Iran - Report on method of arrest, court procedures & dire conditions of 6 Facebook users held in Evin Prison



Report on method of arrest, court procedures & dire conditions of 6 Facebook users held in Evin Prison
 

Amir Golestani, Fariborz Kardar, Massoud Talebi, Massoud Ghasem Khani, Mehdi Reyshahri and Mohammad Amin Akrami are six prisoners in the case known as “Facebook suspects” transferred to the quarantine section of ward 8 in Evin Prison after their total of 56 years prison sentence was confirmed. They are on the verge of going on hunger strike protesting dire conditions in the public ward including prisoners with ordinary crimes, and pressures imposed by the Revolutionary Guards in court that led to their unjustified sentencing.
“Amir Golestani and five other suspects of this case have been transferred to the worse and most notorious section of Evin Prison, being ward 8 especially allocated to smugglers, drug addicts, thieves, murderers and rapists, and generally prisoners with non-political charges,” a source close to these prisoners said.
After undergoing months of interrogation in IRGC solitary confinement, in late May 2014 Amir Golestani and seven others suspects of this case were sentenced to 20 years and 91 days behind bars by branch 28 of a revolution court chaired by Judge Moghise. Each of the individuals were sentenced on charges such as insulting the sanctities, assembly and collusion with the intention to disrupt national security, insulting the leader, insulting the three branches and propaganda against the system. These individuals were described as being a “member of a Facebook group” and accused of “assembly and collusion” merely for having friends on Facebook! (Activists in Exile – Apr 23, 2015)

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