Letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
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| Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein |
22 April 2016
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
Mr. High Commissioner,
I am writing to
request your urgent attention to the plight of Iranian prisoners of conscience
and political prisoners, and in particular prisoners who are denied proper
medical treatment.
Before offering
information on sick prisoners, I may recall briefly some of the relevant UN
rules as well as prison rules in Iran.
Article 22 (2) of
the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by UN
Economic and Social Council on 13 May 1977 provides: Sick prisoners who require
specialist treatment must be transferred to specialised institutions or to
civil hospitals.
Article 45 (3) of
the same Rules: The transport of prisoners shall be carried out at the expense
of the administration and equal conditions shall obtain for all of them.
And those provisions
are based on Article 6 (1), which provides: The following rules shall be
applied impartially. There shall be no discrimination on grounds of race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status.
The United Nations
Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners (1990) states that all
“prisoners shall have access to the health services available in the country
without discrimination on the grounds of their legal situation” (Paragraph 9).
The Body of
Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or
Imprisonment, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1988, provides: “A proper
medical examination shall be offered to a detained or imprisoned person as
promptly as possible after his admission to the place of detention or
imprisonment, and thereafter medical care and treatment shall be provided
whenever necessary. This care and treatment shall be provided free of charge”
(Principle 24).
The Rules of
Procedure of Iran’s Prisons Organisation provide for treatment of all prisoners
both within and outside prisons: “The medical care and health requirements of
the sick inmates must be provided for as much as possible within the
institution or prison… In cases necessary, the prisoner shall be allowed to
receive treatment outside with the prison’s Health Section approval, permission
of the prison governor and ratification of the observer judge” (Article 103).
It is appalling that
the Islamic Republic of Iran authorities have consistently refused to observe
the international obligations as expressed in the UN Rules and even their own
regulations, in particular in respect of prisoners of conscience, to have
access to proper and regular medical treatment. As you will note below, their
failure to provide the sick political prisoners with adequate health and
medical care even within the State’s prisons and prison health facilities – in
line with their systematic denial of many other rights of political prisoners –
may amount to a systematic practice aiming at further intimidating civil
society voices critical of the regime and possibly to the crime of ‘torture,
inhuman punishments and ill treatment.’
Indeed, the
authorities punish prisoners of conscience twice: first by arbitrarily
arresting and imprisoning them for their peaceful activities, then by creating
unbearable conditions of detention, including deprivation from medical
treatment for sick prisoners that aggravates further their bad health and
physical conditions.
I regret to
emphasise that the information below is by no means comprehensive. They are
only a few of the many more sick prisoners of conscience in need of medical
treatment.
DEATH IN CUSTODY
FIDH and other human
rights groups have documented cases of nearly 50 mostly political prisoners who
have lost their lives in prisons across Iran since 2003 under unusual
conditions for various reasons, including: beating and subsequent failure to
provide treatment, torture and lack of medical care.
In some cases, the
authorities appear to have deliberately refused timely medical treatment,
leading to death of prisoners (e.g. MessrsAkbar Mohammadi in 2006, Hoda
Saber in 2011 and several others). In other cases, prisoners have died
under torture, e.g. Mr. Sattar Beheshti, a blogger and worker, who
died in police custody in 2012. The latest related case concerned the
51-year-old Mr. Shahrokh Zamani(a unionist), who died in highly
dubious conditions in Rajai-Shahr prison in September 2015. Although the
authorities indicated that they would undertake an investigation, to this date
they have not published any information in this regard.
EXPERIENCE OF THE NEWLY RELEASED PRISONERS
Mr. Mohammad
Seifzadeh, human rights lawyer and a founding member of the Defenders of
Human Rights Center (FIDH member organisation), who was released from prison on
10 March 2016 after serving five years for his peaceful human rights
activities, has recalled that he was not taken to a doctor for some time when
he suffered a stroke in prison. His hands and feet were numb and then he lost
some of his eyesight and hearing. Much later, in March 2016, the Forensic
Medicine Commission found that he had suffered several strokes while in prison.
The Prosecutor’s Office had been warned four times about the possibility of
Mr. Seifzadeh’s death in prison.
Furthermore, when
Mr. Seifzadeh was hospitalised for breathing problems, he had to pay for
all hospital expenses, because the prison or its Health Section would never pay
it for a prisoner. Mr. Seifzadeh reaffirmed that all prisoners are in
similar conditions and the authorities have not allocated any budget for
hospital expenses of prisoners. If prisoners don’t pay, they will stay in the
queue for a long time and they may not stay alive. Additionally, every prisoner
has to pay for the expenses of three prison officers who guard them.
Mr. Alireza
Rajaie, a journalist and university professor, who was released on 4
October 2015 after serving more than four years for his peaceful activities,
had been suffering from dental complications while in prison. After release, he
has been diagnosed with jaw and facial cancer and is undergoing regular
chemotherapy.
