Recent Reports on Jailed Students in Iran

Mahdieh Golroo and Bahareh Hedayat, two jailed student activists, were transferred from the quarantined methadone ward in Evin prison to solitary confinement on April 9th. The Jaras news site reported that the family members learned of the transfer and were told that their visitation rights were banned when they arrived at Evin prison for the standard weekly prisoner visit on April 12th. However, last minute, cabin visits were approved, but the two student activists were never brought in from solitary confinement to the visitation room.

In the first week of April, after a four-month ban on visits, the family members of the two activists were granted the standard prisoner visitation rights.

According to Bahareh Hedayat’s husband, Amin Ahmadian, the two student prisoners were transferred back to their ward in the same week. He also said that on April 19th, the families were able to have cabin visits with them.

On April 13th, the Committee of Human Rights Reporters announced that Siamak Sohrabi, a civil engineering graduate student at Sharif University was released from prison on bail. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Sharif University Islamic Students Association General Council and the spokesperson for the Islamic Association University Council. He was a previous member of the university’s Guild Council and the civil engineering department. Prior to his arrest on February 28, 2011 by security agents as he was leaving the university, Siamak Sohrabi had written a letter addressed to Dr. Reza Roosta Azad, the university’s Chancellor. He criticized the Chancellor’s behaviour toward the students and the amount of pressure he places on them. Siamak Sohrabi called upon the Chancellor to make efforts for the release of Sharif University students.

Amirkabir University biomedical engineering PhD student, Fouad Sojoudi Farimani was sentenced to eight years in prison by branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, according to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters on April 13th.

The verdict was issued while Fouad Sojoudi Farimani was being held in the Tehran psychiatric hospital (Mehregan Hospital), due to the pressures he endured while detained in the the IRGC run ward 2A of Evin prison.

Fouad Sojoudi Farimani was arrested on September 14, 2010, following the start of the new school year. He was transferred to ward 2A, but was eventually released on a $480,000 USD bail.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Sharif University of Technology and received his Master’s at Polytechnic University. Fouad was expelled from completing his PhD due to his arrest.

Imprisoned student activist leader, Milad Asadi has been transferred to Evin’s ward 209 solitary confinement following a prison furlough for the Persian New Year, according to Daneshjoo News on April 14th.

Milad Asadi is a member of the Central Council of Tahkim Vahdat (Iranian student alumni organization). He was a former student leader at Khaje Nasir University of Technology (KNTU). He was arrested on November 30, 2009 and later sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for allegedly “Insulting the leader”, “Acting against national security”, and “Propaganda against the Islamic Republic”.

Homayoun Panahi, a University of Zanjan philosophy student was arrested at his home following a raid by regime authorities, according to the RAHANA group. He was transferred to Arak prison.

Homayoun Panahi was first detained after the Ashura protests and sentenced to six months and one day in prison for “Disrupting the public” and “Acting against national security”.

The verdict has been carried out.

On Saturday April 9, 2011, Sara Mahboubi, a 21 year old Baha’i student deprived of higher education, was arrested in her home by the Sari security forces and transferred to the detention center located at the Sari Ministry of Intelligence. According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the security forces also searched the home and seized [religious] books, handwritten notes, CD’s, and a computer. The Intelligence officials then went to the Sobhani residence in an attempt to arrest Sara Mahboubi’s friend Dorsa Sobhani.

On April 7th, a ten year discretionary prison sentence issued by the lower court for Sara Mahboubi was delivered to her lawyer. According to HRANA, one of the charges against Sara Mahboubi as outlined in court documents is “Membership in the anti-revolutionary Facebook website.”

“Before her arrest, Sara Mahboubi had been summoned to court by phone several times in order to receive the verdict, but she had refused to comply since the summon was done by phone,” HRANA reported.

Sara Mahboubi’s first arrested occurred on June 24, 2010 by the Sari Ministry of Intelligence, according to her uncle. He also said that she spent 24 days in a solitary confinement cell at the Sari Ministry of Intelligence office before being released on bail on July 18, 2010.

Sara Mahboubi’s real crime is her belief in the Baha’i faith. According to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, believers of the Baha’i faith do not citizen rights. They are deprived of higher education, their leaders are imprisoned, their businesses are set on fire, and their houses, farmlands, and tombstones are destructed.

According to Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran and other Iranian human rights groups, on April 9th, student activist Nader Ahsani was summoned to branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court to receive an inhumane and illegal sentence of two years in prison, issued by Judge Moghiseh, a member of the commission responsible for the 1988 political massacres in Iran.

Nader Ahsani’s first arrest by the Ministry of Intelligence agents occurred on December 2, 2007, days before the national Student Day ceremonies (December 7th). The leftist student activist was kidnapped from the front door of his home and taken to ward 209 of Evin prison. He spent 53 days in solitary confinement under interrogation and severe physical and psychological torture. On the 68th day, he was released on a $100 thousand USD bail. The torture marks were still visible on his body at the time of his release.

On February 8, 2009, he was arrested again at his home, this time along with his sister Elham Ahsani. The Ministry of Intelligence agents brutally attacked him physically, then transferred him to ward 209 of Evin prison. During his incarceration, he endured interrogations and physical and psychological torture. However, due to the international pressures, Nader Ahsani was released from prison fourteen days later. Nader Ahsani was completing his military service at the time of his arrest and detention.

On February 12, 2010, with the excuse of building a new case file against Nader Ahsani, the Ministry of Intelligence interrogators (the torturers) tried him in branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. Nader Ahsani was charged with, “Acting against national security”, “Propaganda against the regime and society”, “Conspiring against the regime”, and other charges.

He was previously charged with engaging in student activism by the same branch presided by Judge Moghisheh and sentenced to one year in prison.

His sentence was executed on April 20, 2010 and he was released from prison on February 7, 2011.

Source: http://persian2english.com/?p=21453