Batebi's Doctor Sentenced to Prison

Ahmad Batebi; photo: Iranian.com

Iranian Doctor Who Helped Activist Sentenced To Prison

An Iranian physician who treated a well-known student activist in Tehran has said he has been sentenced to one year in prison. Hessam Firuzi told Radio Farda that he has been convicted on security charges and also for giving interviews to foreign radios and websites. He has 20 days to appeal the sentence.

Firuzi said he has been detained three times in recent months and jailed. In his interviews, he had warned about the health of jailed student activist Ahmad Batebi and called for his release from prison. Batebi was arrested for his involvement in 1999 student demonstrations in Tehran. Batebi became a symbol of Iran's student movement after his photo was used by a number of international news publications to illustrate student unrest in Iran.

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Former Tehran's Prisoners Paint Harrowing portrait of life in Evin Prison

Interviews
Iran's Evin Prison Likened to Torture Chamber

Listen to the NPR's Morning edition

"I was an actor in their play"--Ali Afshari

"The cells are 6 feet long and less than 6 feet wide"--Ali Afshari

Former student leader Ali Afshari ( who was placed on TV) and human rights lawyer Mehrangiz Kar both spent time at the facility where two Iranian-American scholars are now detained. They describe their time in captivity.

So many students and intellectual have been jailed in Evin prison that the prison is nicknamed "Evin University". "The political prisoners are not allowed to have lawyers", said Mehrangiz Kar.

What horrifies us are the techniques of physical and psychological torture that are used to extract confessions from innocent people and inflicting pain, using psychotropic drug, artificially addicting them to narcotics, coffin method (speciality of Islamist interrogators), and sleep deprivation to break them down are the tools Iranian interrogators used to get confessions from people reluctant to confess. "They put a blank piece of paper in front of them to write the answer they want you to write and ask you to develop the story for them", said Ali Afshar.The Unreliability of Coerced Confessions is a Lesson to be Learned from these stories and the danger of relying on coerced confessions to obtain convictions of innocent people.

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VIEW: Evil Guantanamo, but what about Evin

Rafia Zakaria:

The world is by now painfully familiar with images from Guantanamo. In a widely circulated image men clad in orange jumpsuits huddle in metal cages, shackled and bound on the floor of a barbed-wire cage. In another, an inmate is seen cowering in fear while a guard threatens him with a menacing dog.

Since its establishment in 2002, nearly 775 detainees have been held captive at Guantanamo and approximately 430 still remain there. In 2005, over 200 detainees participated in a hunger strike at the camp to protest their indefinite detention without trial. According to Amnesty International, the hunger strikers were reportedly placed in isolation cells, strapped into restraint chairs, subjected to painful force-feeding and deprived of personal belongings. Just this past Thursday, May 31, 2007 a Saudi inmate committed suicide, becoming the seventh inmate known to have killed himself in the prison.
[...]
Stories of the atrocities of Guantanamo have echoed far and wide in the Muslim world. In cities like Amman, Karachi, Cairo and Kabul one would be hard pressed to find a person who has not heard of the notorious prison in Guantanamo or is unwilling to condemn the grotesque violations of human rights that are taking place there. Despite its geographical distance, Guantanamo and the images of its persecuted prisoners seem to have etched themselves in the minds of Muslims and become the subject of much condemnation.

However, Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba is hardly the only place home to cruel atrocities carried out with impunity. *Evin prison, located north of Tehran, is the sordid site where hundreds of Iranian human rights activists, philosophers, journalists and student leaders are being imprisoned under chilling and ghastly conditions. Section 209 of the prison, reserved for political prisoners is run by the Iranian ministry of intelligence and used to house anyone accused of opposing the regime. So secret is the prison that one journalist Zahra Kazemi was found beaten to death by Iranian authorities for having attempted to take pictures of the facility in 2003.

In recent weeks, Iranian authorities have put scores of journalists, student leaders and activists in Evin. One such person is the scholar Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old academic who went to Iran from the United States to visit her aged mother. On her way to Tehran airport, she was accosted by masked gunmen who stopped the taxi in which she was travelling and took her away to be questioned by the ministry of intelligence at Evin.

In March of this year, 35 female university professors, lawyers, jurists and journalists were arrested for simply gathering in front of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran for a peaceful protest. Earlier this May, six student leaders were arrested for having written subversive articles against the government even though it is widely alleged that the articles were fabrications used by the Iranian government to crack down on student leaders.

