Iranian political prisoner Ali Moezi in an open letter fiercely ridiculed a recent so-called ‘citizens’ rights’ declaration by the Iranian regime’s president Hassan Rouhani. The letter, made public on Saturday, 24 December, reads:

The regime’s president Rouhani has declared on a peace paper the “citizens’ rights” within the framework of the absolute rule of clerical dictatorship. This reminds me of the late supreme leader [Khomeini] who used the name of Islam in a message in 1979 to declare: “Islam pays attention to freedom more than anything else…” but, he soon retreated and said: “We should have set up the gallows right from the beginning (of the revolution); we had to break all the pens (reference to critics) from the beginning and close down the media…”, or, after all the killings and executions, in a bid to cover them up, he issued an eight-point decree which was withdrawn soon afterwards.

Of course we all know that there exist citizens’ rights, but this has nothing to do with the clerical regime. Where people are deprived of their most basic rights, national sovereignty and the right to determine their fate, where do citizens’ rights fit in and on what basis? This is like preaching about hygiene and sanitation while there is no water.

The verdicts issued for all those political prisoners executed over the years, jailed or still serving prison terms lacked any judicial, legal and human rights bases. A number of prisoners are always on hunger strike throughout each year. As they cannot find a way to seek justice, they are left with no choice but to pay the price with their own flesh. Saeed Shirzad, a dignified brave inmate in our ward, with his lips sewed (in protest) for many days, is melting away before our eyes. He is mainly demanding the implementation of prison rules and regulations. His has been kept in a state of limbo for three years. For many days, they [prison authorities] would not even take his letter declaring his hunger strike.

Or, another determined inmate Arash Sadeqi, who is in Tehran’s Evin Prison protesting a cruel and unjust verdict, is now facing a painful death after 60 days of hunger strike. Then there’s another inmate, Morteza Moradpour, who is [on hunger strike] in Tabriz Prison, northwest Iran. Even protests by his family have been suppressed.

You (regime’s authorities) do not have any regards for law, the right to seek justice, hunger strike, the right to assemble and protest, human rights and the United Nations, and you have no fear of God. Will you tell us in what way you should be addressed? Do you really think that there are still some people listening to you as you are brazenly talking about so-called citizens’ rights that are only aimed at serving as an election propaganda ploy? You are deeply mistaken. You are not going to survive from this situation. You must think of a coffin and a burial ground for the regime in its entirety.

Ali Moezi,

Political prisoner in Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison, Karaj