Imprisoned Student Maryam Shafipour Refused Medical Treatment

Maryam Shafipour

A source close to the family of imprisoned student activist Maryam Shafipour told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that judicial authorities have refused the family’s repeated requests for her transfer to a hospital to seek treatment for heart, stomach, and dental problems that she developed in prison.

According to the source, Shafipour’s family was unable to have in-person visitation with her during the Iranian New Year (March 21-April 2, 2014), and was only allowed to see her through a booth. The last time Shafipour’s family pursued an in-person visit with her, Mehdi Khodabakhshi, the Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran in charge of Prisoners’ Affairs, told them that they are not allowed in-person visits with her because they gave interviews to the media.

The source told the Campaign that when the family asked Mehdi Khodabakhshi the reasons for refusing the hospital transfer, he only told them, “I decided not to let it happen,” without providing further explanation.

A former student of Agricultural Engineering at Qazvin International University, as well as a student activist and member of Green Movement leader Mehdi Karroubi’s 2009 election campaign, Maryam Shafipour was arrested on July 27, 2013, when she appeared at Evin Prison Court after being summoned. She was transferred to Evin Prison, where she spent 67 days in solitary confinement and nearly eight months in “temporary detention,” while her case judge refused to release her on bail. Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Salavati sentenced Shafipour to seven years in prison and two years’ ban on “cyberspace, media, and press activities” in February 2014, on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “assembly and collusion against national security.”