Behrouz Javid Tehrani : Political prisoner discloses systematic torture and humiliation of prisoners in Gohardasht Prison

I am political prisoner Behrouz Javid Tehrani and I have spend more than 10 years in Gohardasht Prison, one of the most notorious prisoners under this regime.

I am jailed though I have committed no crime. In this time, aside from all the human rights violations that occurred when I was arrested, interrogated and unjustly tried, I have witnessed thousands of other human rights violations only in this prison.

I am witness to 10 years of crime, torture, injustice, execution, bureaucratic corruption, the death of ill prisoners from lack of treatment, suicide in prison and other incidents.

In the solitary cells in hall 2 in cellblock 1, prisoners are beaten with batons, logs and cables and in some cases with electric clubs by prison guards for revenge and not to carry out justice. In some cases the prisoners are beaten so severely that they urinate in themselves.

Last year, a young man died under these beatings. In these solitary cells, prisoners are shackled and left in that state for a few days in their cells and only when they are willing to use profane language and insults against themselves and their family are they unshackled.

In solitary cells in cellblock 2, being allowed to take a shower is considered a privilege and sometimes prisoners are not allowed to bathe for months. If the prisoner is not submissive, he will even be barred from using the restroom. There is no such thing as fresh air time in this block. Radio, TV, newspaper, telephone, visits, fresh air time and books are banned in these solitary cells.


Prisoner guards address prisoners with insulting remarks and use profane language. Being checked by a doctor is also considered a privilege and not everyone gets this chance.

I know of a prisoner infected with HIV in the solitary cells in cellblock 2 by the name of Daryoush Arjmand who has been detained in solitary for 2 and a half years. He has aids and it has been some time that the infirmary has cut off his antibiotics so he would die sooner.

He is not even given the ointment and rubbing alcohol that aids patients need for their wounds. Prison guards are even afraid to open his cell door to let him out to use the toilet and shower and no one even changes the light bulb in his cell which burned out long ago.

Our cellblock is under the management of Hassan Akharian. He is a drug addict and treats prisoners with violence most of the time. Any sort of protest to his erratic behavior is met with solitary in cellblock 2. He has recently taken out the security cameras in one of the rooms in prison turning it into a torture chamber.


Gohardasht Prison in Karaj is headed by Ali Haj Kazem. He is a corrupt person and receives bribes. He lets those who work under him carry out any crime and in 2005 there were more than 10 instances that I know of where he sold the body parts of prisoners without their consent. The prison infirmary cooperated completely with this issue. These prisoners would be mostly chosen from those whose death sentences were imminent. These prisoners whose body parts were sold without their consent include Afshin Karimi, Sharvin Goudarzi and Ahmad Hanani.


In this prison, being medically treated on time is also considered a privilege. They say that prisoners do not have the right to become sick more than once a month and go to the doctor. My close friend Amir Hossein Heshmat Saran passed away last year because he did not receive treatment on time.


Another problem in this prison is the lack of space in the cells. It is so overcrowded that all prisoners are extremely angry and annoyed and there are also limitations in using the bathrooms in the non-solitary sections of prison. A very few number of halls have beds (only 4 halls out of 24 halls have beds).

In the halls without beds, prisoners have trouble sleeping on the ground because of lack of space. This in itself is another form of torture in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. In hall 1 and 3, cellblock 1, prisoners with psychological problems are kept with healthy prisoners and this issue both leads to the mistreatment of these mentally ill prisoners and the aggravation of healthy prisoners.


Honorable Ban Ki Mon, I do not want to write a long letter but just wanted to request from you on behalf of myself and all political and ordinary prisoners who do not have access to you to come and visit Gohardasht Prison (Rajayi Shahr Prison) in your visit to our beautiful country.

Without doubt it would be an honor for me, if you would allow it, to come along with you in your visit to prison as a guide to show you all the dark angles and torture chambers and all the human rights violations carried out in this prison. Obviously, your visit to Iran and especially this prison would better the atmosphere for the 3000 or so prisoners in Gohardasht Prison.

