10-Day Maternity Leave for Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi; Informed Source to VOA: Judiciary's Goal is to Avoid Hospital Costs

A source close to Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi informed VOA that judicial officials have sent this political prisoner on a short-term leave for childbirth "to lift the burden of hospital costs off the shoulders of the prison organization and the judiciary." The source told VOA's Persian section that with the arrival of the time for Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi's delivery, this political prisoner held in the women's ward of Evin prison was released on a "10-day leave" from prison on Wednesday, September 18. According to this report, judicial officials told Ms. Ahmadkhanbeigi that "she must return to prison by October 1." This is while her husband, Behfar Lalehzari, is also in prison, and with Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi's return to prison, their newborn will be left without guardianship. The source close to this political prisoner also expressed concern to VOA about the situation of Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi's newborn, who will have to return to prison immediately after birth. Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi, a constitutionalist political prisoner, in her seventh month of pregnancy, stated in a message that reached VOA, "In about two months, my daughter will be born," and added, "I am certain that one day all these costs and efforts we have made for collective freedom and our homeland, and to be free from the domination of oppression, corruption, and tyranny, will bear fruit" and that "freedom, security, and welfare" for children will be provided in a "free Iran." Rezvaneh Ahmadkhanbeigi and her husband Behfar Lalehzari were last arrested on September 18, 2023, by the "Anti-Security Police" in Tehran and have been in prison since then. Spending her pregnancy in prison has been particularly difficult for Ms. Ahmadkhanbeigi, who suffers from multiple illnesses, and specialists have determined that continued imprisonment is "very dangerous" for her and her fetus.