After 2 Months in Prison, “No Suspect by the Name of Bahareh Hedayat Exists!”

Bahareh Heday's husband talks of 16 charges, continuing interrogations, and no case file in court

Student activist and member of the central council of Advar Alumni Association (Tahkim-e Vahdat) Bahareh Hedayat’s husband has described his wife’s condition for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

In this interview, he says: “Bahareh was arrested on December 30, 2009. In her only contact after 11 days, she told me that she was in Ward 209 [of Evin Prison]. After much effort, we were finally able last Thursday to have a meeting with her through a cabin. Her interrogations continue. So far as we have been able to surmise, she is not alone in her cell and has spent time with different prisoners, so she has not been in solitary confinement during this time. The Prosecutor has had a meeting with her and has talked to her for about 40 minutes, stating her charges to her. She is facing 16 charges for which four or five have been explained to her, charges such as propagation against the regime and portraying a dark image, participation in congregations, actions against national security, insulting the president, and insulting the Leader. She has been asked to answer about these charges and to compensate for them. We have no other news…Her attorney in this case is Mr. Pourbabaee who also represented her in her previous case. But because there are no cases registered at the Revolutionary Courts for her and no documents have been sent to the Revolutionary Courts regarding her case, it is impossible to track down the case file. This means that at this moment,no suspect by the name of Bahareh Hedayat exists within the Revolutionary Courts system. Her case has not been registered within the Revolutionary Courts, therefore her lawyer cannot enter her case and register himself as her attorney. This is a legal problem we are facing right now…She has been in prison for almost two months now and she has only been allowed to make two phone calls…Her phone calls have taken place in the presence of her interrogator and have only lasted a few minutes. We met her through a cabin once last Thursday which lasted 15 minutes.”