As in the case of Guantanamo, those released from Evin tell harrowing tales of persecution and torture at the hands of Iranian authorities. Their stories are just as terrifying, if not more so than Guantanamo. One could even argue that Evin far surpasses Guantanamo in its abject immorality since the Iranian Government chooses its own citizens to persecute rather than the “combatants” imprisoned by US authorities as part of a war. Yet, despite the blatant depravities of its cruel purpose, Evin remains a seldom talked about issue in the Muslim world. While the suffering of inmates in Guantanamo get persistent and routine attention on channels such as Al-Jazeera, Geo News and others, the fate of Evin’s political prisoners, helpless at the hands of Iranian authorities, is hardly ever mentioned.

One possible explanation is the fear that in criticising the Iranian regime one could be bolstering the United States War propaganda against Iran. However many Iran commentators such as Danny Postel, an author of a book on the subject have exposed the falsity of this notion. In Postel’s words “Iranian dissidents and human rights activists are themselves opposed to a US attack on their country, so in supporting them we are in fact supporting people who stand in direct opposition to the neo-cons and to Washington’s imperial agenda”.

Despite this reality and the urgent helplessness of hapless men and women condemned to silence and persecution not a single political leader in the Muslim world has condemned the Iranian government for carrying out such horrific crimes against its own people. Cloaking its oppressive practices in the garb of religious piety, the Iranian regime seems to have convinced everyone in the Muslim world to turn a blind eye to its infractions.

Disinterested in anything that does not affirm their own self-righteousness against the West, the Muslims continue to ignore the plight of fellow Muslims whose persecutors are their own countrymen. Viewed thus, Evin represents not simply a prison but the greatest danger facing the Muslim world, the self-defeating practice of condemning only the evil without, while obstinately refusing to confront the evil within.

Rafia Zakaria is an attorney living in the United States where she teaches courses on Constitutional Law and Political Philosophy. She can be contacted at rafia.zakaria@gmail.com


Related articles on Evin Prison:

Prisoners of "love" by Azadeh Azad:
*Evin is a Kurdish female name, meaning "love"

Part (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

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Marina Nemat: Survival at a Price in an Iranian Prison

Marina Nemat was minutes from being executed

when her life was spared by the jailor who

forced her to marry him

Listen to the Interview here.

NPR.org

Survival at a Price in an Iranian Prison

Marina Nemat's name had been scrawled on her forehead, and she was about to be shot.

She had been locked up in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since early 1982, when, at age 16, she complained that math and history lessons in her school had been replaced by Koran instruction and political propaganda.

Nemat was rounded up for speaking out against the Ayatollah Khomeini's brutal regime, and she was sent to Evin to be interrogated, tortured and executed.

Just minutes from death, her life was spared. But the blessing came with a heavy price.

A prison guard named Ali had fallen in love with Nemat and used his father's connection to the Ayatollah to commute her sentence to life in prison. Threatening to harm her family and friends, he forced Nemat — a Christian — to marry him and convert to Islam.

In her new memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, Nemat tells the story of her life as a political and domestic prisoner, married to a man she feared. Though she grew to care for Ali's family, Nemat lived in a constant state of anxiety and guilt about what her family would think when they learned of her marriage to Ali and her conversion to Islam.

Twenty months after Nemat was imprisoned, Ali was gunned down on the doorstep of his parents' home. Six months later, Nemat returned home. It was only after her mother's death, when Nemat started filling notebooks with memories, that Nemat's family and friends learned of her past.



Excerpt: 'Prisoner of Tehran'

Chapter Two

I was arrested on January 15, 1982, at about nine o'clock at night. I was sixteen.

Earlier that day, I woke before dawn and couldn't go back to sleep. My bedroom felt darker and colder than usual, so I stayed under my camel-wool duvet and waited for the sun, but it seemed like darkness was there to stay. On cold days like this, I wished our apartment had better heating; two kerosene heaters weren't enough, but my parents always told me I was the only one who found the house too chilly in winter.

My parents' bedroom was next to mine, and the kitchen was across the narrow hallway that connected the two ends of our three-bedroom apartment. I listened as my father got ready for work. Although he moved lightly and quietly, the faint sounds he made helped me trace his movements to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. The kettle whistled. The fridge opened and closed. He was probably having bread with butter and jam.

