After escalating protests against the 3-month ban on family visits for Maryam Akbari Monfared, the sentence was reduced to 3 weeks
3-September-2022
Category: Prisoners
September 2, 2022
News group: women – prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement: Following the widespread condemnation of the sentence issued by Semnan Prison’s disciplinary council against Maryam Akbari Monfared, on Friday, September 2, 2022, she received a written notification saying that the sentence was reduced to 3 weeks. While the prison authorities had verbally stated that the ban was for 3 months.
According to the report of “Breathing in Confinement”, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, in a written order submitted to Maryam Akbari Monfared on Friday, the ban on her family visits has reduced to 3 weeks.
On Tuesday, August 29, 2022, the authorities of Semnan Prison banned Mrs. Maryam Akbari Monfared from visiting her family for 3 months. The order was issued following the tension created in the meeting hall, and it was becuse Ms. Monfared’s daughters refused to wear the veil (chador) belonged to the prison before visiting their mother and requested for a visit as per the previous routine.
On Wednesday, August 24th, Maryam Akbari Monfared was beaten by Mrs. Hosseinipour, the head of the meeting hall of Semnan Prison and Majid Kurdi, the deputy director of prison, attempted to prevent Mrs. Akbari Monfared from visiting her daughters.
In March 2019 after spending 12 years in Evin prison, Maryam Akbari Monfared was deported to Semnan Prison.
Afterward, she was denied the right to use the prison’s telephone and was only allowed to call her family in the presence of a prison guard.
Maryam Akbari Monfared was arrested by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in December 2009, and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison in an unfair trial by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Salvati for the charge of “Moharebeh”.
Three brothers and one sister of Maryam Akbari were executed in the prisons of the Islamic Republic in the 1980s. One of her brothers named Abdul Reza and her sister Ruqiya were among the prisoners executed in the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988.
In 2016, in a complaint to the judiciary of the Islamic Republic, Maryam Akbari asked about the reason for the execution and the burial place of her siblings. However, the case was never investigated. Instead, the officials of the Ministry of Intelligence threatened her to withdraw her complaint. They as well threatened her to cut off her access to essential treatments.
In February 2017, Maryam Akbari Monfared filed a complaint with the the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances asking the group to make the Islamic Republic accountable about the fate of her siblings.
Following her complaint, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances recognized Maryam’s siblings Ruqiya and Abdolreza Akbari Monfared as the victims of “enforced disappearance” and asked the Islamic Republic of Iran to she a light on their fate.
On October 17, 2016, after filing a complaint about the execution of her siblings in 1988, Maryam Akbari Monfared was denied medical care and threatened with adding 3 years to her prison sentence as well as being exiled to a prison in Sistan and Baluchestan.
In April 2019, Amnesty International issued a statement calling for the immediate release of Maryam Akbari Monfared and called on the Iranian authorities to end the “harassment” and “torture” of her and her family. Also, on August 27, 2021, Amnesty International issued a statement calling for immediate action to save the life of Maryam Akbari Monfared.