The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Women Committee reported recently that Amnesty International had posted a tweet about how bad conditions were for women being detained in Semnan prison, as well as detailing how one prisoner at the prison, Maryam Akbari Monfared, was receiving ill-treatment for seeking the truth and justice for her siblings’ murders.
The post on Twitter read, “Women in Semnan Prison in Iran are enduring cruel conditions including poor access to flush toilets, shower, hygiene items and medical care for infections and lice infestation. @Mmhajmohammadi must allow inspections by international monitors including Javaid Rehman.”
The NCRI Women Committee said, “Amnesty International also issued an urgent action statement on August 27, in which it raised concern over the condition of political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared. Amnesty said Maryam Akbari Monfared was ‘ill-treated for seeking truth and justice’.”
In March of this year, 12 years into her imprisonment sentence, Monfared was abruptly relocated from Evin Prison and banished to the Prison of Semnan. She suffers from Thyroid malfunction and joint rheumatism and is unlikely to be receiving any care for her medical issues while she is being detained.
Amnesty International explained how Monfared, since her transference to Semnan prison, has been held in cruel and inhumane conditions, seemingly a punishment for letters she wrote which condemned the Iranian regime’s human rights violations. She is also seeking answers and justice for her siblings who were forcibly abducted and executed in secret in 1988.
In an earlier report, the NCRI Women Committee said that Maryam’s sister and brother were victims of the 1988 massacre in which 30,000 political prisoners were brutally executed. A further two of her brothers lost their lives during mass executions in the early 1980s.
The NCRI Women Committee said, “Prison authorities have deprived Mrs. Akbari of visitation by her three daughters, claiming they want to prevent the Coronavirus from spreading. Nevertheless, they allow new arrivals into the prison wards without keeping them for the necessary time in the quarantine.”
Initially arrested on December 31, 2009, following the great uprising that took place days earlier, she was given a 15-year prison sentence in June 2010 by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran. Her alleged charge was her supposed ‘membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran’, a charge which she has never accepted.
Since her arrival at the Semnan prison six months ago, she has yet to receive a telephone card. The only time she can contact her family is in the presence of a prison agent, who frequently disconnects her calls causing great upset to both herself and her family.
As of now, no legal authority has yet accepted the responsibility of sending Maryam into exile at Semnan Prison.
The NCRI Women Committee said, “The Prosecutor’s Office, the Implementation of Verdicts Office, and the Assistant Prosecutor of Evin (Amin Vaziri) shirk the responsibility of sending Mrs. Akbari into exile. But the warden of Semnan Prison, Amir Asghar Alaii, says he has received orders to detain Maryam Akbari Monfared in his prison.”