Finally, a dim light crawled in through my window. My father had already left for work, and my mother was still sleeping. She didn't usually get out of bed until nine o'clock. I tossed, turned, and waited. Where was the sun? I tried to make plans for the day, but it was useless. I felt like I had tripped out of the normal flow of time. I stepped out of bed. The linoleum floor was even colder than the air and the kitchen was darker than my bedroom. It was as if I would never feel warm again. Maybe the sun was never going to rise. After having a cup of tea, all I could think of doing was to go to church. I put on the long brown wool coat my mother had made for me, covered my hair with a large beige shawl, and climbed down the twenty-four gray stone steps leading to the front door, which connected our apartment to the busy downtown street. The stores were still closed, and traffic was light. I walked to the church without looking up. There was nothing to see. Pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and hateful slogans like "Death to America," "Death to Israel," "Death to Communists and All the Enemies of Islam," and "Death to Anti-Revolutionaries" covered most walls.

It took me five minutes to get to the church. When I put my hand on the heavy wooden main door, a snowflake landed on my nose. Tehran always looked innocently beautiful under the deceiving curves of snow, and although the Islamic regime had banned most beautiful things, it couldn't stop the snow from falling. The government had ordered women to cover their hair and had issued edicts against music, makeup, paintings of unveiled women, and Western books, which had all been declared satanic and therefore illegal. I stepped inside the church, closed the door behind me, and sat in a corner, staring at the image of Jesus on the cross. The church was empty. I tried to pray, but words floated meaninglessly in my head. After about half an hour, I went to the church office to say hello to the priests and found myself standing face to face with Andre, the handsome organist. We had met a few months back, and I frequently saw him at the church. Everyone knew we liked each other, but we were both too shy to admit it, maybe because Andre was seven years older than I. Blushing, I asked him why he was there so early in the morning, and he explained that he had come to fix a broken vacuum cleaner.

"I haven't seen you in days," he said. "Where have you been? I called your house a few times, and your mother said you weren't feeling well. I was thinking about coming to your house today."

"I wasn't well. Just a cold or something."

He decided I looked too pale and should have stayed in bed for another couple of days, and I agreed. He offered to drive me, but I needed fresh air and walked home. If I wasn't so worried and depressed, I would have loved to spend time with him, but ever since my school friends, Sarah and Gita and Sarah's brother, Sirus, had been arrested and taken to Evin Prison, I had not been able to function. Sarah and I had been best friends since the first grade, and Gita had been a good friend of mine for more than three years. Gita had been arrested in mid-November and Sarah and Sirus on January 2. I could see Gita with her silky long brown hair and Mona Lisa smile, sitting on a bench by the basketball court. I wondered what had happened to Ramin, the boy she liked. She never heard from him after the summer of 1978, the last summer before the revolution, before the new order of the world. Now, she had been in Evin for more than two months, and her parents had not been allowed to see her. I called them once a week, and her mother always cried on the phone. Gita's mother stood at the door of their house for hours every day and stared at passersby, expecting Gita to come home. Sarah's parents had gone to the prison many times and had asked to see their children but had been denied.

Evin had been a political prison since the time of the shah. The name brought fear to every heart: it equaled torture and death. Its many buildings were scattered across a large area north of Tehran at the foot of the Alborz Mountains. People never talked about Evin; it was shrouded with fearful silence.

This book is a memoir written by a woman who was subjected to torture and treatment that nearly all reading this will never have to endure. It took her twenty years to write this book because of how difficult the whole ordeal was. In writing this book she became physically ill with all the same ailments that she suffered while imprisoned. If you have time , listen to her interview. She sounded so poised and elegant and strong! Without a doubt, an inspirational woman of courage and grace.

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Hannity and Colmes: Nazanin Afshin-Jam on Plight of Iranian Women

Reprinted from Gateway Pundit

Canadian Model, Actress and Miss World contestant, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, appeared on "Hannity and Colmes" to talk about the jailed Iranian Women's Rights protesters Shadi Sadr and Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh.

The two women are being held under extreme conditions in Evin Prison in Tehran after their arrests earlier this month. (3-2007)

This was a very informative video on the plight of women in Iran and other Islamic countries: Watch the video by clicking here.

Nazanin previously worked as an activist to build international awareness on the situation of Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, who was sentenced to hang for stabbing one of three men who tried to rape her and her niece in Karaj in March 2005.

Nazanin Fatehi was cleared of murder charges earlier this year and was later released from prison thanks in large part to the work of Nazanin Afshin-Jam.

