Mr. Putin, history will judge you harshly

To the attention of President Vladimir Putin,

Please accept the greetings of an imprisoned cleric,

I am a cleric who has been in prison for eight years. I have never been granted a single day of furlough, prohibited from receiving any medical treatment and have been barred from having any proper legal representation; and at present, due to my ever worsening ailments, I am near death. I am guilty of nothing other than offering the love of the divine and I have committed no crime other than defending the freedom of though and speech. 

 I speak for the people of Iran in voicing their dissatisfaction with political Islam and I echo the huge majority of our people when I speak of the tyranny and oppression. I tell you this so that it is recorded in the pages of history and so that the global community are made aware of the crimes committed by the dictators and so that the concealed information is recorded in the annals of time.

During the entire existence of the Islamic revolution, our nation has not seen a single good day or spent a calm night. The monarchic clergy have also exported their revolution and entrenched themselves in other countries by distributing weapons of mass destruction. To that end our country’s nationalized, natural resources which is our people’s wealth has been plundered and squandered, and today Iranians have become a destitute and bankrupted populace who suffer from all kinds of injustice and social ills, have basically been left to wither away. Unfortunately this is all as a result of your eternal support for the inquisitionist oligarchs whose religious dictatorship is propped up, behind the scenes by Russia. 

So now, my fellow compatriots have turned their gaze on you, some with rage and others in desperation. The news tells us that your opponents protest against the ruling system in Russia and freely demand their rights. However, here, the protesters tongues are cut out, the hands of the independent journalist are cut off and the religious apparatus silence our entire country.

How does your conscience allow the innocent children of Iran to be deprived of what is rightfully theirs? And for their property to be spent on Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq...?  Have you heard that eighty percent of the citizens of this land live under the poverty line?

Mr. Putin, who is answerable for our misery and ruination? You who are Christian, what kind of a response can you offer your prophet when  you back those who are plundering and violating? In my horrible condition in prison, I take God as my witness, that history will judge you harshly.

Seyyed Hossein Kazemeini-Boroujerdi

Evin Prison, Tehran, Iran

May 2014

Translated and edited by: Banafsheh Zand