Omid Alishenas Deprived of Family Visits

HRANA News Agency – Omid Alishenas, the well-known imprisoned civil rights activist has been deprived of visiting his family, because of refusing to wear prison uniform since near three months ago.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), despite the presence of his family for the visit on last Wednesday July 1, prison officers did not permit it. After his insist in seeing his family, the prison guard intervened and he had to go back to the ward without having visit.

Simin Ayvazi, Omid Alishenas’s mother told HRANA’s reporter, “for the third time we requested for the visit, but they did not allow because of refusal of wearing prison uniform (called barb wire). Omid had insisted that he would not go out from visiting hall without visit, but prison guard intervened and he had to go back to the ward”.

This is while there is no regulated mandate regarding wearing prison uniform and this applies even in Evin prison just by favor. Mrs. Aynazi added, despite the fact that she had not been able to see his son for three months, but she did not want to push him to do something in contrast with his opinion. “There is no law in regard of wearing prison uniform, and I wish this obsession about the wearing uniform was the same about the actual written laws and regulation, and the bail would be accepted and my son would be released, or would not be kept with dangerous prisoners in obvious violation of the law”.

She described the condition of the ward as very bad and said, despite following the matter by her and other families and protests of prisoners themselves, perusing the condition of ward still remained as only a promise.

According to HRANA, ward number 8 of Evin prison is one the worst wards in this prison where many political prisoners are kept with non-political and even dangerous prisoners. According to prisoners, this ward is so crowded that many of prisoners sleep in corridors.

Omid Alishenas, was arrested in September 2014 and transferred to ward 2-A (controlled by the revolutionary guard) and despite issuance of 100 million Tomans bail, the court refused to accept it for unknown reasons. According to his mother, still one of their requests is their son to be released on issued bail until the final verdict to be announced.

Mr. Alishenas has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of collusion against the national security and propaganda against the regime, for his peaceful civil rights activities. His trial along with three others took less than 15 minutes in branch number 28 of the revolutionary court by chief judge Moghiseh, and these activists received the total of 38 years in prison.

Cyber activities, publishing critical articles about the human rights situation and executions, sympathy with the families of political prisoners and death row prisoners, attending the gathering in solidarity with Kobani, sympathy with the families of victims of aftermath of 2009 presidential elections and being in contact with human rights activists are the documents that have been used as a base for these charges.

According to HRANA’s legal advisors, the verdict contains many strange legal mistakes that in fair and precise investigation there is a great chance of change in the verdict in the appeal court.

Mr. Alishenas is spending his 11th months in temporary arrest and waiting for the verdict of the court of appeal.