Amnesty International Calls for Immediate Release of Narges Mohammadi

On Monday, Amnesty International issued a statement announcing the date of Narges Mohammadi's trial in early May and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the Vice President of the Iranian Association for Human Rights Defenders. The statement, published on Monday, April 16, also announced that Ms. Mohammadi's trial is scheduled for May 1 of this year. According to the organization, the date of the trial has been communicated to Ms. Mohammadi. The human rights activist is charged with 'conspiracy and collusion against national security and propaganda against the regime.' Ms. Mohammadi suffers from pulmonary embolism and muscular paralysis and was released from prison in 2012 due to the deterioration of her health from these illnesses. She has been deprived of contact with her children, who live in France, for over eight months and was arrested without a summons by security forces at her home on May 15, 2015, and transferred to Evin Prison. Amnesty International, while demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Ms. Mohammadi, added that she has only been active in the field of fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression, assembly, and peaceful association. The statement also calls for Ms. Mohammadi to have access to specialized medical care outside of prison and urges Iranian authorities to ensure that she is protected from any form of psychological torture and mistreatment in prison. Permanent communication with her lawyer and telephone contact with her family and children are other demands of this London-based human rights organization from Iranian authorities. In a letter in February 2016, Narges Mohammadi stated that the political-ideological women's prisoners' ward in Evin Prison, despite having 27 prisoners, is the 'only ward' where prisoners have 'no' means of telephone contact with their families. In this letter, she wrote that her protest against being deprived of telephone contact with her children is 'not merely a political protest' against 'laws and judicial procedures,' but rather an 'ethical protest' against 'the decay and death of moral values, chivalry, and fairness in society, especially by the rulers against their own people.' Taghi Rahmani, Narges Mohammadi's husband and a national-religious activist who has himself been imprisoned in Iran for years, resides in France, and their young daughter and son have been living with him since their mother's imprisonment. Mr. Rahmani told Radio Farda that judicial officials have 'indirectly told her [Narges Mohammadi] to reduce her husband's activities so that we will allow you to talk to your children.' He added in his interview that Narges Mohammadi's deprivation of telephone contact with her children and the prison environment exacerbates her illness.