Whistleblower Farhad Salmanpour Facing New Fabricated Charges in Reprisal for Speaking About Shahin Naseri’s Suspicious Death in Custody

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Farhad Salmanpour who is held in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, is facing new fabricated charges by the Fashafuyeh Revolutionary Court after exposing details of Shahin Naseri’s suspicious death in custody.

The new charges against him include: “Acting against national security through voice messages and interviews with foreign and anti-revolutionary television channels like Iran International and Channel 1, publicity against the Islamic Republic system and publishing propaganda.”

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Instead of being held accountable about why Shahin Naseri died of poisoning after being transferred to solitary confinement, they’ve predictably filed a complaint against Farhad Salmanpour in the Fashafuyeh Revolutionary Court.”

Farhad Salmanpour was sent to Loghman Hakim Hospital in Tehran in late November 2020 due to another fracture to his spine and while he was in excruciating pain, but was returned to prison without receiving treatment. Other than his spinal cord injury, he also suffers from a lung and neck injury which were caused when he was subjected to numerous forms of torture.

Farhad has been attacked by non-political prisoners on at least one occasion which damaged his spinal cord. He had previously stated that several prisoners had been commissioned by prison authorities to harass him.

Farhad Salmanpour Zoheir worked at the Office of President under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and was arrested on the street without an arrest warrant by Ministry of Intelligence forces on 21 August 2019. He was taken to the Ministry’s Ward 209 in Evin Prison, where he was kept in solitary confinement for 45 days.

Around two months later, IHR sources reported that Farhad was subjected to the most severe torture in order to obtain a forced confession about his connection to Ruhollah Zam, the dissident director of AmadNews Telegram channel. It was even reported that at one point, Farhad was brought face to face with Ruhollah Zam.

Farhad was arrested and imprisoned by security forces several times over the years. In early November 2019, his trial was held at Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari. His charges included: “assembly and collusion against national security, propaganda activities against the system through cyberspace activities, publishing classified information and documents, collaborating with counter-revolutionary elements and foreign dissident websites, and networks and insulting the leadership and insulting Ruhollah Khomeini.” He is still awaiting a judgement in his case.

Having helped political prisoner Saeed Malekpour escape the country, leaked information about Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi’s $150 million fraud during Ahmadinejad’s presidency and published documents about the smuggling of drugs by elements of the Islamic Republic, will also be held against him by judiciary officials.

Farhad is one of the recent wave of political prisoners to have been “prison exiled” as a means of exerting more pressure on them.

Located 32 km south of Tehran and originally built in 2012 to house prisoners convicted of drug-related charges, in rencent years other prisoners have been sent to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary to deal with overcrowding in other prisons and as a method of additional punishment. According to published reports, the prison lacks basic medical facilities and services.