Under Torture, a Political Prisoner Lost His Hearing

HRANA News Agency –A young, unknown political prisoner named Ahmad Shah Rezai who has been locked up in Evin prison since June 2010, has lost his hearing in one ear due to torture.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Ahmad Shah Rezai, 29, was arrested on June 12, 2010 in Enghelab Square during street demonstrations.

On June 12, 2010, Ahmad Shah Rezai had gone out to protest while wearing a green bandana on which the words “Death to Dictator” were inscribed and was subsequently arrested by plainclothes and Basiji agents. On the street, a member of the Basij militia had angrily grabbed this young man’s long hair and cut it with a knife while shouting, “This is the outcome of such sedition.”

After his arrest, Ahmad Shah Rezai was transferred to cellblock 2A and kept there for 10 days. He was then moved to a solitary confinement in cellblock 240 for a period of seventy four days. Meanwhile, he has lost his hearing in the right ear because of torture during interrogations.

The family of this political prisoner had no news of his whereabouts prior to his transfer to the general population in ward 350. So far, they still have not been able to visit him in prison.

Ahmad Shah Rezai was sentenced to three years in prison by the trial court, but later the Court of Appeals commuted his sentence to one and half year imprisonment.