Iranian Rights Activist Alinejad Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison said that Abtin’s death is the continuation of the politically motivated serial assassinations – also known as Chain murders of Iran, a series of 1988–98 murders and disappearances of Iranian dissident intellectuals.

They said the Islamic Republic has found new ways to silence the voices of those who are critical of its system, describing Abtin is an example.

Criticizing “inaction” by international human rights organizations, the detainees stated that facing no consequences for its crimes against humanity has emboldened the repression and killing machine of the Islamic Republic.

Earlier in the day, some scuffles were reported following a ceremony to commemorate Abtin in the women’s ward of the Evin Prison, when officials tried to transfer rights activist and photojournalist Alieh Matlabzadeh to the notorious Qarchak Prison.

Abtin died of Covid-19 complications following days of medically induced coma on Saturday after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Tehran’s Evin Prison.

The Iranian Writers' Association said in a statement that his funeral service was held a day ahead of schedule under a heavy presence by security forces because authorities feared a large crowd and protest during the event.

Malley said in a tweet on Monday that the Iranian government has held environmentalist Morad Tahbaz for four years, stressing that he is a father and a cancer victim.

Iran has arrested many dual nationals and foreignners throughout the years, charging them with vague espionage and political offenses.

In a similar call for the fourth anniversary of Tahbaz’s “unfair detention in Iran”, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that “Iran must release him and all unfairly detained British nationals to allow them to return to their families. This appalling ordeal must be brought to an end.”

Malley also urged the release of Iranian American businessman Siamak Namazi, who is imprisoned in Iran since October 2015 on charges of collaboration with a foreign government, and his 84-year-old father, Bagher Namazi, a retired senior UNICEF official, also arrested and jailed in 2017 after he went to Iran to visit his son. Both are serving ten-year sentences.

Malley also called on the authorities to free Emad Sharghi, a 56-year-old Iranian American businessman who was arrested in December 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of espionage and collecting military intelligence.

According to a tweet by lawyer Babak Paknia, his client Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani had been convicted of ‘corruption on earth.” Sani, 26, is a former school boxing champion in Mashhad, in Khorasan province, north-east Iran.

Reports on websites run by the Albania-based Mujajideen-e Khalq claim Vafaei Sani, described as a “political prisoner,” had been tortured in jail for two years to force him to confess after his family was unable to afford a 300 billion rial bail (around $1.2 million) set for his release.

Earlier in the month, a report said that more than 365 prisoners were executed in 2021 in Iran, about one death per day. Some executions take place in secret and not reflected in reports.

Human rights organizations and United Nations experts have repeatedly called on Iran to end executions, especially those of juvenile offenders. Iran in 2020 had the second highest number of executions globally (246) after China, with thousands, and ahead of Egypt (107), and Saudi Arabia (27). Amnesty International says Iran has used the death penaltyas a form of political intimidation, and that executions follow unfair trials and may involve confessions made under duress.

Abtin died of Covid-19 complications following days of medically induced coma on Saturday after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

The Iranian Writers' Association said in a statement that he was buried under the heavy presence of security forces on Sunday instead of Monday.

According to videos on social media, security measures turned out to be in vain as people showed up in the funeral Sunday afternoon and chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic and its leaders.

Saturday evening, security forces disrupted a candlelight vigil by mourners who had gathered in front of the hospital where he died.

His friends and colleagues charged that prison officials had delayed sending him to a hospital for ten days.

The poet and writer was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2019 for publishing documents about the history of the Writers’ Association and some comments against censorship. His death despite warnings that he should be released from prison has led to a wave of condemnations on social media.

The webinar, which is scheduled to be livestreamed on YouTube late on Sunday January 9, is titled “Heroism for our time -- An afternoon of solidarity to free Iran's political prisoners”.

Mariam Claren, the daughter of jailed Iranian-German citizen Nahid Taghavi, and Larry Everest, a spokesman for the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners, are among the keynote speakers of the event.

Taghavi was arrested late in 2020at her home in Tehran and was transferred to Evin prison after weeks of detention without charge. In August, she was sentenced to over 10 years in prison on charges related to “propaganda against the regime”.

The event comes a day after imprisoned Iranian poet and writer Baktash Abtin died of Covid-19 complications after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Iranian security and intelligence organs, in close harmony with the country’s hardliner Judiciary, often make vague accusations against dual nationals. Both courts and prosecutors in Iran are controlled by the hardline Judiciary which is accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Western countries and human rights organizations accuse Tehran of detaining innocent foreigners as bargaining chips to extract concession from other countries.