Evin Prison Officials Refuse to Release Raheleh Rahimipour

Reports indicate the deteriorating health of Raheleh Rahimipour, one of the mothers seeking justice from the 1980s and the oldest female prisoner in Evin Prison. According to reports received by Voice of America, Ms. Rahimipour, at 72 years old, "suffers from many physical problems in addition to her old age; from a brain tumor to fluctuating blood pressure and minor thalassemia." In this regard, the doctor at Evin Prison has deemed stress to be completely "harmful" for this political prisoner and stated that she should not be kept in prison, but Evin prison officials and the Islamic Republic's prison organization have so far prevented her release. Raheleh Rahimipour, who has been in Evin Prison since November 2023, has faced security and judicial confrontations in recent years. The HRANA news agency previously reported that "this civil activist was arrested on November 21, 2019, along with Zhila Kermzadeh Makvandi by security forces in Tehran and transferred to the IRGC intelligence detention center, known as Ward 2-A of Evin Prison. Shortly after, Ms. Rahimipour was temporarily released from prison." According to HRANA, the two were charged by Branch 2 of the Evin Prosecutor's Office under the titles of "assembly and collusion and propaganda against the regime" and Ms. Rahimipour's trial session was held on June 17, 2020, in Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran. She was sentenced to six years in prison and was arrested again in late November of last year after appearing at the Evin Prosecutor's Office and transferred to Evin Prison to serve her sentence. According to reports received by Voice of America, one of the reasons for the prevention of Raheleh Rahimipour's release or even serious treatment by Evin prison officials and the Islamic Republic's prison organization is her support for the protests of other female political prisoners. This includes her opposition to the issuance of death sentences for Pakhshan Aziz and Varisheh Moradi, two imprisoned civil activists, as well as the recent wave of death sentences and systematic deprivation of the right to life from dissenters and all humans. Raheleh Rahimipour's brother, Hossein Rahimipour, a political prisoner, was executed in 1984, and Golroo, her niece who was born in prison, disappeared and was never found. The continuation of the deprivation of several female prisoners in Evin from visiting their families, Ahmadreza Jalali, sentenced to death: 9 years have passed; my situation is terrible, intensification of Fatemeh Sepehri's pains due to "psychological pressures and stress" of the prison environment, protest by six prisoners in Vakilabad against the inhumane treatment of prisoners, Khaled Pirzadeh's suicide attempt in Evin in protest against the violation of the right to treatment.