Extra Imprisonment of a Starred Student Activist

Zia Nabavi, a 26-year-old starred student activist, went to prison and when he wrote on a piece of paper in his cell that his "chains" were "falling off," he was at the beginning of his 34th year. This student activist and spokesperson for the Council for the Defense of the Right to Education endured 8 years and 8 months of the toughest interrogations and conditions of imprisonment in exile, facing one of the heaviest sentences among student activists. His case became more complicated and strange when he was eventually acquitted of most of his charges and released, but he spent nearly 4 years more in prison than his sentence. He was tried on charges of "moharebeh (waging war against God) and connection with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization" and "gathering and colluding, propaganda against the regime, and disturbing public order." However, he, his family, friends, fellow inmates, and human rights groups emphasized in numerous letters and statements that he is innocent and has no affiliation or support for the Mojahedin-e Khalq, asserting that this accusation is "false, engineered, and fabricated." A former member of the Islamic Association of Students at the University of Noshirvani Babol, he repeatedly requested a retrial and even stated he was willing to endure his entire prison term but wanted to be cleared of this accusation, which he considers "imaginary and insulting." Ultimately, his insistence, a long struggle with the judiciary and security institutions, and refusing to sign a repentance letter with the promise of earlier release led to his acquittal from the charge of "moharebeh and connection with the Mojahedin-e Khalq" in the 36th branch of the Court of Appeals. Nevertheless, the cost of this resistance was an additional 3 years and 8 months of imprisonment. The time he faced was: "We tried to live, and time passed." Zia Nabavi was arrested on June 15, 2009, three days after the presidential elections, along with several friends and his cousin, Atefeh Nabavi. During that night of arrest and while being transferred to detention, he had his head in his hands, bent over his legs, thinking to himself, "I have entered a situation whose outcome is uncertain," and this "ambiguity and uncertainty about the future created a kind of eagerness and welcome for time within him." However, what awaited him was far more than he had imagined. The result of his 8 years and 8 months in prison included "one hundred days in Ward 209 of Evin, one month in quarantine ward, one month in Ward 7, one month in Ward 240, one year in Ward 350, transfer and exile to Karoun Prison in Ahvaz, eight months in Ward 6 of Karoun Prison, two weeks in the Ahvaz Intelligence Detention Center, transfer to the Clinic Prison in Ahvaz, four months in Ward 3 of the Clinic Prison, return to Karoun Prison in Ahvaz, four months in Ward 1 of Karoun Prison, one month in the Ahvaz Intelligence Detention Center, twenty-eight months in Ward 8 of Karoun Prison, transfer to Evin Prison, one month in Ward 8 of Evin Prison, transfer to Semnan Prison, one month in Ward 1 of Semnan Prison, and finally over three years in the political ward of Semnan Prison." The prison, the methods of interrogations, torture, judicial sentences, and events that occurred to this student who was deprived of education were unique in the Iranian judicial system. He himself, who was writing throughout his years of imprisonment, noted that "in all interrogation sessions, he was under psychological and physical pressure." In April 2012, in a letter to Mohammad Javad Larijani, the Secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters of the Judiciary, he described his torture by interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence while in Karoun Prison: "Except for the first two interrogation sessions, which had a relatively respectful atmosphere, the remaining sessions were filled with psychological and physical pressures such as insults, humiliation, threats, forced sit-stand exercises, slaps, and kicks... All interrogation sessions were without exception blindfolded. In two consecutive interrogation sessions, I was forced to sit and stand so much that for three days I was unable to walk, and for a week, my feet were drenched in sweat from the continuous pain. At times when I refused to follow the interrogator's orders, I was kicked in the back of my legs." In another part of his letter, he wrote about the insistence of his interrogators to confess to things he had not done: "In one session, I endured so much psychological and physical pressure that after returning to my cell and immediately after drinking a sip of water, blood gushed from both my nostrils. In one session, the interrogator forcibly demanded that I write on the interrogation paper that I was not a starred student, while I had been deprived of education by the Ministry of Intelligence!" Zia Nabavi described his most distressing interrogation experience as one of the sessions held "in a room other than the interrogation rooms and in the basement of Building 209, away from monitoring cameras," and when he refused to confess that he had "boycotted the elections and insulted Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi," he was "threatened with execution." He did not take this threat seriously and predicted that the maximum sentence he would face would be "suspended imprisonment." However, Judge Pir-Abbasi's decision in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court was 15 years in prison and 75 lashes. This sentence was reduced to 10 years in exile in the Court of Appeals. Zia Nabavi wrote in one of his open letters that Judge Pir-Abbasi had no evidence or proof to substantiate the charge of moharebeh, especially since he had not confessed. He wrote that the basis of the sentence was "a letter from the Ministry of Intelligence in the file" stating that "most human rights organizations and centers, including the Council for the Defense of the Right to Education, were affiliated with the Mojahedin, and their members were also considered mohareb." His lawyer, Jinous Sharif Razi, stated in an interview that this accusation was "a form of revenge due to his activities in pursuing the right to education." An activity that began in 2008 after being deprived of education at the master's level in sociology despite having academic qualifications. He was pursuing his right and that of other starred students by being a member of the "Council for the Defense of the Right to Education." During his imprisonment, Zia Nabavi never accepted his charges and wrote several letters to Sadegh Larijani, the head of the Judiciary, Judge Pir-Abbasi, and Mohammad Javad Larijani regarding his case. Besides pursuing his own case, he also followed the rights of other prisoners and the conditions of prisons. This issue increased the pressures on him. On January 23, 2014, after more than four and a half years of his imprisonment, he managed to get a few days of leave. In another case, in early August 2009, in protest against the mistreatment in prisons and the conditions of Ward 350 of Evin, he and several other inmates went on a hunger strike and were transferred to solitary confinement with 16 others from this group. However, the end of this dispute marked the beginning of his sudden exile without notice to Karoun Prison in Ahvaz. His entry into this prison was accompanied by beatings, and he spent two days in solitary confinement. He himself said that those events were the only time he felt hopeless. His writings about the dire conditions of this prison, especially his writing about Mohammad Ali Amouri, a blogger and Arab cultural activist sentenced to death, alongside his political stances regarding elections and other current issues, increased the pressures on him. Even in 2013, a new case was opened against him on the charge of "propaganda against the regime" in Ahvaz, from which he was acquitted. Increased strictness did not discourage him from pursuing his case, and finally, after his sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court, his case was sent for reconsideration to a parallel branch. He described the court session that led to his acquittal: "When the judge expressed his opinion about the case and especially my acquittal from the charges of moharebeh and connection with the Mojahedin, I couldn't help but choke up. I don't know why, whether from happiness or sadness... perhaps both. The joy that finally my insistence over all these years in not accepting this accusation had paid off and the sadness that I had paid such a cost for something that should have been my inherent right. At the end of the session, the prosecutor smiled and said, 'This person I see is still mischievous, and if he goes outside, he won't stop his mischief.' However, the judge, in a sympathetic tone, responded with empathy, saying, 'No, come on, he's a good kid. Poor thing has rotted in prison.' By the judge's ruling, he was sentenced to a total of 7 years in prison, of which, according to Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, he only had to serve 5 years. Thus, Zia Nabavi remained behind bars for 3 years and 8 months longer than his new sentence. He says that his lawyer asked him not to "make noise" about the remaining sentence that exceeded the new ruling because "media noise would put the fair judges who issue these rulings in a defensive position and lead them to be cautious in breaking similar rulings." On Wednesday, January 17, 2018, he accepted his lawyer's request while tasting a scene where "the clouds in the sky had come down to the streets of Tehran, and small snowflakes were swirling aimlessly in the air." Zia Nabavi gave up his right to protest, but his question in April 2012 remains unanswered: "Sometimes I wonder if those who so easily issue long-term prison sentences have a clear and precise understanding of the difference between day, month, and year? Do they know what prison is like and what it means to be imprisoned? Do they know what it feels like to spend 10 years of life in prison? Indeed, if the respected gentlemen ever come to the conclusion that they were mistaken in their perceptions and judgments, what will they do? Assuming we are so forgiving and generous as to forgive them for the wasted time, do they truly forgive themselves?"