Political Prisoner Soheil Arabi Denied Medical Care Amidst New Charges

According to Iran Human Rights, Soheil Arabi, blogger and political prisoner currently held in Rajai Shahr Prison, is facing new trumped-up charges by the security services. He was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison from the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh) on 18 September 2020, where he was held in solitary confinement, before being transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s Ward 2A in Evin Prison.

After spending 40 days under interrogations in Ward 2A, he was transferred back to Rajai Shahr Prison on 8 November 2020. Upon arrival at Rajai Shahr Prison, he was transferred to solitary confinement, where he was held for another nine days before being transferred to the political prisoners’ ward.

Once back at Rajai Shahr Prison, Soheil telephoned his mother and told her that “they broke his shoulder and his arm is causing him issues. The tendon in his leg was also damaged in a fall, which he has been denied treatment for and has forced him to use a walking frame.”

On 23 December 2020, in an online arraignment hearing held by Branch 8 of the Rey City Prosecutor’s Office, he was informed of new charges being brought against him. Soheil was charged with “assembly and collusion and propaganda against the system.”

In a letter describing the new trumped-up charges, which has been provided to Iran Human Rights, he writes: “Aside from me, there are nineteen other prisoners in this case. The case of reporting prison conditions. None of us who have been accused of assembling and colluding have ever met each other, or even talked to each other on the phone.”

Full text of Soheil Arabi’s letter provided to IHR:

When prisons are also sanctified; criticising actions by prison officials and exposing the prison are cited as examples of committing blasphemy!

Indeed, not only is silence not an option, but is criminal!

I am 99116, you used to know me as Soheil Arabi. 99116 is a detainee, who for years, whether in detention or facing new charges or convicted, has been nothing more than a detainee.

99 is the year of the re-arrest by the IRGC (2020) and 116 means I was the 58th man to be arrested by the anonymous soldiers of Imam Zaman* this year.

At the Ward 2A detention centre, this is how they address people:

99116

Put your blindfold on and prepare for interrogation!

99116 eyes down

Don’t look around and don’t talk to anyone

You don’t even tell your real name to the Seyyed and the Hajis…(religious figures)

99116 is the same as 92054, who was returned to the solitary confinement of (Ward) 2A after seven years, because he has neither repented nor atoned and is still making demands, he is still asking for human rights, equality and freedom and justice…

Indeed, they must intensify his punishment to diminish the life in him, so that he does not encourage others to be alive and desirable citizens are thus, the walking dead…

Interrogations begin:

Why?

- Why what?

Interrogator: Why don’t you stop? Why don’t you live a normal life? Why do you fan the enemy’s flame? Don’t you want to get out of prison? Now you are accused of assembly and collusion. You have become known as the team leader and network leader connecting political prisoners to dissident networks (he says security). Every day, you prepare a report, issue a statement, incite prisoner riots…

- Why do you think?

You have unjustly imprisoned us in these torture chambers and deprived us of all our rights. Did you expect us not to protest?

Interrogator: There are legal ways to protest. You have contacted foreigners and hypocrites.**

99116: the supervising assistant prosecutor has a duty to visit the prison every day or at least three times a week, and listen to the prisoners’ demands and complaints, but Mr Vaziri has not fulfilled his duty even once in the past two years…

99116 continues to shout because in his view, it is strange and tragic that his contemporaries are not shocked by so many peculiarities and show no reaction to so many catastrophes.

Oddly, as if a group is looting people’s properties, destroying our land, are corrupt and oppressive…but every day, they gain more security, wealth and power. Instead, those who protest against tyranny and corruption are branded as security criminals and are subjected to all kinds of torture and Alireza, Vahid and the Sattars*** are tragically killed in these prisons and it is as though nothing happened.

