Ehsan Mazandarani's Letter to Shamkhani: Investigators Decide on Political Prisoners

Ehsan Mazandarani, a jailed journalist, has written an open letter to Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, requesting the cancellation of the 'inquiry from investigators' regulation for granting leave, parole, or amnesty to political prisoners. According to Ensaf News, Mazandarani, the former editor-in-chief of the Farhikhtegan newspaper, stated in his letter that during his imprisonment, he learned in a meeting with one of the deputies of the Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office that the Supreme National Security Council had a regulation in 2008 or 2009 stipulating that decisions regarding political prisoners are conditional on inquiries from the investigators of the prisoners' charges and their positive opinions. According to Mazandarani, decisions regarding leave, parole, and amnesty for political prisoners fall under this regulation, which requires the investigators' opinions first. He noted that based on the explanations provided by the deputy prosecutor in that meeting, 'in the case of a negative response or no response from the investigator, none of the leave, parole, or amnesty options apply to the prison.' This imprisoned journalist also emphasized that there is no trace of this regulation in Iran's 'Islamic Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code,' but he stated that 'it is stronger than all its clauses.' The former editor-in-chief of Farhikhtegan described this regulation as 'abusable' and questioned, 'Why does the eleventh government or Dr. Rouhani not take any measures?' Mr. Mazandarani, who was the editor-in-chief of Farhikhtegan and a media advisor to the Board of Trustees of Azad University before his arrest in the fall of 2015, has requested Ali Shamkhani to revoke this council regulation. The years 2008 or 2009, which Mazandarani referred to as the years of the regulation's approval in the Supreme National Security Council, were years when Saeed Jalili, a candidate from the Steadfast Front in the eleventh presidential elections, was the secretary of this council. Ehsan Mazandarani was arrested in November 2015 along with several other journalists such as Eisa Saharkhiz and Afrin Chitsaz. After the arrest of these journalists, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps identified them as 'members of the enemy's infiltration network' without naming them, but they and their lawyers deny this. In the first trial, Mazandarani was sentenced to seven years in prison for charges of acting against national security through assembly and collusion and insulting officials; this sentence was reduced to two years in the appeals court. Mazandarani further described the situation during the years this regulation was approved as a 'special situation' and emphasized the necessity of the independence of powers. The term 'special situation' refers to the popular protests following the controversial presidential election of 2009, during which several protesters were killed in the streets. Additionally, many journalists, reformist political activists, and civil and social activists were arrested, tried, and imprisoned, and opposition leaders including Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi were placed under house arrest without trial, which continues to this day.