MEK Iran: Political prisoners especially women prisoner facing more torture and harassment.

The role of women after taking part in the 2019–2020 Iranian uprisings has led to the regime making useless excuses for keeping these human rights activists in prison. COVID-19 has made women’s position even worse as the regime has used it as an opportunity to eliminate its opponents. According to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), the death toll has reached to 76,400.

Political prisoners, including well-known activists, are now having to put up with new charges laid against them, leading to new sentences, more torture, and harassment. The women involved in this are:

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• Zeinab Jalalian, who was moved out of Khoy Prison on April 29^th, 2020, and was then relocated to Qarchak Prison. She started a hunger strike on June 20^th because she wanted to be returned to Khoy Prison, or be taken to Evin Prison, following her COVID-19 infection. Instead, intelligence agents have taken her to an undisclosed location on day 6 of the hunger strike. Her family thinks that she is now at Kerman Prison.
• Sedigheh Moradi and Zahra Akbari-Nejad Dorcheh, both political prisoners, were each sentenced to 95 days in prison. The Evin courthouse revealed this in early July 2020.

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• Sakineh Parvaneh, a Kurdish political prisoner imprisoned in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and was banned for 2 years from membership in political groups. She was arrested on February 7, 2020, and transferred to Evin Detention Center. She has been beaten over and over again since her arrest, including visits to a psychiatric hospital.
• Parasto Moeini and Forough Taghipour, also political prisoners were arrested on February 24^th The charges were supporting the (PMOI / MEK Iran). They were transferred to the detention center at the Ministry of Intelligence. In late April they were taken from Evin Prison to Qarchak Prison. During their 5-month prison stay, they were put under pressure by interrogators to take part in a television interview.
• Narges Mohammadi, a resistant political prisoner, was sent to Zanjan Prison for organizing a sit-in protest at Evin Prison, which was to show solidarity with families of the those who lost their lives in the November 2019 uprising.
• Mohammadi, a human rights activist, has had her basic rights denied since being sent to Zanjan Prison on December 25^th, 2019. She said she had been physically assaulted and insulted by Evin prison’s warden Gholamreza Ziaii,
• Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner, was summoned to the Evin Courthouse on June 10^th where she had to face new charges, which included chanting slogans on the night of February 11, 2020, which was the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which deposed the Shah. Maryam Monfared is now serving her 11th year in Evin Prison and hasn’t been let out even for a day. (1)

• Besides, during the last 5 months, Massoumeh Akbari, Somayyeh Ramouz, Akram Rahimpour, Zohreh Asadpour, and Rezvaneh Ahmad Khan Beigi have faced new prison sentences. Soha Mortezaii, Nahid Khodajoo, Mojgan Kavousi, and Shora Fekri were summoned to prison to serve their sentences.
• Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was released from prison but was later forced to serve a further 3 years and 7 months. She is in Qarchak Prison and has been there since November 9, 2019.
• Fatemeh Mossanna’s house was entered without prior warning by officers from the Prosecutor’s office. They handcuffed her and whisked her away to Evin Prison to finish her sentence. This event occurred on May 6, 2020, in front of her daughter and son. She had been released on bail on March 31^st from Evin Prison.
• Farangis Mazloumi, a political prisoner who was detained for a period last year, was sentenced to a 6-year prison term on charges of establishing contact with the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and promoting the opposition in as the alternative to the current regime.
• Atena Daemi, while serving her prison sentence, the Intelligence Department of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) filed two additional cases against her.
• Atena Daemi is a resistance political prisoner and was expected to be released on July 4^th, 2020 after serving 5 years. Instead, she was sentenced to a further 5 years and 74 lashes.

Covid-19 grows in prisons

Inflicting all these harsh sentences has come at a time when COVID-19 is rampant in the prison system making conditions unbearable and dangerous. In early May at least 50 women prisoners had contracted COVID-19 in Sepidar Prison where medical care was barely available and the so-called quarantine ward was very close to the wider prison environment. With few medical and health facilities and a high density of prisoners, coronavirus is spreading uncontrollably in the prison.

Narges Mohammadi, a political prisoner, has suffered what appears to be symptoms of Covid-19. She has high-risk medical problems. Forough Taghipour, who is imprisoned in Qarchak Prison, has also been infected by the virus.

The evidence indicates that the terrorist regime is deliberately denying medical care to prisoners infected with COVID-19 and especially those with other medical conditions.

(1) Maryam Akbari Monfared was taken into custody in late December 2009, after she had been in contact with her siblings, who were People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) members. The charge laid against her was “Moharebeh” or “waging war against God via the (PMOI / MEK Iran).” She was sentenced to a prison term of 15 years in a trial lasting only 5 minutes and with no legal representation. Now, she has been almost 11 years behind bars in the notorious Evin prison and hasn’t been allowed out for even one day.