Now it has been a month since Golrokh Irayi was taken to (Ward) 2A and denied her visitation rights with her relatives, and her family are worried about her health and perish the thought should a serious protest cost the torturers a high price and reduce the pressure on human rights activists in prisons…

They broke my arm while exiling me from the Greater Tehran Penitentiary to Rajai Shahr.

Thirty-four days without any fresh air, visitations or telephone calls, even to just inform my family of my well-being, I was held in the horrific ward known as the suite or the death row ward, where prisoners are taken for execution.

­­­­

During those horrendous days, I witnessed the execution of more than two hundred humans.

In the month of Safar! (considered a holy month in the Shi’a calendar for the mourning of Imam Hossein)

(Usually on Wednesdays, the death sentences of prisoners who have committed non-political crimes such as murder are carried out and Saturdays are the days political prisoners are executed. But from mid-September (2020) until the beginning of November, before the US election, executions were carried out very hastily, even on days other than Wednesdays and Saturdays. Amongst those executed, there were people who had been in prison for more than ten years and were waiting to obtain their complainants’ consent not to be executed or trying to come up with the diyya (blood money), but fearing the outcome of the US election or other factors, led to such brutal executions.)

I was later transferred to (Ward) 2A and in another case with the ridiculous and repetitive charges of assembly and collusion for protesting the catastrophic conditions of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary and exposing the truth…

Golrokh Irayi was also beaten while being transferred to (Ward) 2A and even her husband and family are not allowed to visit her. Aside from me, there are nineteen other prisoners in this case. The case of reporting prison conditions. None of us who have been accused of assembling and colluding have ever met each other, or even talked to each other on the phone.

‌* The anonymous soldiers of Imam Zaman: a term used for the Islamic Republic’s intelligence officer

** Hypocrites: a term used to refer to the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) by the Islamic Republic

***Referring to political prisoners Alireza Shir-Mohammadali, Vahid Sayadi-Nasiri  and Sattar Beheshti, who all died under suspicious circumstances in prison.

Soheil Arabi was first arrested on 7 November 2013 by the Sarallah IRGC Base forces. On 30 August 2014, he was sentenced to death on charges of “blasphemy” for insulting the prophet in Facebook posts, by Branch 76 of the Tehran Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Siamak Modir-Khorasani. Following an appeal on the death penalty by Soheil’s lawyer, his case was referred to Branch 36 of the Supreme Court. On appeal, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence and further charged him with “corruption on earth” which also carries the death penalty. Ultimately, his request for a retrial was accepted and his death sentence was commuted by Branch 34 of the Supreme Court, who referred his case back to the Courts for retrial.

On retrial, the “blasphemy” charge was overturned and Soheil was sentenced to seven and a half years of imprisonment, two years of religious research to “prove repentance” and a two-year ban from leaving the country following his release.

On 3 September 2014, he was also sentenced to three years imprisonment by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, on charges of “insulting Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic” and “propaganda against the system.” The sentence was upheld by Branch 54 of the Court of Appeals shortly after.

Soheil Arabi was transferred from Evin Prison to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh) in February 2018 and was beaten up by prison guards upon his arrival at the prison. While at Fashafuyeh, he sent out several letters, describing the dire conditions and how prisoners’ rights are violated at the prison. The letters led more trumped-up charges in his case.

On 22 September 2018, Soheil was tried by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ahmadzadeh, with the verdict being delivered to his lawyer on 30 September 2018. According to the verdict, he was sentenced to a further three years in prison, three years in exile in Borazjan, Bushehr Province and a 40 million Tomans fine to be deposited to the government’s treasury, on charges of “propaganda activities against the system” and “agitating public opinion.”

Soheil has been denied furlough on all grounds during the seven years he has spent behind bars. Throughout his imprisonment, his mother, Farangis Mazloum who has sought justice for her son, has been harassed and also sentenced and imprisoned on trumped-up charges, the latest of which was last July. His wife, Nastaran Naimi has also faced harassment.

In 2017, he was awarded the Reporters Without Borders’ prize for Press Freedom.