- Prison
- Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr)
- Status
- Imprisoned
Nafas dar Ghafas: Dr. Saeed Masouri was born in 1965. He had been living in Romania to continue his studies when, in the spring of 2001, his family was informed that Saeed had been arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents in the city of Dezful while returning to Iran. It should be noted that Saeed had in fact been detained in December 2000, but his family was only informed the following spring.
After his arrest, Saeed was transferred to Ahvaz prison, where he spent nearly a year, and was then moved to Evin prison in Tehran. From the time of his arrest he was held in solitary confinement for 14 months, and was then transferred to Ward 209 of Evin.
Dr. Masouri has been in prison since his arrest by security forces in December 2000, without a single day of leave. Saeed Masouri, who had initially been sentenced to death, was later — following a pardon — given a one-degree reduction to life imprisonment.
Saeed Masouri is now serving the twenty-first year of his sentence, without a single day of leave, in Hall 10 of Ward 4 at Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. This hall is kept under heavy security with a large number of CCTV cameras. Political prisoners’ phone calls there are restricted; prisoners are allowed only a ten-minute call to their families on Sundays, and because this political prisoner’s elderly parents live in another city and cannot travel every week to visit their son, they effectively remain without news of his condition.
Before the execution of his cellmates Zaniar and Loghman Moradi, Saeed Masouri wrote to human rights bodies and to “awakened consciences,” asking them to act to overturn the sentences of these two innocent prisoners. In his letter he wrote: “O awakened consciences, I implore you all by your conscience, help us! Perhaps they will hear your voice. Tell them that if they wish to cut all my bones to pieces, let them spare these beloved children of ours! Tell them, for God’s sake, that they are innocent.” Tragically, the death sentences of Zaniar and Loghman Moradi were carried out in September 2018 at Rajai Shahr prison.
Throughout his twenty-one years in prison, Saeed Masouri has repeatedly been interrogated and subjected to various forms of pressure by the Ministry of Intelligence.
