Five New Charges Against Atena Daemi

Masoumeh Naimati, the mother of Atena Daemi, a civil activist who has been serving a seven-year prison sentence in Evin Prison since December 6, reported to the International Human Rights Campaign in Iran that her daughter is facing five new charges due to a complaint from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Ms. Naimati noted that the "documents for the five new charges" against Atena Daemi were extracted from events on the day of her arrest on December 6 and thereafter, adding that on December 29, these charges were communicated to Atena in the fourth branch of the "Shahid Moqaddas Prosecutor's Office" in Evin Prison. According to Atena Daemi's mother, this civil activist has been accused of "insulting the leadership, insulting system officials, spreading falsehoods, obstructing the execution of a sentence, and assaulting an officer during the execution of a sentence." In a letter published on December 11, Atena Daemi stated that she was threatened by IRGC agents on her way to prison, who told her, "We will cook a dish for you that will make you forget about getting out of prison." This issue has not yet been confirmed or denied by judicial authorities or the IRGC. Ms. Naimati believes that the evidence for the five new charges communicated to her daughter is a video taken illegally and without her family's permission during her detention. Atena Daemi was sentenced in a court presided over by Judge Moghiseh in Esfand 1393 (March 2015) in Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran to seven years in prison for "gathering and colluding and engaging in propaganda against the state," three years for "insulting sacred values and leadership," and four years for "concealing evidence of a crime," which was later reduced to seven years in the appeals court. In an open letter published on December 11, she described her arrest, stating that she asked the officers to show her the arrest warrant, but they attacked her and her sister without presenting any warrant. She mentioned that a male officer attacked her using pepper spray. Masoumeh Naimati considers the evidence for the charge of spreading falsehoods to be her daughter's insistence on the illegality of her arrest without a warrant, while the IRGC claims that Atena was arrested under a legal warrant. According to Atena Daemi's mother, on December 29, Atena rejected the charges against her in Evin Prison and requested a lawyer from the case investigator, who gave her five days to introduce her lawyer to the prosecutor's office. Atena Daemi objected to the video taken without her and her sister's permission during their detention, stating to the case investigator that she would file a complaint against the IRGC for filming without permission from her home. Meanwhile, after Atena Daemi's arrest, she and her father filed a complaint against the IRGC for entering their home without permission, but as her mother stated, their complaint was not addressed, while the IRGC's complaint regarding her daughter was handled promptly. The Zeyton website reported on December 7, citing Atena Daemi's relatives, that prior to her arrest, "no written notification regarding the execution of the sentence had been given to her." According to this website, the arrest of this civil activist "was carried out violently and was not conducted by an execution officer." Amnesty International issued a statement on December 23 calling for the unconditional release of Atena Daemi, an activist against the death penalty. The statement noted that "Atena Daemi has criticized officials regarding the record of executions in Iran through posts on Facebook, painted murals criticizing executions on walls, distributed pamphlets about the death penalty, participated in peaceful protests against the execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari, visited the graves of those killed in the 2009 elections, and informed human rights groups abroad about the accusations against political prisoners."