Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 12, 2020—The Iranian regime executed Mostafa Salimi, a prisoner who had taken part in the riots of Saqqez prison in late March. The brutal execution, which took place on Saturday morning, took place as the regime has faced growing unrest and riots in several prisons across the country. It is the latest manifestation of the regime’s waning control on prisons and its fears of further riots by inmates who are infuriated by authorities’ lack of measures to protect them against the fast-spreading coronavirus.
On Friday, March 27, prisoners of Saqqez Prison of Kurdistan had revolted. The protest was a reaction to the regime’s denial to free prisoners amid the coronavirus outbreak. A large number of prisoners managed to escape after clashes with the regime suppressive forces. Mostafa Salimi, 53 years old, was from Ilavi village of Saqqez. He managed to escape on March 27.
The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency acknowledged that 80 prisoners managed to escape. Repressive forces were subsequently deployed across the city to try to arrest the fugitive prisoners and return them to prison. To control the situation, the regime has sent its security forces to neighboring cities.
Salimi was executed after 17 years of imprisonment. He was arrested in 2003 and condemned to 15 years in jail.
In a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), wrote: “The Iranian Resistance offers its condolences to the relatives and friends of Mostafa Salimi and the people of Saqqez. It urges the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and the relevant rapporteurs as well as international human rights organizations to condemn this heinous execution.”
The NCRI also called on the UN Security Council, the European Union, and their member states to take immediate action and force the clerical regime to release prisoners, especially political prisoners to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe. “These prisoners are at risk of contracting Coronavirus on the one hand, and being tortured and executed by the clerical regime on the other,” the NCRI stated.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the NCRI, had called on international bodies to intervene on the situation of Iran’s prisons earlier this month.
The fate of prisoners in the clerical regime’s Intelligence Ministry prisons remains obscure. Once again, I urge the UN Secretary General, Security Council, and High Commissioner for #HumanRights to compel the clerical regime to release Iranian political prisoners. #Iran
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 7, 2020
In other news, another martyr of prison riots in Sepidar prison of Ahwaz was identified as Ali Zargani. He was 21 years old was murdered by the IRGC forces on March 30 during the prison riots. After ten days the prison officials told Zargani’s family that their child had been killed.
The protest of prisoners of Sepidar Prison was due to the lack of health facilities in prison and the regime’s denial to give prisoners furlough amid the coronavirus outbreak.
There is no information about many of the inmates in Sepidar Prison. Officials refrain from giving prisoners meetings or furlough and the situation in this prison is still unclear.
The names of other prisoners murdered during the Sepidar Prison riots are as follows: Feyzollah Mokhtari, Sajad Pishdad (Mahroubi), Alireza Hajivand, Mohammad Tamouli, Mohammad Lofteh, Mohammad Salamat, Ali Khafaji, Majid Zibandeh, Shahin Zoheyri and Seyed Reza Khorasani (Maghinami).
In Sheyban Prison riots on March 31, two prisoners, Majid Gheytani and Esmail Ghalavand, were killed by security forces. Others might have been killed as authorities haven’t given an account of the repression of the riots in the prison. In the burial permit of Feyzollah Mokhtari, the authorities had stated “suffocation” as the cause of death. The intelligence service in Ahwaz has threatened the families of the prisoners who lost their lives to not announce the real reason for their death. Prison officials have cut off the phone of the prison to prevent the spread of any information about what’s happening in the facility. On Sunday, April 5, families of the prisoners gathered in front of the regime's judiciary in Ahwaz and demanded clarification on the conditions of their loved ones.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to spread among prisoners as the regime shows no compassion for the lives and health of inmates. Documents obtained by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) prove COVID-19 infection is quickly growing in Fashafuyeh and Evin prisons. This is the latest in a series of documents the MEK has revealed that expose the regime’s secrecy during the outbreak.
The NCRI declared: “These documents that show only a few cases of the prisoners who have been infected with the Coronavirus are clear evidence of a crime against humanity by Ali Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader, and Ebrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary, who have rejected to release the prisoners, and responded to their protests by gunshots. So far, many prisoners in Tehran and other cities have contracted corona, and several of them have died. At a time when there is not the least amount of hygiene facilities in regime’s prisons, and the prisons have been overcrowded many times their capacity, the prisoners in various prisons have rebelled, and dozens of them have been martyred so far.”
