Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic responds to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the deportation of female political prisoners
10-August-2021
Category: Prisoners، Women
10-August-2021
Newsgroup: Women – Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement: Following the UNHCR’s pursuit of deportation of women political prisoners from Evin Prison to the other cities, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic responded in a letter dated Wednesday, August 4, 2021 by defending the transfer of Yasaman Ariani, Monireh Arabshahi, Mojgan Keshavarz, Atena Daemi, Golrokh Iraei, Saba Kordafshari, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Raheleh Ahmadi, Sepideh Gholian, Zeinab Jalalian and Maryam Akbari Monfared to cities such as Karaj, Rasht, Amol, Bushehr, Yazd and Semnan. The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic has also claimed that the transfer of Ms. Gholian, Jalalian and Akbari Monfared has been to the nearest prison to their domiciles. Whereas to serve their sentences, these prisoners have been deported to the prisons far away from their homes as well as their families, without observing the principle of segregation of crimes.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic responded the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the deportation of a number of women political prisoners from Evin Prison to various cities such as Karaj, Bushehr, Semnan, Amol, Rasht and Yazd.
In part of this letter, referring to Article 513 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the transfer of prisoners to other cities has been left to the discretion of Judge in cases where there is a possibility of “corruption”.
The letter says that: ” The convicts, on the strength of Article 513 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, shall be transferred to prisons located in either their place of residence or serve their prison sentence in the nearest judicial jurisdiction in the province. Furthermore, as stipulated in Note 3 of the said Law: “If the place of residence of the person sentenced to imprisonment is outside the jurisdiction of the court issuing the sentence, the convict shall be transferred to the prison of his/her place of residence to service his/her prison sentence. Unless this causes corruption, in which case, the convict shall – at the discretion of the judge issuing the final verdict – be transferred to the nearest prison to his place of residence.”
To justify the deportation of three female political prisoners to the prisons far from their domiciles, it is written: ” By virtue of the aforesaid Note, Sepideh Gholian, Zeinab Jalalian and Maryam Akbari Monfared have all been transferred to the nearest prisons located in their place of domicile; therefore, there has been no deviation of the said Law.”
Moreover, Atena Daemi’s home is in Tehran and her family has to spend hundreds of kilometers to visit her for just 20 minutes.
It should be mentioned that since March 2021, a number of female political prisoners have been deported from Evin Prison to various cities. Maryam Akbari Monfared was deported to Semnan Prison, Golrokh Iraei to Amol Prison, Yasman Ariani and Monireh Arabshahi to Kachui Prison in Karaj, Atena Daemi to Lakan Prison in Rasht and finally, Saba Kordafshari, Mojgan Keshavarz and Nasrin Sotoudeh to Qarchak Prison in Varamin.