17 Political Prisoners Join “Campaign of Unity Against Solitary Confinement”

According to Iran Human Rights, 17 political prisoners in Evin and Rajai Shahr Prisons joined the “Campaign of Unity Against Solitary Confinement” on April 21.

The “Campaign of Unity Against Solitary Confinement” began on 1 March 2021, when 23 political and civil activists filed a complaint about their solitary confinement during their detention. They registered their complaint against the perpetrators of their solitary confinement in one of the judiciary’s offices in west Tehran.

Of the 17 political prisoners who have just joined the campaign, nine are being held in Evin Prison in Tehran and eight in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj.

The nine Evin prisoners are: Peyman Pourdad, Sadegh Abbasi, Pejman Ebad, Behzad Homayouni, Amirhossein Mirkhalili, Abolfazl Ghasali, Parsa Golshani, Mostafa Khosrobabadi and Keyvan Samimi.

The eight Rajai Shahr prisoners are: Matlab Ahmadian, Saeed Eghbali, Arash Sadeghi, Arsham Rezaee, Nasrollah Lashani, Mehdi Meskin-Navaz, Farhad Meysami and Reza Mohammad Hosseini.

The political prisoners cited the 2003 unanimous ruling of the Administrative Court of Justice and Code of Criminal Procedure affirming solitary confinement to be a “clear instance of torture”, which was unlawfully used against them.

The complaint has therefore been filed against all judicial officers, commanders, perpetrators and those who ordered their detention in solitary confinement. Keeping political prisoners in solitary confinement for prolonged periods is common practice in Iran, with almost all political prisoners being held in solitary confinement during their interrogation phase. Some are kept in solitary confinement for months.