Iran: Frame-Up against Maryam Akbari: Two Additional Years of Detention Added to Prolong Her Incarceration
Maryam-Akbari-Monfared-ill-treated
Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Call on the High Commissioner, the Human Rights Council, and human rights authorities to take immediate action for the release of Maryam Akbari
The inhumane regime led by the mullahs is systematically obstructing the release of Maryam Akbari Monfared, who is approaching the end of her original 15-year sentence.
Maryam Akbari, a political prisoner detained since 2009, has seen her 15-year sentence extended by an additional two years, along with a fine of 150 million rials, as part of a new, in-absentia ruling issued by Branch 101 of Semnan Criminal Court. Shockingly, during her entire 14-year incarceration, she has not been granted a single day of furlough for medical treatment, as previously stated in the NCRI statement on August 27, 2022.
Maryam Akbari’s siblings have already fallen victim to the brutality of the Khamenei regime. Her brother, Alireza Akbari, was tortured to death in August 1981, while her other brother, Gholamreza Akbari, was executed in 1985. Moreover, her sister, Roqieh, and brother, Abdolreza, met their tragic fate during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.
Maryam Akbari herself was arrested during the 2009 uprising in Tehran and was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison in a so-called regime court headed by criminal judge Abolqasem Salavati for ‘Moharebeh through membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)’. Currently, in her fourteenth year of imprisonment, she faces additional charges of justice-seeking, disclosure, and filing a complaint in 2016, particularly regarding the execution of Roqieh and Abdolreza Akbari. Furthermore, in 2020, she was forcibly exiled to Semnan Prison.
The Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) has initiated two new cases against Maryam Akbari in an attempt to prevent her release. One accuses her of “propaganda against the regime,” while the other alleges “insulting the Supreme Leader (Khamenei), incitement to riot, spreading falsehoods, and disturbing public opinion, inciting people against national security.”
On August 24, 2022, during a visitation day, the deputy warden of Semnan Prison, in an unusual move, attempted to prevent Maryam Akbari from meeting her daughter under the pretext of not wearing a veil and beat her back to prison. When her family protested vigorously, they were ultimately allowed to meet. Subsequently, the regime’s criminal agents opened a new case against her, accusing her of causing unrest and disrupting prison order.
The Iranian Resistance once again calls upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, and other human rights defenders to strongly condemn the inhumane treatment of political prisoners by the mullahs’ regime and to urgently intervene for the release of Maryam Akbari.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
August 28, 2023
https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/statement-human-rights/iran-frame-up-against-maryam-akbari-two-additional-years-of-detention-added-to-prolong-her-incarceration/