Political prisoner and human rights activist
Behrouz Javid Tehrani
Gohardasht Prison (Rajayi Shahr Prison) hall 1, cellblock 1

Two prisoners violently tortured for protesting systematic violence in Gohardasht Prison

Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran
According to reports, two prisoners who had protested the violent and inhumane treatment of Hassan Akharian, the head of cellblock 1 in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, were taken to a torture room which has been recently set up in this prison and were subjected to violent torture for hours. They were then thrown in solitary cells in cellblock 1 known as the doghouse.
On Monday April 19, two prisoners from cellblock 1 by the names of Hamid Kheirkhah and Reza Jalilvand were taken to a torture room set up by Hassan Akharian. These prisoners were first shackled and them violently beaten with clubs and electric clubs by Akharian, and other prison guards including Amini, Mohammad Mohammadi and Goudarzi. They were beaten in the face, head and other sensitive parts of their bodies. Two clubs broke as a result of the severity of the blows. After a long time, Akharian stopped the beatings and told the prisoners that they had to insult themselves and their families for the beatings to stop. But the prisoners did not only refuse this demand, they also tried not to cry out from pain while being tortured.
These four torturers then sprayed the prisoners' eyes with pepper spray and tear gas. The tortures were so severe that blood was dripping down the prisoners' faces and their bodies were black and bruised and bloody. These two defenseless prisoners who were bloody and injured were then thrown in solitary without any treatment.

New: Prison guards attack and abuse prisoners in Gohardasht Prison

In the past several weeks Iranian regime has concentrated on breaking resistance in prisons commuted by arrested protesters and political prisoners, and their hunger strike protesting torture and inhuman treatment by attacking, beating, transferring prisoners to dangerous wards, poisoning drinking water or even arranging deathly attack on prisoners by paid prisoners.

Such reactions portray the real status quo of the unstable and highly immune regime in Tehran, in regards to International pressure and also the past protests in the country. It also indicates the retrogressive progress of the implosion, envisioned earlier on by opposition figures of this regime due to the above factors
What is important for us, as international observers and analysis is to verify that the wave of protests which built up to the protests heading through since last year June till only recently , has NOT died away but has changed form in tactic

On Sunday, April 18, at about 8 am, prison guards in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj violently attacked defenseless prisoners in this prison under the pretext of searching prisoners and threw them in the prison yard. These forces then started breaking and confiscating the prisoner's personal items in their cells. This attack continued until about 11 am.
In the end of the attack, Hassan Akharian, the head of cellblock 1 in this prison gathered all the prisoners in the yard again and started crying out insults using profane language against them.
According to other reports, the pollution of prison water and the constant lack of water still continue in prison. Another number of prisoners were taken to the infirmary after being poisoned including Morteza Sadeqian from cellblock 1

Two Kurd activists in danger of imminent execution

Amnesty International

Hossein Khezri, a 28-year-old man, and Zeynab Jalalian, a 27-year-old woman, both members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, are feared to be at imminent risk of execution.
Both were convicted of “enmity against God”, in separate cases, for membership of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan.

Hossein Khezri was arrested in Kermanshah in 2008, held in detention facilities under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in Oromieh, north-west Iran, for “enmity against God” (“moharebeh”).

His sentence was upheld in or around August 2009. He said he was tortured and asked for an investigation, but his request was denied in March 2010.
On 11 April 2010, he was moved from Oromieh Central Prison to an unknown location, raising fears that his execution may be imminent.

Zeynab Jalalian, from Maku, a town in the north-west of Iran, was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” around January 2009 by Kermanshah Revolutionary Court.
Before that, she had spent eight months in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility, during which time her family had no information concerning her fate.

She is reported not to have been granted access to a lawyer during her trial, which she said lasted only a few minutes. Zeynab Jalalian’s death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 26 November 2009.

In early March 2010, Zeynab Jalalian was moved from Kermanshah Prison to an unknown location, possibly a detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence.
After several weeks, in late March 2010, she was transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran.

The precise reasons for her transfer are unknown, but the website Reporters and Human Rights Activists in Iran has reported that she said she is awaiting execution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION Zaynab Jalalian wrote a letter the day after her sentence was confirmed, which was published on the internet.

In the letter, she claimed to have been tortured, and she said: “I asked the Judge if I could say good-bye to my mother. He told me “shut up.” The Judge rejected my appeal and refused to let me to see my mother.”

Kurds, who are one of Iran’s many minority groups, live mainly in the west and north-west of the country, in the province of Kordestan and neighboring provinces bordering Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iraq. They experience religious, economic and cultural discrimination…

At least 18 other Kurdish men and one other Kurdish woman are believed to be on death row in connection with their alleged membership of and activities for banned Kurdish organizations.

