Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, December 28, 2020—Authorities in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison brutally beat a political prisoner on Friday, December 25, according to reports obtained by the Iranian Resistance. Afshin Shahsavari, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), was attacked by prison guards after he protested the unfair treatment of ordinary prisoners by prison authorities.
The prison guards took Shahsavari, who was kept in the quarantine section of Ward 4, to the prison’s courtyard and tossed him into the snow and beat him in the freezing cold for a long time. As a result of the beating, Shahsavari suffered from facial fracture and nosebleeds, his shoulder was dislocated, and his entire body has been bruised.
Eyewitnesses accounts indicate the prison guards continued beating and torturing Shahsavari even after he passed out. His unconscious body was eventually returned to prison. On December 26, prison authorities summoned Shahsavari and further threatened him.
According to the reports, the authorities who took part in the torture of Shahsavari included three agents of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Jalal Mobini, Mehdi Mahmuli, and an agent known as Amrollahi.
Afshin Shasavari, 38, was arrested in December 2018 on charges of supporting the MEK. After his arrest, he was held in Evin prison’s Ward 2, where he was tortured and interrogated for several months. In August 2019, the Iranian regime sentenced Shahsavari to three-and-half years in prison.
In a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) urged the United Nations Secretary-General, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Council, and the relevant rapporteurs of the United Nations, as well as international human rights organizations, to take urgent action to stop torture and executions in Iran and reiterated its call for the formation of an international commission of inquiry to visit Iranian prisons and to meet with prisoners, especially political prisoners.
The report comes against the backdrop of increased pressure against political prisoners across Iran. According to previous reports, in November, Loghman Aminpour, another political prisoner in Evin’s Ward 4, was denied medical treatment while he was suffering from breathing difficulties, fever, cramps, and other coronavirus symptoms, and he is being kept in Ward 4 without any medical treatment.
Aminpour, 29, was imprisoned from February 2018 to February 2020 on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “support for the MEK.” After his release in March 2020, he was arrested again on charges of anti-regime activities and returned to prison.
Meanwhile, the regime is ramping up the arrest of political activists, especially those who have a history of supporting the MEK or have family ties to MEK members.
