Taqi Rahmani's Concern Over Narges Mohammadi's Illness in Prison

Narges Mohammadi, the Vice President and spokesperson of the Human Rights Defenders Center, was arrested by security forces at her home on Tuesday morning. In a phone call, she informed her children that she is currently in the women's ward of Evin Prison. Judicial authorities have told Ms. Mohammadi's family that her arrest is related to the continuation of her previous prison sentence. In an interview with Radio Farda, Taqi Rahmani, Narges Mohammadi's husband, discussed the details of this news: Taqi Rahmani: She has been transferred to the women's ward of Evin Prison and has told her family that she has been arrested to continue her previous sentence, which is questionable because she had been released on leave from prison. If she had been on leave, it naturally counts towards her sentence. They should have requested her return to prison instead of treating her this way, especially on the day her new court case was supposed to be heard. This is the last news we have from her. She told the children during a conversation yesterday to come visit her in prison next Sunday. Did the family visit the court? No, these are the branches of the judiciary and execution of sentences that are in Evin Prison. They go there. Based on what they told the family, how much of Ms. Narges Mohammadi's previous sentence remains? That's the issue. If she was on leave... Narges was sentenced to six years in prison, and her sentence was executed from May 2012, and now it is May 2015. But the important thing is that due to her illness, doctors recommended that prison is a very stressful environment for her, and if she stays there, her illness will return. This is a neurological condition, not a mental or psychological one. In a stressful environment, this condition will naturally return. Muscle paralysis accompanied by seizures is very dangerous for her. The return of this institutional human rights activist is essentially a punishment for her human rights activities rather than the execution of a judicial sentence. Mr. Rahmani, now with this new arrest of Ms. Mohammadi, how will the proceedings of her new case proceed? Because lawyers had requested time to study the case. But now she has been arrested. Where does this case go? It is unclear, but the similarity of the charges leaves no room for a new court. The set of charges against Narges, both in the new case and the old one, are repetitive charges that are essentially a punishment for human rights activists rather than the execution of law and justice. The charges are indeed very similar. If you were convicted of something, they repeat it in a different way. The important thing is that the will of the security institution, especially the Ministry of Intelligence regarding the cases of literary activists like Narges and the Human Rights Defenders Center, and some religious nationalist figures, needs to change. If Mr. Alavi, as a minister, stands by what he said two years ago, these fabrications of cases should stop. What crime do civil activities have? I have one sentence about Narges's arrest: it is a project to disable and incapacitate a civil activist at the forefront of civil society and human rights in Iran.