Details of the Inhumane Torture of the Human Rights Lawyer, Payam Derafshan
18-October-2021
Category: Prisoners
17-October-2021
Newsgroup: Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement: Payam Derafshan, the lawyer of political prisoners and human rights activists, was arrested on June 7, 2020 and transferred to an unknown location. After enduring a period of physical, mental and psychological torture, he was transferred to Ward 4 of Evin and was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.
Recently, the lawyer Saeed Dehghan, has reported the details of his colleague’s detention in a safe house, the torture inflicted on him which caused his tongue to be torn off, the use of electric shock and other inhumane torture against him as well as his transfer to Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the lawyer Saeed Dehghan, Payam Darfshan’s colleague, has posted a report on his page in personal social media regarding the condition of Payam Derafshan in detention.
Referring to the arrest of Payam Derafshan after 17 security agents raided and searched his office and confiscated his personal belongings, Mr. Dehghan wrote that Payam was transferred to a safe house and then to the solitary cell of the Ward 2A of the IRGC Detention Center. He also wrote that after forcibly receiving an unknown ampule, Payam Derafshan suffered severe complications including seizures which led his tongue to be torn off.
Below is Saeed Dehghan’s report:
Below is a brief explanation about the horrible torture inflicted on the lawyer Payam Derafshan while in custody, which has been written by a lawyer named Saeid Dehghan:
“Payam Derafshan is not just an ordinary human rights activist, he is the secretary of the Bar Association’s Commission for the Protection of Lawyers, whose activities are focused on supporting and protecting the lawyers who face legal and security cases.
On June 7, 2020, 17 security agents raided Payam Derafshan’s office in Tehran and after a thorough search of the office, confiscated his computers as well as his clients’ files. An act which was a clear violation of his rights as a lawyer, as well as violation of Data Protecting Act and the rights of his clients to confidentiality.
From the moment they entered his office, the IRGC intelligence interrogators asked him the reason why he accepted to present Kavous Seyed Emami?! In fact, most of the time of his interrogations was focused on the questions related to Mr. Seyed Emami’s case and he underwent a huge pressure because of it.
He then was transferred blindfolded to a security house rather than a detention center and was denied the right to contact his family or the other lawyers. During the hot days of summer, he was kept in a completely dark and windowless room. And all these were the beginning of a project to break and ruin him under maximum psychological and physical pressure.
Afterward, he was transferred to a cell in Ward 2A of IRGC Detention Center, constantly lit by bright lamps on the ceiling, with the loud sound of three fans, and the very foul smell of a dirty toilet which was unbearably annoying in that limited space. Payam underwent lengthy interrogations irrelevant to the subject of his case. Interrogations on charges such as spreading lies during an interview with the Persian BBC about the poor condition of the women prisoners in Shahr-e-Ray Prison. There were also interrogations in other cases, such as the case of the suspicious death of the late Kavous Seyed Emami, as well as the reason why he accepted the advocacy of Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh etc.
When Payam knocked on the cell door in protest to the bright light and the loud sound of the fans, and asked for them to be turned off so that he could sleep for a few minutes, three agents went into his cell and one of them threatened him with a taser and said that if he once again knocked on the cell door, he would be treated differently!
Payam did not knock the cell door anymore, but the same three agents retuned and took him to a part of ward 2A, other than the prison infirmary. The agents said in a mocking and terrifying manner: “We will inject you with an ampule so that you can sleep comfortably!” When Payam protest and resisted, they told him that the diagnosis was not with him and that they were not his toy. After the forcible injection, Payam was transferred to his cell and fell asleep. However, he developed seizure in sleep and bit his tongue so hard that half of his tongue was torn off. In the same situation, he lost consciousness again and due to severe bleeding, all his clothes were soaked in blood and blood poured into his throat.
The next morning, he was taken by ambulance to Baqiyatallah Hospital where first his tongue was sutured by a surgeon, and then he was admitted to the neurology department because of having seizures, confusion, and impaired orientation. During all this time, his concerned family and the other lawyers who constantly went to the Evin court, inquiring about his condition, were left unaware and did not receive any information from the interrogator.
While doctors were trying to diagnose and treat the injuries caused by the injection, IRGC intelligence agents went to the hospital and said that the interrogator had agreed to convert the detention into bail which required him to go to the prosecutor’s office, and that the hospital would not discharge him unless he signed the discharge form and accepted the responsibility. Payam Derafshan signed the consent form. However, in the scorching heat of late June, the agents placed him for a long time in the back of an ironclad windowless vehicle, while his tongue was still bleeding, and he even had no tissue to wipe it up. After getting off the vehicle, he realized that he was in the yard of the Revolutionary Court, not the Evin courthouse to convert his detention to bail!
Despite his critical situation, in order for his colleagues not to see him in this condition, he was taken to the judge from the back door of the court where there was no elevator; and all these on the pretext of letting him to appeal his detention! Payam was taken to Judge Moghiseh, and endured his offensive shouts and remarks, as well as interrogators’ mockery, while because of bleeding and severe swelling of his sutured tongue, he was unable to respond them and to defend himself! Afterward, instead of returning him to the hospital for treatment, and while it was impossible for him to chew or eat, and despite his need for specialized care so that he would not have seizure again, he was transferred to the public ward of Evin prison, not even to the prison infirmary!
Then after developing another seizure, instead of being taken to a specialized hospital, he was handcuffed and shackled and transferred to Razi Aminabad Hospital (Psychiatric Hospital)! There he underwent shock therapy which, in addition to aggravating his disease, caused serious damage to his brain and he went unconscious again!
After all these, his family and other lawyers managed to find him via the information they received from political prisoners in Evin. In addition to learning about his critical condition, his family and friends found out that the soldiers working for prison organization, having been incited by two paramedics, had beaten him because of his protest against being handcuffed and shackled, which caused him a constant pain and suffer!
The prison officials did not send Payam Derafshan to the court and therefore, he was tried in absentia by Judge Afshari who sentenced Payam to 2.5 years in prison as well as a 2-year ban from practicing law. The verdict was later upheld in the Court of Appeals and was finalized.
Despite his serious illness, they rejected the conversion of his detention, and he remained in prison until the final verdict was issued!
With the effort of his family who paid the doctor in hospital, and with the help of a social worker who guided his family, they convinced the doctor to write that Payam had been recovered and that he could be returned to the prison. And finally, he was saved from having a fate similar to that of late Behnam Mahjoubi.
Recently, in prison, due to the kind care of the political prisoners in ward 4 of Evin Prison, his condition has relatively improved.
Finally, with the efforts of his family and the lawyers, and after his sentence was finalized, he was granted a few days leave. Afterward, the Forensic Medicine Department approved that he needed specialized medical treatment and requested for the implementation of his sentence to be postponed. Therefore, he was granted sick leave, and now his sick leave has been extended, and since he has served one third of his sentence, he is currently on parole and is completing the process of his treatment.
“Inflicting intentional damage to Payam Derafshan’s tongue as a lawyer who defended the human rights and spoke for vulnerable and defenseless people, seems to to be a significant message the government is sending to the Iranians!”