark report on Iran’s Atrocity Crimes, published in July 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, wrote: “The treatment of Maryam Akbari-Monfared serves as a stark illustration of the lengths to which Iranian authorities are willing to go to silence those seeking justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre and to suppress any calls for accountability with impunity.”
Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI) has repeatedly reiterated its call for urgent United Nations intervention to help end Akbari-Monfared’s unlawful detention.