Despite Investigation Pledge, Rouhani Administration Maintains Silence on Prisoner Assault
Zolaykhah Mousavi, the mother of political prisoner Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Evin inmates have no protection from assaults by prison and security officials.
No details or information emerge regarding promised investigation
The families of political prisoners who were assaulted by security guards in the brutal attack in Evin Prison’s Ward 350 on April 17 have yet to receive any response from a government panel appointed to investigate the incident. The attack on the inmates has prompted widespread condemnation inside and outside the country.
Zolaykhah Mousavi, the mother of political prisoner Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Evin inmates have no protection from assaults by prison and security officials.
“The lives of our children in Evin Prison are in danger,” she said. “We are worried night and day. No one gives us any answer to our worries. We really don’t know what to do or who to see. If they attack the prisoners again and beat them with intent to kill, what should we do then?”
Mousavi told the Campaign that an officer by the name Col. Amanian, who was involved in the attack on Ward 350, explicitly warned the prisoners that “next time when we come, we’ll kill you.”
The families of the inmates at Ward 350 have held protests in front of the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) and presidential office. Government officials [of Rouhani administration] and some members the Majlis have promised to investigate but so far there has been no response.
The April 17 attack was a joint operation carried out by the Revolutionary Guards, the Intelligence Ministry, and prison security guards, allegedly to search and confiscate “illegal items” such as mobile phones.
More than 30 inmates in the Ward were injured, many of whom need hospitalization. Following the attack some 32 inmates were also put in solitary confinement. Some of them still remain in solitary.
“My son [Hossein Ronaghi Maleki] was beaten with a baton [in the April 17 attack]. They hit him in the stomach and his back,” Mousavi told the Campaign.
She said after seeing Hossein during a visit in prison, her husband immediately went to the prosecutor’s office and once again asked the deputy prosecutor of Tehran, Mr. Khodabakhshi, to send Hossein to the hospital for treatment. But Mr. Khodabakhshi laughed at Hossein’s father and refused permission, she said.
“I ask all human rights activists and [UN Special Rapporteur] Ahmad Shaheed to help us if they can,” she said.
On April 23, 2014, a day after the families protested in front of the presidential office, government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said a team had been put together to investigate the attack on Ward 350.
“We cannot take any illegal actions against prisoners, even if they are merely prisoners,” Nobakht said. “The president will not remain silent towards any case where citizens’ rights have been ignored,” he claimed.