They include;
Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Ali Haydarian, Anvar Rostami, Rostam Arkiya, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Talai, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader Mohamadzadeh, Aziz Mohammadzadeh and Shirin Alam-Hoei

.

Some have had their prison sentences increased to death sentences on appeal

5 members of family sentenced to death for relations with PMOI

Mukarian News Agency

Motahareh Bahrami who was detained in the Ashura protests (December 27, 2009), was sentenced to death. She was arrested with her husband, son a relative and one her husband's friends on Ashura and there are reports that these five people were sentenced to death.
Motahareh (Simin) Bahrami Haqiqi, her husband Mohsen Daneshpour Moqadam, and her son, Ahmad Daneshpour Moqadam were all arrested along with one of their relatives Reihaneh Haj Ibrahim. Hadi Qaemi, a close friend of Mohsen Daneshpour, who was also arrested with them was also sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh (waging war with God).
One of the son's of this family who became a member of the PMOI years ago is in Camp Ashraf in Iraq which is the basis of the charge of moharebeh and the death sentences for this family.
Meisam Daneshpour, another son of this family confirmed the death sentences for his family and said, "The case is currently being reviewed and the final sentence has still not been announced to them". (Rooz Website – April 18, 2010)

Kurd political activist sentenced to death
A Kurd citizen from Sanandaj by the name of Habibollah Golparipour was sentenced to death by the Mahabad Revolutionary Court.
This man who has been jailed for more than 6 months was charged with moharebeh for propagandist activities in a dissident party and was sentenced to death based on article 186 and 190 of the Islamic Penal Code by the Revolutionary Court in Mahabad

Regime weakness in confronting protests show in arbitrary killings and deaths in detentions

Human Rights Activists in Iran

Iran kills two tradesmen in border regionOn Thursday April 15, security forces in Marivan shot and killed two citizens identified as Khebat from the Roz Ave Village in Sarv Abad and Kiomars from Sanandaj.
According to reports, Kiomars sustained severe injuries from the shooting and died after being caught up in a river on the border


Kordaneh Website
Dissident student killed suspiciously in Iranshahr University

Keivan Goudarzi who was a math major at Iranshahr University in Sistan & Baluchistan, was suspiciously killed today. He was from Kermanshah.
The body of this student was found next to the transmission tower behind the university kitchen. He was active in Mir Hossein Moussavi's election staff and the reason behind his death is still not clear.
University officials have tried to introduce him as a worker who died because of electrocution.
According to reports, his face was severely damaged

Human Rights Activists in Iran
Two prisoners beaten to death in Orumieh Prison
On Sunday, April 18, two prisoners were beaten to death in cellblock 9 and 11 in Orumieh Prison by special guards' forces in prison.
According to reports, an ordinary prisoner identified as Iraj Gham Angiz was killed for unknown reasons by prison guards yesterday afternoon.
This report says that other prisoners protested this murder and prison guards under the command of Akbar Pishevar beat these prisoners to counter the protests.
In these clashes, Seifoddin Yahya Zadeh was struck on the head with a club and died instantly

Hangings in recent days: prone to create fear against possible 1 May protests

AFP - April 19, 2010
Iran has hanged four convicted drug traffickers and a rapist in a prison in the southern city of Kerman, the ISNA news agency reported on Monday.
The report identified the executed drug traffickers only as Mehdi N., Feizollah B., Nazar B., Alam H. They were convicted for trafficking hundreds of kilos (pounds) of narcotics.
Another man, Hossein S., was also hanged after being convicted of rape, the report added.
ISNA did not give the date of the latest hangings, which bring to at least 47 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on news reports


Human Rights Activists in Iran – April 19, 2010

The Afghanistan government has announced that six of its nationals were recently executed in Iran. According to this report, the Afghanistan National Security Council said that the bodies of four of these people were transferred to Afghanistan on April 5 and April 16 via the Islam Qal'eh border region.
According to reports, they were hanged on charges of drug trafficking

AFP - April 20, 2010

Iran has hanged two convicted rapists in a prison in the central city of Isfahan, the governmental Iran newspaper reported Tuesday.
The report identified the executed men as Ahmad and Soleiman and added that they were sent to the gallows on Monday.