Below we publish an English translation of Narges Mohammadi’s recent letter of appeal to the Iranian Parliamentary Commission about the practise of solitary confinement in Iranian prisons. Article 90 of the Constitution and the role of the commission are explained in this link. Narges’ appeal is another example of her tireless effort to shed light on the prison conditions in Iran – especially for women.
(Note: The text is published as we received it from the translator. It contains a few typos, for example, “islamic republic of iran” is written with small letters. These errors are not corrected as they may be quite intentional.)
To the head and members of the Article 90 of the Commission
- You are certainly familiar with the concept of ‘solitary confinement’ and are aware that civil activists, as well as those accused of political and religious activities in Iran are kept in solitary confinement at the beginning of their arrest for the reason of investigation and interrogation, for days, months and sometimes even years. This has turned to be a routine in the islamic republic of iran.
- You are aware that under the rules and regulations of the islamic republic of iran, keeping the detainees in solitary confinement is illegal, violating Iran’s constitution as well as the detainees’ rights and dignity. The security and judicial entities have taken over the ultimate control of solitary confinement without obliging to any time limits or defining its condition.
- You must be informed that solitary confinement is a form of torture aimed at the detainees which has been used throughout history with different regimes and governments. In recent years, solitary confinement has victimised many people in Guantanamo and Abu Gharib prisons as well as 2-A, 209, 241, 59 Eshrat Abad including solitary confinements in the security wards of other cities outside the capital in Iran. This way of torture plays a great role in the history of torture, notorious in some specific regimes and governments.
- This catastrophe has other much worrying dimensions to it the least of which includes:
- Being exposed to physical, mental and emotional disorders among the detainees,
- Collecting arbitrary confessions from the detainees by applying pressure on them,
- Issuing heavy verdicts on the basis of false and untrue confessions received by applying pressure,
- Suppression of civil society and its activists,
- Horrific incidents such as death of Zahra Kazemi, Zahra Bani Yaghoob, Sattar Beheshti, etc.,
- Moral, physical and sexual harrassments of the detainees.
Members of the parliament of the islamic republic of iran
As a defender of human rights who have been a victim of this torture myself and am currently witnessing the continuation of this act and pain of other victims, i find myself obliged to lodge a complaint and do whatever it takes to put an end to this torture. Therefore, i’d like to request you to form a committee for:
- Inspecting the security and legal sides of this concept, including ways to which such unhumane and illegal actions, systematic torture by the Judiciary and security entities can happen without any monitoring and supervision,
- Examining the human side of such horriffic torture of mankind and its damages by inviting victims of solitary confinement and listening to them.
I would suggest that such report must be publicly discussed in a debate in the parliament for the public to know. Hereby, i request you to utilise any legal possibility and authority to end this torture against humanity.
It is obvious that such inspection and investigation will eventually take place, if not today but tomorrow, if not by you as the represantatives of the iranian nation but by others, and if not in my country but elsewhere.
The last but not least, i’d like to mention that as i write this letter, 15 women prisoners who have experienced solitary confinement are enduring their sentence in Evin prison. That sums up to nearly 140 months of imprisonment in solitary confinement and security wards whose words and experiences can make up part of the investigation by your committee.
Narges Mohammadi
September 2017, Evin prison
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