A group of political prisoners from Gohardasht Prison in the Iranian city of Karaj have issued a statement on the regime’s mistreatment of fellow political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared over her call for an investigation into Iran’s 1988 massacre. The following is the full text of their statement:
Iranian regime’s cruel reaction to a call for justice by political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared
In a meeting last Wednesday, we realized that Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner, had been deprived of family visits in prison for some time. Three of her brothers and a sister had been executed in the 1980s, two of who were among the victims of the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988.
Now her appeals for justice, which have been published through her letters, are considered a crime, and the corrupt regime has resorted to psychological pressures and threats against her in fear of the impacts of such letters. Senior judicial authorities have also stopped her weekly calls and visits with her husband and children for an unknown period. By doing this, the regime is also torturing her infant children and husband psychologically in addition to her own suffering. Her relatives have also been told that, “The perpetrators of those executions have already died, so why are you dishonoring the regime by doing such things!” This is while everybody knows that members of the Death Commission are still in power shamelessly and continue with their crimes. The regime of the velayat-e faqih (supreme religious rule) and its founder and leadership bear responsibility for that crime against humanity and the historic disgrace that has been engraved on their names, and they must expect to face justice and receive punishment regardless of whether the perpetrators of the massacre of the summer of 1988 are dead or alive.
We the undersigned from Gohardasht Prison’s Hall 12 of Ward 4 join and sympathize with Maryam Akbari Monfared and render our support to the justice seeking movement of all families of victims of the massacre of the summer of 1988 and draw the attention of international and human rights organizations, in particular Ms. Asma Jahangir, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, to pressures imposed upon these families.
Political prisoners of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj – 3 November 2016
Signatories:
- Reza Akbari Monfared
- Saeed Shirzad
- Saleh Kohandel
- Hassan Sadeqi
- Saeed Massouri
- Shahin Zoqi Tabar
- Mohammad Ali Mansouri
- Khaled Hardani
- Ali Moezzi
- Behnam Mousivand
- Javad (Abolqassem) Fouladvand
- Mehdi Farahi Shandiz
- Ebrahim Firouzi