Iranian political prisoner crossing one month mark on hunger strike

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Arzhang Davoodi, a prominant Iranian political prisoner is on his one month mark on a hunger strike in Iran’s notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.

Arzhang Davoodi, a prominant Iranian political prisoner is on his one month mark on a hunger strike in Iran’s notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.

His is reported to be a frail condition.
On July 17, Mr. Davoodi went on hunger strike and stopped taking his medications in Gohardasht Prison in protest to the deplorable situation of fellow inmates.
Having announced his hunger strike, Arzhang Davoodi wrote a statement about the inhumane conditions of the prisoners and the widespread corruption by the regime: 'I will not stop my hunger strike unless the prisoners' condition improves. The prisoners' condition must come under the spotlight by the international human rights bodies. The special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council must insist on being allowed to visit the prisons in Iran and to inquire about the abnormal and inhuman conditions. The mullahs' fabrications and accusations, the lawsuits and the spread of corruption, addiction and other serious issues such as incurable illnesses must be revealed.”
He addresses Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, and all lovers of human rights in all international forums:
'After years of imprisonment and illegal charges made by the mullahs, with this action I just want to raise the consciences of all human beings to the inhuman conditions of the prisoners. The brutal prison guards in different prisons such as Rajai Shahr (Gohardasht) have made the prisons as a cemetery and slaughterhouse for our youths by importing goods and contrabands, including drugs. These drugs are the main sources of income for them in the prison system and I am ashamed to express the consequences of such crimes and the circumstances that now prevail on the prisoners.'
Arzhang Davoudi added at the end of his statement: 'from Sunday July 17, 2016 I will go on medication strike and hunger strike so that the world devotes attention to the current situation. I anticipate that I will be threatened and transferred to solitary confinement by the head of the prison, Mohammad Mardani.'
Mr. Davoodi was arrested in 2003 and held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods during which he was tortured and denied access to a lawyer and his family.
He was sentenced, in March 20 05, to 25 years’ imprisonment, reduced to 10 years on appeal, on charges of “spreading propaganda against the system” and “establishing and directing an organization opposed to the government” for his peaceful activities, including directing a cultural education center, according to Amnesty International. In May 2014, he was sentenced to an additional two years’ imprisonment, on the charge of “insulting the Supreme Leader.”
Arzhang Davoodi was also sentenced to death for his political opinions and peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.
He is believed to have been accused of having ties with the opposition People’s Mojahedin, or PMOI (MEK), merely because in prison he insisted on calling the PMOI by its official name, Mojahedin, rather than by the term used by the Iranian authorities, Monafeghin (hypocrites), according to a 2014 urgent action appeal by Amnesty International.

Iran regime’s horrific mass execution of dozens of Iran Kurdish Sunni men

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Former Iranian political prisoner Farzad Madadzadeh condemns the henious amss execution of Sunni prisoners

By Rob Roberts 

The Media Express, August 2, 2016 - On Tuesday 2 August a former thirty-one year Iranian political prisoner Farzad Madadzadeh, now living as political exile in Europe, has given an interview with The Media Express about his time as a prisoner in Gohardasht, a prison 20km North West of Tehran, where this afternoon it was confirmed the Iranian regime’s judiciary has executed dozens of Iranian Kurdish Sunni prisoners.
Reacting to this news the Iranian collation group NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran) switched from requesting urgent action to halt the executions, where it now reports that “their families had been informed to go to the prison before 15.00 (local time) on Tuesday to visit them for a final time.”
The event spiraled from the detention of the Sunni men from hall ten of Ward Four in Gohardasht on Monday afternoon when reports got out about repressive forces apprehending dozens of Sunni prisoners as their hands and feet were chained, mouths shut with tape and heads covered with plastic bags.
During Farzad Madadzadeh’s imprisonment in Ward Ten of the prison he spent in the open-air areas of the same prison, of which spaces were regularly and arbitrarily imposed with special conditions, and knew at least three of the men executed today as Shahram Ahmadi, Keyvan Vaysi and Kaveh Sharifi.
Since leaving Iran, Madadzadeh is able to continue awareness of issues including the imminent executions following social networks and news wires in and outside of Iran; so safe-guarding digital networks against censorship from Iran’s notorious government-funded cyber police remains a peripheral yet vital consideration.