SOME OF THE MORE URGENT CASES
Ms. Zeynab
Jalalian, a Kurdish political prisoner, who is serving a life-sentence, is
fast losing her eyesight, reportedly as a result of injuries and severe torture
during pre-trial detention.
Mr. Hossein
Ronaghi-Maleki, blogger, lost one of his kidneys and suffers from
insufficiency of the other kidney (both as a result of torture and ill-treatment
during his long pre-trial detention). He also suffers from digestive problems,
prolapsed disc, arthritis of the neck and knees. Since his arrest in the
aftermath of the 2009 Presidential Election protests and subsequent trial for
using his right to freedom of expression in his blog, he has been serving a
15-year prison sentence.
Ms. Nargess
Mohammadi, spokesperson of Defenders of Human Rights Center (FIDH member
organisation), suffers from muscular paralysis and lung complications. During a
brief transfer to hospital in October 2015, she was chained to the hospital
bed. Ms. Mohammadi was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for her human rights
activities and was arrested on 21 April 2012 to serve her sentence. However,
the authorities released her on medical grounds on 31 July 2012, but they
arrested her again on 5 May 2015 even though her diseases had not been cured.
She has been facing new charges related to her peaceful human rights
activities. The latest hearing against her was held on 20 April 2016.
Mr. Issa
Saharkhiz, journalist, has probably a cancerous tumour in his adrenal
glands. Mr. Saharkhiz was released from prison on 3 October 2013 after
serving more than four years in prison on charges relating to his criticisms of
the authorities and in particular of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The
authorities arrested him again on 2 November 2015. Since then, he has suffered
concussions but remains in pre-trial detention.
Mr. Afshin
Sohrabzadeh, a Kurdish political prisoner, suffers from cancer of intestine
and respiratory problem. He has been serving a 25-year prison sentence since
2010 for waging war against God (moharebeh) through his membership of a Kurdish
opposition group. He was reportedly severely tortured during pre-trial
detention.
SOME OTHER SICK PRISONERS
Mr. Ahmad
Daneshpour-Moghaddam, a political prisoner, is suffering from ulcerative
colitis. He has been on death row since 2009 on charge of contacts with an
opposition group abroad.
Mr Mohsen
Daneshpour-Moghaddam, a political prisoner, is suffering from heart
ailment, knee arthritis, and possibly Alzheimer. He has been on death row since
2009 on charge of contacts with an opposition group abroad.
Mr. Behnam
Ebrahimzadeh, a unionist, suffers from arthritis of the neck and has had internal
bleeding, severe headaches, and kidney and intestinal complications.
Mr. Ebrahimzadeh served a 5-year prison sentence for his peaceful union
activities from 2010-2015. Before completing his sentence, the authorities
brought new charges against him and sentenced him to a new prison term of 7
years and 10 months.
Ms. Bahareh
Hedayat, a student and women’s rights defender, could be deprived from the
possibility to have children, by denial of the right to pursue treatment
outside of prison. Ms. Hedayat, who has been in prison since 2009 for her
peaceful activities, was due to be released in August 2015, but the authorities
retained her in prison to serve a two-year prison sentence that had been
suspended.
Mr. Mohammad-Seddiq
Kaboudvand, president of Human Rights Organisation of Kurdistan, suffers
from heart ailment, prostate and kidney problems, and high blood pressure.
During his term in prison, he has suffered a heart attack and strokes.
Mr. Kaboudvand has been serving a 10.5-year prison sentence since July
2007 for his human rights activities.
Mr. Mohammad
Hossein Kazemeyni-Borujerdi, a religious leader, suffers from diabetes,
asthma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney and heart problems and loss of vision in
one of his eyes. Since 2006, Mr. Kazemeyni-Borujerdi has been serving an
11-year prison sentence for his criticism of the Supreme Leader and the State’s
religious ideology.
Mr. Omid
Kokabee, a distinguished young physicist, who has been serving a 10-year
prison sentence since February 2011 for refusing to cooperate in the country’s
military research programmes, was recently diagnosed with ‘Renal Cell
Carcinoma’. He underwent an operation on 20 April 2016 and one of his kidneys
was removed.
Mr. Abdolfattah
Soltani, human rights lawyer and founding member of DHRC, suffers from
digestive disease and heart ailment. Mr. Soltani has been serving a
13-year prison sentence (recently reduced to 10 years) since 2011.
In conclusion,
I urge you to call upon the Iranian authorities to promptly guarantee all
prisoners immediate access to appropriate and adequate medical treatment and
health care in full compliance with international law, to immediately and
unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience since they are arbitrarily
detained, and to conform with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
ICCPR and all other international human rights instruments ratified by Iran.
All the best,
Karim Lahidji, FIDH President
CC. Dr Ahmed
Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran
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