Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, February 23, 2021—The death of Behnam Mahjoubi, an Iranian Dervish who had been in Evin prison, was confirmed by his loved ones on Sunday, February 21, 2021. The Iranian Resistance and groups of political prisoners called for the prosecution of regime leaders, including the Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, who was also involved in the mass murder of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
After months of torture in Evin Prison and being denied of necessary medical care, Mahjoubi was transferred to Tehran's Loghman Hospital. Mahjoubi was suffering from severe epilepsy and doctors had confirmed that he could not stand imprisonment. But regime authorities not only denied his release but also aggravated his illness by not giving him medication and by feeding and injecting him with unknown drugs, which put him in a state of coma and resulted in his hospitalization.
Previously, in a statement, Amnesty International had called for his immediate release. “He suffers from a serious panic disorder for which he needs daily medication prescribed by a doctor outside prison. According to informed sources, his psychiatrist outside prison has assessed him as being unable to withstand imprisonment, and doctors from the Legal Medicine Organization, a state forensic institute, have also confirmed in writing after examining him that he is not fit for imprisonment,” wrote Amnesty.
Reports pertained that the regime had refrained from declaring Mahjoubi’s death out of fear of public backlash. Last week, Mahjoubi’s family had said that his health condition was critical, and he can only breathe with ventilator support.
Mahjoubi was arrested in 2018 during protests by Gonabadi Dervishes in Tehran and was sentenced to two years in prison. In August 2019, he was sentenced to two years in prison and a two-year ban from taking part in political parties and associations on charges of “association and conspiracy against national security by taking part in an illegal rally.”
The Gonabadi Dervishes are a minority community that is constantly persecuted by regime officials.
The Iranian Resistance once again called for immediate action by the international community. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a tweet, “What happened to Behnam Mahjoubi makes it imperative to send an international fact-finding mission to Iran to visit the prisons, political prisoners, and the detained protesters.”
“Prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi was persecuted and tortured, and yet the criminal Judiciary in Iran prevents publication of the news of his death and its reason. They conceal what they did to him over 3 years of imprisonment in Evin and Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital,” Mrs. Rajavi said.
Prisoner of conscience #BehnamMahjoubi was persecuted & tortured, and yet the criminal Judiciary in #Iran prevents publication of the news of his death and its reason. They conceal what they did to him over 3 years of imprisonment in Evin and Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital.
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 21, 2021
In a statement, a group of political prisoners in the notorious Evin prison called for the prosecution of Ebrahim Raisi, the Judiciary Chief, who was a key member of the death committees in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.
In a separate message, a group of Gonabadi Dervish prisoners, Abbas Dehghan, Kianoush Abbaszadeh, Mostafa Abdi, Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, and Kasra Nouri said, “Our dear Behnam was murdered, and this is a huge crime. The perpetrators, of this crime are a disgrace to the history of humanity. This shows dictators’ fear of free thought, courage, friendship, camaraderie, and of humanity, which shake the foundations of this irrational dictatorship.”
