The latest news from Ghezel Hesar Prison indicates that around noon on Saturday, July 19, prison authorities informed political prisoners that Saeed Masouri, the longest-held political prisoner in Iran, is to be exiled to Zahedan Prison.
According to Ghobadi, the deputy director of Ghezel Hesar Prison, this decision was made by the Sentences Enforcement Office of the so-called Moqaddas Prosecutor’s Office.
The purpose of transferring Saeed Masouri—who has been imprisoned for 25 years without any furlough—to Zahedan Prison is to impose maximum pressure and harass him.
In recent days, various United Nations bodies, as well as international lawyers and human rights experts who were made aware of Saeed Masouri’s situation and the threats against him, have been continuously following up on his case.
Iran’s regime continues its pressure on longtime prisoners affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and other political prisoners. The regime aims to crush the “No to Executions Wednesdays” campaign, which is being sustained through strikes in 48 prisons.
Reactions from Political Prisoners in Greater Tehran and Qarchak Varamin Prisons
A group of political prisoners in Greater Tehran Prison supporting the PMOI issued a statement condemning the threat of forcibly exiling political prisoner Saeed Masouri.
The statement reads: “The regime’s attempt to abduct political prisoner Saeed Masouri on Wednesday and exile him to an unknown location was thwarted by the resistance of other inmates. This action reminds us prisoners of the vile abductions of Mehdi Hassani, Behrouz Ehsani, Mir Youssef Younesi, and later Ali Younesi.”
“Now it is the turn of one of the longest-held political prisoners, and by abducting him, they are paving the way for the ‘commission of a crime’!”
PMOI Supporters Given Double Death Sentences by Iran’s Regime
The statement from PMOI-supporting political prisoners in Fashafouyeh Prison continues: “Just as after each abduction, we filled Evin Prison with chants of ‘Dictatorship, crime, death to this rule’ with our bare hands and clenched fists, we now see ourselves alongside our captive comrades in Ghezel Hesar. We also preemptively condemn any transfer of Saeed Masouri to any unknown location and consider these actions to be the desperate and repressive regime’s revenge against the people of Iran, especially its political prisoners.”
They concluded: “While condemning the possible exile of Saeed Masouri to an unknown location and calling on human rights organizations, we remind the regime: the vast resistance, rooted in the blood of martyrs and the suffering and struggle of prisoners across the homeland and its prisons, cannot be ‘exiled’!”
