By Pooya Stone
A jailed Iranian social media activist was transferred from Evin prison to the notorious Fashafuye prison yesterday.
Mehrdad Mohammadnejad, 23, is serving three years on the charges of “insulting officials and agents” and “spreading propaganda against the regime”, based on posts to his social media.
Mohammad Nejad, a professional boxer and economics student, was working as a delivery boy for a restaurant in Tehran to make money for his tuition before his arrest in October 2018.
Intelligence agents raided his home in Shahriar, western Tehran, severely beat Mohammadnejad, confiscated his tablets, cellphones, books, and documents, and detained him.
His mother, who had left to pick his younger brother up from school, returned to find her home ransacked and her son missing. His family was not given information on his whereabouts until a few days later when Mohammad Nejad called his elder brother and said he was taken to Evin Prison by the intelligence agency.
Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced him to two years in prison for “insulting officials and agents” and one year for “spreading propaganda against the regime”. This sentence was upheld by Tehran’s appeals court in September 2019. He will have to serve a minimum of two years behind bars.
In a related case, a teachers’ rights activist is being kept in limbo over his fate because Iranian authorities extended a temporary detention order against him, according to his lawyer.
Jafar Ebrahimi, who was arrested on December 26 while attending a ceremony for the victims of the November protests, has been held in solitary confinement onward 8 of Rajaei Shahr Prison, which is controlled by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
On January 21, the state security forces raided his home and confiscated his wife’s mobile phone, even though it is not known what he is being charged with.
There were many others arrested with him during the funeral at Beheshe Sakineh Cemetery in Karaj, but the authorities have provided no accurate reports about the arrests, likely because they want to keep it a secret, as they do with all things that make them look bad.
December 26 was the 40th day after young protester Pouya Bakhtiari was shot in the head. The 40th day after death is a common commemoration time in Iran, so the Iranian people used that day to commemorate all victims of the crackdown on the November protests across Iran, as it is hard to know their exact date of death due to the government’s secrecy.
The condition of the Fashafuye by latest records:
On 21 August 2018, Nader Fatourechi, a writer, and reporter affiliated with the factions in the Iranian regime were arrested in another row of internal feuds between groups of power and connections among the establishment.
Fatourechi writes: “Drawing attention to conditions of the “ordinary prisoners” in Fashafuyeh is an urgent and immediate necessity. No one in Iran is more oppressed and vulnerable. They exist in the epitome of “inhumane conditions” and are victims of a twofold oppression. To bear this, even for one day, is beyond the power of the human spirit and will undoubtedly cause permanent trauma to their body and soul. Every day, the number of cases like these only multiply.”
