The following op-ed piece was written by Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir. Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir is a human rights defender and award winning journalist, currently living inToronto, Canada. He was the spokesman for the United Student Front, the biggest student secular democrat group in Iran, and founder of the first student human rights organization known as the Student Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners.
Mr. Ardeshir was arrested 12 times during his student and human rights activities before he eventually fled Iran.
He also spent two years in solitary confinement.
In 2007 the Human Rights Watch announced that seven Iranians including Hassan Zarezadeh Ardeshir are among the writers who received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett prize, an award that recognizes writers globally who have been victims of political persecution. Mr. Ardeshir is currently executive director of the Toronto-based organization The International Center for Human Rights for Iran.
by H. Zarezadeh Ardeshir
Efforts for release of political activists have always been the top priority of Political and human rights activists. Many believe the release of political prisoners is one of the main steps towards democracy and restoration of human rights in Iran. On Saturday September 3rd, the Islamic Republic of Iran announced release of one hundred political prisoners.
Tehran prosecutor Mr. Abbas Jaafari Dowlatabadi announced last Friday that hundred “security” prisoners (political prisoners) have been released under the amnesty of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr. Dowlatabadi claimed that the released prisoners had confessed to their sins and that they had shown repentance for their crimes, asking for forgiveness. Hence the amnesty from the supreme leader. As it can be observed, the Tehran prosecutor intends to make two important points:
1. Political prisoners have done wrong. Therefore, they felt regret and subsequently asked for forgiveness from the Supreme leader.
2. The Supreme leader has accepted their requests; the prisoners are guilty and the regime is tolerant of dissent.
I contacted some of the released political prisoners and their families and found out many of them had not asked for forgiveness—contrary to the prosecutor’s claim.
Furthermore, Tehran’s prosecutor claimed seventy prisoners had been released last Saturday and thirty others were to be released in following days. However, the number of released prisoners on Saturday was nearly forty, and they have yet to reach seventy–let alone one hundred.
What is more is that most of the released political prisoners did not even need such amnesty as they had mostly finished their jail terms. The rest had already passed half of their prison terms and thus based on “Conditional Prison Rule” could be discharged. Moreover, the released prisoners were from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran with no one from other jails such as Rajai prison in Karaj (Gohardasht) among them.
Hardest opponents of the regime such as Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, Behrouz Javid Tehrani, Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Zayd Abadi, Isah SaharKhizi, Keyvan Samimi, and many others are still held in Gohardasht prison. There are also well-known political prisoners in Evin prison such as Mohammad Sedigh Kaboudvand, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mahdiyeh Golroo, Bahareh Hedayat, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Bahman Ahmadi Amooyi, Abdollah Momeni, Mahdi Khodai who were not among the released prisoners.
The release of political prisoners is sure a sign of political maneuvering on the part of the regime as a preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections and the expected visit of the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur to Iran. So the judiciary strives to score political credits for the supreme leader and the regime. As history tells us, regime would never forgive those who are considered a serious threat to its security, and it goes as far as executing them. Therefore, what lies behind the “release of one hundred prisoners” is a façade intended to cover a senseless propaganda.
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