Political prisoners moved to "horror jail"
Ahmadinejad’s arbitrary justice seeks to break regime critics
- The student activist and journalist Mohammad Pour Abdollah, who was sentenced to six years in prison.
At least eleven political prisoners have been moved to the infamous and completely overfilled "Ghezel Hesar" prison in the city of Karaj. Among them is the well-known student activist and journalist Mohammad Pour Abdollah, who was sentenced to six years in prison. According to the ISHR/IGFM’s assessment, the move serves to further raise the pressure on critics of the Islamic Republic in order to break them.
The prison, located 20 km northwest of the capital Teheran, is infamous - even in within Iranian comparisons - for catastrophic prison conditions. Last March, Ghezel Hesar made headlines when, according to official reports, 14 people were killed and 33 wounded during a prison revolt; it is said that the actual number of victims was higher. Former prisoners report torture and physical abuse by the prison staff, catastrophic hygiene conditions and a lack of medical care.
In the prison, regime critics are put in cells with murderers, rapists and drug dealers. According to the ISHR/IGFM, they are robbed of practically all of the rights usually granted to prisoners, including family visits. The ISHR/IGFM fears for the health and physical safety of these political prisoners.
