Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner and supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), was transferred from Semnan prison (located 230 kilometers from Tehran) to the infamous Qarchak Varamin prison, south of Tehran, to serve an additional two years of imprisonment after enduring 15 years of incarceration without furlough.
Maryam Akbari Monfared is one of the longest-serving female political prisoners in Iran’s history.
Previously, Maryam Akbari Monfared’s lawyer had stated that Iranian authorities opened a new case against her just months before her original sentence was due to end. During her imprisonment, she was not granted a single day of furlough.
In October, Akbari Monfared’s initial 15-year prison term will end. Despite this, she was never granted furlough. In addition, she has been sentenced to another two years in prison on a separate charge, and recently, yet another case was opened against her, despite the fact that she has been in prison during the entire time.
The new case includes allegations against Akbari Monfared’s family and relatives, and Article 49 of the Iranian regime’s Constitution has been invoked to seize and confiscate their assets in favor of the “Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order Headquarters.” This case has been referred to Branch 6 of the regime’s Revolutionary Court.
According to the regime’s current laws, punishment should be limited to the individual and not extend to their relatives. However, the Iranian regime often shows no leniency in political cases, particularly those related to the PMOI, Iran’s largest opposition group.
There is a precedent of Iranian authorities routinely opening new cases against political prisoners nearing the end of their sentences, aiming to prolong their incarceration.
In September 2023, it was reported that the Semnan Criminal Court sentenced Maryam Akbari Monfared to two years of “ta’zir” imprisonment (punitive sentence) and a fine of 150 million rials (15 million tomans) on the charge of “spreading lies on social media.”
Maryam Akbari Monfared, born in 1975, is married and has three children. She was arrested on December 31, 2009, following the protests in Iran that year, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Judge Abolqasem Salavati in Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
The court charged her with “supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.” Three of Maryam Akbari Monfared’s brothers and one sister were executed during the 1988 massacre. In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime executed more than 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were members of the PMOI. Among the victims were children as young as 13, pregnant women, and elderly men and women.
