By Kayhan Life Staff
The Iranian political activist Narges Mansouri has been in solitary confinement inside Tehran’s Evin Prison since her arrest on May 19, her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, said.
Ms. Mansouri was beaten so severely by her interrogator that she was vomiting blood, Mr. Moghimi added.
Mr. Moghimi told the Norway-based Iran Human Rights: “After her arrest near border areas, she was placed in solitary confinement in cell block 209 of Evin Prison. Her Interrogators beat Mansouri severely at least once, allegedly because she had insulted the leader of the Islamic Republic, causing her to vomit blood.”
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She has not been allowed to see her lawyer and is under severe physical and psychological pressure, Moghimi added. Moghimi said he could not speak to Mansouri because she was allowed only one phone call.
There is no information about any new charges against her or the nature of the brutality she suffered in prison.
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Mansouri’s family have not been able to visit her since her arrest nearly a month ago. She once spoke to her mother and sister from behind a glass barrier for only a few seconds. Moghimi explained.
Mansouri is a member of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and a member of the Suburbs Bus Company group.
She was a signatory to the Statement of 14 Political Activists, an open letter signed by activists in Iran in 2019, calling on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to resign as Iran’s Supreme Leader after a 20-year tenure.
Mansouri was arrested on May 19 while trying to leave Iran illegally through the country’s northwestern border areas. At the time of her arrest, she was due to return to prison after being out on bail for two and a half years.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) described Mansouri as “an anti-revolution escapee,” alleging that she was working with a Persian-language media outlet and was arrested while trying to leave the country illegally through an Iranian border.
“Ms. Manouri’s mission was to agitate public opinion by releasing false statements, giving misleading and inflammatory interviews to create insecurity and unrest in the country,” IRNA added. “She took advantage of Islamic mercy which granted her bail and continued her criminal and seditious activities during those two and a half years. She tried to flee the country when the Judiciary notified her she had to return to prison.”
In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) “Shatranj” program on April 13, Mansouri said: “It is unfortunate that democratic countries that have based their constitutions on human rights have turned a blind eye to human rights [violations] in Iran and sit at a negotiating table with a state whose military and thugs brutalize its citizens.”
Security forces arrested Mansouri on August 12, 2019, when she was walking home from work. She was kept at Evin Prison’s block 2-A, controlled by the Intelligence Protection Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
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Mansouri was subsequently transferred to Qarchak Prison for women in Varamin, 63 kilometers southeast of Tehran before authorities moved her back to Evin prison.
In November 2019, Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Afshari, handed Mansouri a five-year custodial prison sentence for “collusion and sedition” and a one-year custodial prison sentence for “propaganda against the state.”
However, the sentences were not enforced. Mansouri was ultimately released on November 13, 2019, after posting $19,000 in bail.
