Mistreatment of Prisoners in Iran: Five Accounts

Ali-Asghar Jahangir, head of the Islamic Republic's Prisons Organization, stated on the sidelines of the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva: "Today, Iran's prisons are at a very high level regarding the observance of prisoners' rights, and they are not only unparalleled in the Middle East but also rare globally." (IRNA, March 12, 2016) The Islamic Republic's propaganda apparatus presents Iranian prisons as five-star hotels and even claims that some prisoners prefer staying in public and house prisons over freedom. (The house arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi was at their own request, Mehdi Taeb, ISNA, December 30, 2011) To demonstrate the unreality of these statements and the humiliation and torture occurring in Iranian prisons, it suffices to pay attention to the accounts of prisoners regarding their experiences. In this article, I present five narratives from five prisoners in five different prisons and wards, accounts that relate to recent months. The prisoners' narratives have been shortened due to the brevity of this article. These reports are mostly published anonymously in the media because reporting incurs costs for the reporter. However, those who had names are mentioned in this article to reflect the experiences and mistreatment of public figures such as lawyers and political party members. The narrators of these five reports come from very different backgrounds and groups, from political prisoners to non-political prisoners, from male to female prisoners, and from prisoners in Tehran to those in other parts of the country. Tehran Grand Prison, Old Qom Road: "In the scorching heat, we waited for two hours outside the prison in the desert for the doors to open. Even when we were allowed to enter, it took seven hours to complete administrative procedures to go to quarantine... Every soldier who approached us hurled insults at the prisoners, including myself... They told us to take off our clothes, and to my disbelief, my socks were thrown into the trash. When it was time for my shoes, they also ended up in the trash, even though they were worth 500,000 tomans... My one million toman jacket was cut into pieces with scissors... As soon as the names of the [released prisoners] were announced, the Pasargad bank card [for holding prisoners' money, which cannot be used for three days] burns... [After release] a prisoner is left without money, wearing only a pair of slippers in the dark desert [5 kilometers away from the road]." (Ghanoun, June 11, 2016) The duration of this prisoner's detention was 24 hours. The editor-in-chief of Ghanoun newspaper was prosecuted for publishing this report. A few days later, this newspaper was seized by the prosecutor's office. Rajai Shahr Prison, Karaj: "Someone who has severe bleeding is thrown into a corner and told, 'Well, he died.' Especially now that it's Nowruz and there is no official present, and all the halls are closed... The guards know that the prisoners are armed with cold weapons, and that is why when a fight breaks out, they wait behind the hall door until the fight is over and do not intervene. Even if 50 people stab someone in front of them, they do not intervene. When everything is over, then they come and look for knives and swords and take the dead and injured with them... The doors are completely closed. We have no outdoor time and no communication with other halls. The guards are on leave, and there are very few of them... Medical care is limited to stitching wounds, but here it is normal for someone who is stabbed to be thrown into a corner and left. This wasting of time causes deaths, and in this case, there is no difference between one prisoner and another. On the other hand, one day they have an ambulance, but it has no fuel. One day the ambulance is broken. One day its driver has gone somewhere to turn around." (Radio Zamaneh, April 3, 2016) Evin Prison, Tehran: "In these conditions, my blood pressure in solitary confinement reached 18 over 9 and went out of control. When I was taken to Ward 350, I had a stroke, but they did not say it was a stroke and did not provide any treatment. They did not even take me to the infirmary. Gradually, my limbs became numb, and I developed hearing and vision problems. When I stood up, I would fall. The forensic medical commission later said in March 2016 that I had suffered a stroke in prison... They search the rooms to find mobile phones, even though mobile phones are not prohibited. They do this to prevent anyone from interviewing outside the prison. They have issues with interviews; that is, they arrest someone before they commit a crime." (Mohammad Seifzadeh, Deutsche Welle, April 13, 2016) Evin Prison, Women's Ward: "On the first night of detention... the interrogators at Evin... the humiliating behaviors of their colleagues inside and the foul language they used against me, and they watched me being humiliated with pleasure. Due to the interrogators' behavior and beatings, my blood pressure dropped below five from 4 PM to 10 PM, and I became semi-conscious. The interrogators called female guards to lift me; I could not stand on my feet, and they grabbed me under my arms and dragged me like a piece of cloth up the stairs from the basement of 209 and handed me over to the infirmary. I remember my rejection by the infirmary of 209 and my transfer to the main infirmary of Evin, where they threw twenty military blankets over me to alleviate the shaking of my body and the cold that had struck me due to the severe drop in blood pressure and heart rate in the middle of summer. I recall the sound of the doctor in the infirmary ringing in my ears in a semi-conscious state, screaming at the head of 209 on the phone: 'Mr. Head! They have brought me a corpse, and I will not accept responsibility.' I remember the issuance of my detention order on June 20, two days before the elections by Saeed Mortazavi, from 21 days of 18-hour interrogations by the Ministry of Intelligence's anti-espionage team, where seven people would pour questions on me in a two-by-one cell and left me with no life or energy... I remember the restrictions on going to the restroom more than three times a day and my refusal to go to the meeting hall in protest. The pain in my body still lingers, and I have not yet been treated when I remember that I had back pain and neck pain every day and was sick while I was moving to the infirmary of Evin, and we were happy with the one percent chance of seeing our friends there." (Hengameh Shahidi, Saham News, June 14, 2016) Diesel Abad Prison, Kermanshah: "They treat us like animals here. We are beaten by the authorities and prison officers for any excuse. If we return from leave and are suspected of carrying drugs, they grease our anuses and we must sit on a hole with handcuffs for 48 hours. If there are no drugs, there is not even a dry apology. But God forbid they take drugs from a prisoner; they are sent to Ward 9, where beatings and torture await them.... There are many prisoners here who have been without a sentence for two or three years and are in limbo. Some prison staff demand bribes and even illegal requests from the families of prisoners. For example, if a prisoner's family wants to send clothes for their prisoner, they must either have bribe money or be prepared to hear the illegal demands of these individuals." (Human Rights in Iran, April 29, 2016)