Nazanin even dedicated her song "Someday the Revolution song" -one of the 12 songs on her album -Someday to Nazanin Fatehi and the other oppressed youth of Iran. "Hopefully I will get to send - or better yet hand deliver- the song to her.” said Nazanin Afshin-Jam in an interview.

Previously on Iranian Women's Rights protests:
Iranian Regime Thrashes Women's Rights Protesters in Tehran!
More Images of the Brutal Beating of Iranian Women Protesters
Iranian Women Arrested at Tehran Courthouse Protest
Iranian Officials Break Teeth of Prominent Womens Rights Activist
Iranian Teacher's Protest Continues- Women's Rally Turns Violent!!
Two Women's Rights Defenders Still Held In Tehran
Iranian Women's Rights Activists Placed in Solitary Confinement

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Iranian Blogger Kianoosh Sanjari if Freed--Describes Torture

Activist Kianoosh Sanjari in his first interview since his release describes his horrific torture at Iran's notorious Evin Prison.

The Belfast Telegraph and Iranian Press News reported today that Iranian activist and blogger Kianoosh Sanjari has been released from Evin Prison. Sanjari, who was first arrested by the regime when he was 17, was re-arrested in October when he went to the home of secular Ayatollah Mohammed Kazemaini Borojerdi. The senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric who had challenged Iran's system of clerical rule and the regime was also arrested by the regime.
Via IPN:

When a bruised Kianoosh Sanjari climbed from the police van last October, he immediately recognised the familiar drab buildings of Evin prison section 240, run by the plainclothes branch of the Revolutionary Guards. His crime? Reporting for his weblog on the violent arrest of a religious group by security forces.

In his first interview since being released Iran's most prominent blogger recalls the rough tactics used against him by the authorities and the backlash against US support for democracy activists in the Islamic Republic.

In early October, Mr Sanjari went to the home in western Tehran of the dissident cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Kazemaini Borojerdi and watched as security forces attacked his followers outside.

"The alley was flooded with broken glass, water, teargas and riot police with batons hitting everybody," he said. "A police van was being used as a battering ram. Our eyes were burning and our faces hurt. I crawled into a camper van where another woman was hiding. I heard people being beaten and knew that in a few seconds, I'd be beaten too. The broken windows cut my side as I was pulled out. I was knocked unconscious."

He spent the next three months in Evin, where he had been interned several times before. He was blindfolded and questioned and slapped by the interrogator, whose questions took a new and sinister turn.

h/t to gatewaypundit

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Former Iranian Woman Political Prisoner

By: Soudabeh Ardvan; Evin Prison

Samira: She was charged with participating in demonstrations against the Islamic Republic. At first, she was detained, interrogated, and finally, blindfolded on the floor, and sentenced to two years in jail. There was no judge nor a jury or a lawyer. "Islamic justice" did not take more than a few minutes.It was the most despicable time in the history of the Islamic regime. Interrogation, torture, execution were the order of the day. For the next 8 years, she would be transferred, from Evin to Ghessel Hessar prison, back and forth, from one unit to another, spending time in between in solitary confinement.============She remembers the first time she entered a cell. She thought she had entered a girls school. The prisoners were all young girls, in their teens. Sometimes, there were older women, as old as one's grandmother. They had apparently aided the prisoners or were family members

Soudabeh Ardavan is from Tabriz, a former political prisoner now living in Sweden. She is in her early 40's. She spent eight years of her precious life in the Islamic regime's jail. She is also an artist who drew prison life while she was confined in a cell with other women.
=========Through these images, drawn from the time she became a prisoner in 1981 until she was released in 1989, Soudabeh tells a story of those horrible days. While in prison, her mother had a stroke because she had thought Soudabeh was among the many executed prisoners; she could not bear the thought of it. She died at age 57, a year after Soudabeh was released.

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Islamic Repent Makers in Evin Prison and Their *Stockholm Syndrome Repentees (Tavabs)

This is one of the most horrific and disturbing example of manufacturing Islamic converts out of political prisoners in Iran through physical and psychological torutre inside infamous Evin Prison. This illustrates the Khomeinist's sheer brutality and inhumanity they feel justified to inflict pain and death upon infidels in the name of Allah inside Evin prison, which seems to be run by a hord of psycopathic Islamic cultists from the Middle Ages. The sick part is that these Repent Makers think they're doing God's will by exterminating those who don't agree with their ideology...In Persian.

h/t: sheema

*Stockholm Syndrome

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