Father of political prisoner in Iran says son in solitary cell

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 21 – The father of an Iranian political prisoner who has been held without charge in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison said that his son was being kept in solitary confinement for the past three months despite government assurances that such practices were not being carried out. In an interview with the Prague-based Radio Farda the father of Saeid Massouri, a member of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, said yesterday that his son was transferred to a solitary cell in Evin prison just over three months ago, without any explanation as to why he was forced there. Iran Focus

Tehran, Jan. 21 – The father of an Iranian political prisoner who has been held without charge in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison said that his son was being kept in solitary confinement for the past three months despite government assurances that such practices were not being carried out.

In an interview with the Prague-based Radio Farda the father of Saeid Massouri, a member of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, said yesterday that his son was transferred to a solitary cell in Evin prison just over three months ago, without any explanation as to why he was forced there.

Massouri’s father said that the Iranian judiciary recently publicly announced that solitary cells did not exist in Iran; however his son was still being kept there since he was unwilling to bow to the regime’s demands.

“What crime have I committed for which you have brought me here? In four years of prison, for the first 14 months I was kept in solitary and then I was taken to a regular cell and now for the past three months I have been locked up in solitary again”, Massouri’s father quoted his son as having said to prison guards.

Massouri’s father who recently met with his son for five minutes after much protest said that his son had recently been on hunger strike in protest to his treatment inside Evin.

Massouri had told his father in their brief encounter that there were seven prisoners including himself who were on death row in imminent danger of execution. He said that three of them had recently been executed.

Last summer many relatives of political prisoners demonstrated outside the United Nations building in Tehran as well as a number of embassies calling for foreign governments to stop negotiations with the clerical state.

At the time many political prisoners throughout Iran including Massouri went on hunger strike in protest to the Iranian regime’s use of torture against its opponents.

Earlier this month one of the relatives who took part in human rights protests in front of the UN building in October was sentenced to five years and three months in prison and 60 lashes.

Bina Darabvand took part in the protests, organised by family members of political prisoners, calling on the world body to condemn “torture being carried out” on their relatives.

The judge sentenced Darabvand after concluding that it was “illegal” for the demonstration to have taken place without prior permission.