Latest News About Prisoner of Conscience Mohammad Nourizad

Fatemeh Maleki, wife of prisoner of conscience Mohammad Nourizad, spoke with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about her first in-person visit with her husband after a two-month ban on visitations. “Last Tuesday we had an in-person visit with Mr. Nourizad.  Thank God he was well. But his toothache problem persists. When he had a furlough six months ago, the dentist planned for a six-month treatment for him, but, unfortunately, he had to return to prison again and his condition got worse there. Fortunately, we heard that he had one tooth pulled on Saturday. Of course we had hoped that the problem with his teeth would have been addressed a lot sooner. Now they have promised to treat his teeth in prison, and we hope this would happen,” she said.

Maleki told the Campaign that her husband has been moved to Ward A-2 of Evin Prison. “He is no longer in solitary confinement, but he is still alone. They say that the conditions in this ward are good and he is not in solitary confinement. He can make phone calls too, sometimes, which of course don’t last more than a few seconds,” she added.

“After his health deteriorated following his hunger strike, he was transferred to a hospital. It will take a while for him to recover. But in general, I don’t think he has had any particular problems. Because our visit was very short and we were finally able to see each other after a long time, when we noticed that he seemed fine, we started talking about other things. Now, if he sees fit, if something has happened he would tell us about it,” said Maleki about Nourizad’s condition.

“I hope this condition would not continue for any prisoner and that things move towards improvement, and that authorities would try harder and know that whoever does something good for anyone, whether a political or non-political prisoner, it is a good thing,” Maleki added.

Mohammad Nourizad, a documentary filmmaker and veteran journalist formerly with Kayhan Newspaper, was arrested after the 2009 election after he wrote three letters to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Sadegh Larijani in which he criticized them.

He was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and 50 lashes on charges of “propagating against the regime,” and “insulting Islamic Republic authorities.” Recently, Nourizad was tried again on charges waged against him by the Ministry of Intelligence for reporting prison abuse by Intelligence forces and was sentenced to an additional two years in prison. Following his hunger strike to protest the court ruling, Nourizad was transferred to the hospital. He was barred from having visitors and telephone contact and his family did not have any information about his condition.