Saba Kordafshari is deported from Evin to Qarchak Prison in Varamin
9-December-2020
Category: Prisoners، Women
Breathing in Confinement: December 9, 2020, as per the order of the prosecutor, Saba Kordafshari, a civil activist, was deported from Evin Prison to Qarchak Prison in Varamin.
Rahela Ahmadi, Saba’s mother, asked the prison officials for transferting her along with her daughter. She however, was told that the prosecutor has ordered that Saba should be transferred alone.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, on December 9, 2020, as per the prosecutor’s order, Saba Kordafshari, a civil activist sentenced to 24 years in prison, was deported to Qarchak prison in Varamin.
Less than a week after Breathing in Confinement published a report on the deport of three political prisoners, Sepideh Farhan, Mojgan Keshavarz and Shaghayegh Zamania, from women’s ward in Evin to Qarchak Prison, another prisoner also was transferred to Qarchak.
While Saba Kordafshari was being transferred to Qarchak, her mother, Raheleh Ahmadi, who is serving her 31-month sentence in Evin, asked the authorities to transfer her along with her daughter, but she was told that, as per the prosecutor’s order, Saba had to be transferred alone.
These recent deportations are taking place concurrently with the outbreak of Covid 19 disease in prisons, while the authorities’ negligence has endangered the lives of prisoners.
Saba Kurd Afshari, a 24-year-old civil activist, was arrested for the second time by security forces at his home on June 1, 2019. And after 11 days of being under interrogation, she was transferred to Qarchak prison in Varamin. Later on August 13, 2019, Ms. Kordafshari was transferred to Evin Prison, and her court hearing was held on August 19, 2019. Meanwhile, for about 10 days in July, 2020, to be interrogated, Ms. Kordafshari was transferred to Evin’s Ward 2A under the IRGC Intelligence Service, where she had been in several times before.
According to a preliminary ruling issued by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, Ms. Kordafshari was sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison along with other social deprivations on charges of “spreading immorality and depravity through removing hijab and walking unveiled,” “propaganda activities against the regime,” as well as ” conspiracy and colluding to commit a crime against the security of the country.”
Considering the multiplicity of her crimes and her previous record, her prison sentences were increased to one and a half of the sentences in similar situations.
In the Court of Appeal, Ms. Kordafshari’s sentence was reduced to 9 years in prison, of which according to Article 134 of the penal code, 7 years would be applicable to her on charge of “conspiracy and colluding to commit a crime against national security.”
However, in a clear violation of law, the verdict of the Court of Appeals was overlooked and she was sentenced to 24 years in prison, of which 15 years are enforceable. In addition, the charge of “spreading immorality and depravity through removing hijab and walking unveiled,” for which Saba had previously been acquitted, was added to her indictment again.