Report on detention of political prisoner Mostafa Tajzadeh

On April 19, 2011, the *Kaleme website said that, according to the latest reports from Evin prison, Mostafa Tajzadeh’s physical condition is “worrisome”. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Mostafa Tajzadeh had a disc surgery before his imprisonment. He currently suffers from arthritis in his neck and requires surgery.

Mostafah Tajzadeh is a senior member of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization and the Central Council of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (both are reformist organizations). He was arrested on June 13, 2009, one day after the disputed 2009 Iranian Presidential election. He was released from prison on March 12, 2010.

According to various sources, Mostafa Tajzadeh returned to prison in August 2010 to complete his six-year jail sentence after writing a grievance letter with six other top-ranking reformist figures (who had been arrested and detained inside the IRGC-run ward 2A of Evin prison) to Commander Moshfeq and other commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Due to the interference by the IRGC’s Intelligence unit, he was transferred to a cell under the supervision of the Ministry of Intelligence. Normally, political prisoners are held in the general ward.

For some time, Mostafa Tajzadeh shared a cell in ward 2A with Mohammad Nourizad, the jailed Iranian filmmaker and writer. Radio Farda reported today that Mohammad Nourizad has been on hunger strike for the past 40 days. Mohammad Nourizad’s wife, Fatemeh Maleki told the Kaleme website that her husband went on hunger strike because “the Prosecutor and Judiciary have ignored complaints he filed in late autumn. In those complaints Nourizad said his interrogators assaulted him and that they and a judge verbally insulted his family.”

According to various reports, for several months, Mostafa Tajzadeh had also shared a cell with an inmate who suffered from psychological problems. Sources close to Kaleme have said Mostafa Tajzadeh was likely held with a mentally ill prisoner to increase the pressures on him while under the torture of solitary confinement.

He is currently in a severely poor physical state. Kaleme reports that, in the past two years, he has endured a minimum total of 11 months in solitary confinement. Mostafa Tajzadeh’s family members said in the Kaleme interview that the political activist has been abused by the IRGC agents in Evin prison.

On March 1st, Saham News reported that Mostafa Tajzadeh’s wife, Fakhrolsadat Mohtashamipour, a member of the Iran Islamic Participation Front, was arrested while protests took place in Tehran that day. Mohtashamipour allegedly contacted her daughter with her mobile phone during the arrest. Mohtashamipour’s daughter said, “I could hear my mother disputing with the anti-riot police forces.”

During the Persian New Year holidays in late March 2011, Fakhrolsadat Mohtashamipour launched a hunger strike and was transferred to the hospital a few days later. Several political prisoners in Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison launched a group hunger strike on April 10th in solidarity with Fakhrolsadat Mohtashamipour.

Fakhrolsadat Mohtashamipour agreed to a three-day prison furlough on April 14th after her request to briefly see her husband was met. According to reports by Tahavole Sabz, the three-day prison furlough was possible after Fakhrolsadat Mohtashamipour had completed her interrogation process. She was scheduled to return to prison on April 17th.

Source: Persian2English