Saturday, January 16, 2010

100 Ashoura prisoners crammed into individual cells



100 of the prisoners arrested on Ashoura were transferred to individual cells in Ward 5 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj.

Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran were notified that last night about a hundred detainees who were arrested on Ashoura were transferred to Ward 5 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. This trasfer was carried out on Wednesday night, Dey 23th (January 13th) at about 9:00 p.m. Each cell contains four persons, regardless of the fact that these cells are suitable for just one prisoner. At the moment the cells are holding many more prisoners than their normal capacity. Reports indicate that the conditions of these cells are not humane and the prisoners are handled violently. Those arrested on Ashoura were transferred to these cells from an unknown location.

Since Wednesday afternoon, January 13, Ali HajKazem and Ali Mohammadi, the president and vice presidenent of the prison, and Mr. Kermani and Mr. Faraji, president and vice president of protection and information of Gohardasht Prison, started moving the regular prisoners of individual cells in Ward 5 to Ward 1. At the moment Gohardasht Prison of Karaj contains an unprecedented number of prisoners. 400 to 500 prisoners are kept in rooms with a capacity of 90 people. The prisoners are forced to rest in the corridors and close to the toilets. Cells previously holding 2 prisoners are
now occupied by 8.

Often prisoners have to take turn for resting. Even though the number of prisoners has increased incredibly, the health care, food and medical treatments have not improved. The prisoners are not receiving enough food, and their bread ration has decreased to two pieces a day. Both political and regular prisoners can use the health center once every 45 days. Their families can visit once every three months, and even this opportunity is taken away from the political prisoners. It was Sadegh Larijani, Head of Judiciary appointed by Ali Khamenei, who ordered the mass arrests. These arrests were encouraged and supervised by Ali Khamenei. Human rights and democratic activists in Iran highly condemn the transfer of the prisoners arrested on Ashoura to individual cells, and they ask the Secretary General and Supreme Commissioner of Human Rights and special reporters of arrests and tortures to no more stand still against this Medieval-like behavior toward the prisoners, and act immediately to liberate the prisoners
unconditionally.

Dey 24th, 1388- January 14th, 2010
This report was sent to the following organizations:

Supreme Commissioners of Human Rights
Human Right Commission of the European Union
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Translation by: Neda Shayesteh, Persian2English.com

No comments:

Post a Comment