Loss of One of the Uprising Prisoners in Zahedan; Execution of 8 Prisoners in Two Days in Iran
NCRI
Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
NCRI logoThe intensification of pressure on political prisoners
A call to immediate action to save the lives of those sentenced to execution and a meeting of the truth-finding team with political prisoners
On Wednesday, January 17, the criminal agents of Ali Khamenei hanged four prisoners, including Karamat Nazarkhani, Iman Shabani, Bahman Fathollahzadeh, and another prisoner, in Qezelhessar Prison. On January 16, four prisoners, including Akram Karimpour in Hamedan, Habib Darvishi Zamanabadi in Kermanshah, Mohsen Mehri in Ilam, and another prisoner in Tabriz, were executed. On January 15, 35-year-old Yaghoub Alimoradi, a weightlifting athlete in Nahavand, was hanged.
In another crime on January 1, Jamsheed Gorgij, one of the uprising prisoners who had been arrested in October 2022 after the bloody Friday in Zahedan, lost his life due to a heart attack in Zahedan Prison. Despite the urgent need for medical attention, delays caused by the regime agents contributed to this tragic outcome.
In an attempt to save the regime from incurable crises, Ali Khamenei has resorted to escalating executions and warmongering. The government’s economic site, Eghtesad 24, wrote on January 15: “Listen to the sound of a greater crisis than 2022” and “If the country’s political officials do not take urgent action… they must now bear the responsibility for future unrest.” Meanwhile, the government’s site Didar mentioned on January 8 about the increase in executions and secret executions: “After the Gaza case, the number of executions has increased… they don’t even report executions anymore; previously, the provincial judiciary site mentioned that this execution was carried out yesterday. This is not happening now.”
Simultaneously with the increase in executions, the regime’s prison guards have intensified pressure and torture of political prisoners. Hossein Salehi, one of the 2022 uprising prisoners, sentenced to 10 years in prison and imprisoned in Sheiban Ahvaz Prison, has developed a severe nervous disease due to savage torture. Despite the written prescription of the doctor, prison guards have not only deprived him of medical treatment but have also intensified the severity of the torture.
Political prisoner Hamed Ghareh Oghlani, serving a 13-year sentence in exile in Torbat Jam Prison, suffering from severe epilepsy, has repeatedly been denied requests for transfer to a hospital. He has been on a hunger strike since January 12, in protest against the lack of medical leave and transfer to the hospital. Instead of treating Hamed Ghareh Oghlani, prison guards transferred him to solitary confinement on January 16.
Political prisoner Mehdi Maarabi, 32, an Arab compatriot serving a 30-year sentence in exile in Torbat Jam Prison, suffers from a heart condition. Despite a recent heart attack and 24 hours of waiting, they sent him to a medical center outside the prison. But despite the doctor’s emphasis on the deterioration of this prisoner’s condition, he was returned to the prison without completing the treatment process. He was arrested in 2015, and three of his file colleagues were executed in 2016. His exile to Torbat Jam has made it difficult for his family in Khuzestan to visit him. His requests for transfer to one of the Ahvaz prisons have been ignored.
The Iranian Resistance once again calls on the international community and human rights defenders to take urgent action to save the lives of prisoners under imminent execution and demands an international truth-finding mission to visit Iranian prisons, especially meeting with political prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
January 17, 2024