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The 17 year old brother of Shahram Ahmadi, one of the twenty-eight Sunni prisoners believed to have been executed this afternoon had been executed by the regime 2 years while still a child. And commenting on this, Madadzadeh says he read the boys letter in which he talks of the mental anguish and torture of being made to live through 45 days and nights, in a perceptual state of the threat of imminent execution.
Madadzadeh also commented that during the time he spent on Ward 4 of Gohardasht prison he saw many prisoners of adolescent age, the regime waiting until they reach adult age to execute them.
In terms of religious identity and quality too, the men here were of Kurdish Sunni descent, of which there is a well worn resistance in this north west region of Iran of an ongoing struggle for autonomy of religious freedom, language, expression and economy.
The chairman of the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Mohammad Mohaddessin, hascondemned the barbaric act and said “the mullahs’ regime is facing absolute social isolation and widespread abhorrence by the people and thus is resorting to increased executions to create a climate of fear and to prevent the possibility of a nationwide uprising.”
Furthermore the rapidity of the executions has given little time for the United Nations to intervene, now left with one option, to internationally reproach; but also to condemn the regime for the ongoing inhumane barbarity.

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Rob Roberts is a UK-born journalist living in Paris. He writes about Paris and international.

Iran: Many families are tonight mourning the brutal and vicious mass execution of their loved ones

Iran mass execution of Sunni prisoners

Following the mass execution of about two dozen Sunni prisoners in the notorious Gohardasht Prison in, north-west of Tehran, by the anti-human mullahs' regime, families of these victims are mourning tonight.
The families were informed to go to the prison before 15.00 (local time) Tuesday to visit their loved ones for a last time.
One of the families who were on route to the prison to say farewell for the last time to their young son said they received a call from prison authorities in the middle of the road telling them to go and pick up the body of their loved one from the morgue victim instead of visiting their son.
Another report from the family of a victim said the families were told to visit their loved ones for a final time in the prison before 15.00. But when the family arrived at the prison, they were told to go instead to the coroner's office to collect the body of their loved one who had already been executed.
List of names of 28 Sunni prisoners who had been forcibly moved out of Hall 10 of Ward 4 in Gohardasht Prison on Monday afternoon, August 1, 2016 are as follows:
1. Kaveh Veysi
2. Taleb Molki
3. Behrouz Shah-Nazari
4. Barzan Nosratollah-Zadeh
5. Farzad Shah-Nazari
6. Varya Qaderi-Fard
7. Keyvan Momeni-Fard
8. Alam Bamashti
9. Seyyed Jamal Seyyed-Moussavi
10. Edris Ne'mati
11. Ahmad Nasiri
12. Mokhtar Rahimi
13. Yavar Rahimi
14. Pourya Mohammadi
15. Farzad Honarjou
16. Shahram Ahmadi
17. Farshid Nasseri
18. Amjad Salehi
19. Omid Peyvand
20. Arash Sharifi
21. Kaveh Sharifi
22. Shahu Ebrahimi
23. Abdollah Sharifi
24. Jamal Qaderi
25. Omid Mahmoudi
26. Mohammad Gharibi
27. Fouad Yousefi
28. Keyvan Karimi

Then NCRI had already called on International organizations to do their utmost to prevent this heinous mass executions. In a statement issued on August 1st, the NCRI had said
The Iranian Resistance makes a call to save the lives of a large number of Sunni prisoners on death row, requesting urgent intervention by the United Nations Security Council and Member States, and international human rights organizations, especially the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Rapporteur to prevent the implementation of these criminal and inhumane rulings.
A large number of special Revolutionary Guards forces raided hall 10 of ward 4 in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj (west of Tehran) in the afternoon of Monday, August 1. These repressive forces apprehended dozens of Sunni prisoners as their hands and feet were chained, mouths shut with tape and heads covered with plastic bags. These prisoners were transferred outside of the ward to an undisclosed location.
Hours prior to this transfer the regime’s forces and IRGC members had closed all wards and open-air areas, imposing special conditions in the jail. Gohardasht Prison is under the complete IRGC control.
Appeasement vis-à-vis the criminal rulers of Iran, with the execution of 120,000 political prisoners in their report card, and sending more youths to the gallows with each passing day, is nothing but collaborating and encouraging the continuation of these crimes. All political and economic relations with this regime must be conditioned to the complete halt of all executions in Iran, and this regime’s officials must be placed before justice for their crimes against humanity.

'You're too late' Heartbreak of families who miss final goodbye before mass execution

FAMILIES preparing to say a final farewell ahead of a mass execution were told they were too late and their loved ones were already dead by prison officials.

By KATIE MANSFIELD

PUBLISHED: 20:45, Tue, Aug 2, 2016 | UPDATED: 20:54, Tue, Aug 2, 2016

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Relatives of prisoners were told this morning to visit one last time but when they arrived they were told the inmates had already been hanged. 

Instead of saying goodbye, the families were told to go to the morgue to collect the bodies. 

The mass execution took place at Gohardasht Prison in Iran this morning, with at least 20 Sunni inmates hanged. 

Gohardasht Prison has declared a state of emergency and it's believed the execution was brought forward in order to avoid protests

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