Maryam Akbari Monfared and Athena Daemi New Case Trial date and The Branch

International Liberty Association: The trial of Athena Daemi, a civil activist, and Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner, in connection with a case recently opened during their imprisonment, will be held in the Quds Court on 31 August 2020. The charges against the two political prisoners, held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, are based on disturbing the prison order by chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic.

According to this notification, Ms. Daemi and Ms. Akbari Monfared must appear in Quds Court on 31 August 2020. The accusation against these individuals is that they disturbed the order of the prison by chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic.

Maryam Akbari Monfared was summoned to Branch 2 of the Evin Prosecutor’s Office on June 12 to be charged orally. Ms. Akbari Monfared refused to attend the interrogation session due to the outbreak of coronary heart disease in the country, failure to receive a written court notification, and lack of access to a lawyer. Earlier, on June 7, Athena Daemi was charged in the same branch with “accusing the prison order of chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic.” Ms. Daemi denied the charges after attending the interrogation session.

ILA had previously reported that in order to ramp up pressure on women activists and political prisoners, the Iranian’s judiciary has summoned and filed new cases against them. Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared was summoned to the Evin Courthouse on Wednesday, 10 June 2020.

However, she refused to turn out for the hearing. She stated that the reason for her refusal to appear in court was that she had not received a written notice from the court and that she had been denied access to a lawyer. The new charge levelled against Maryam Akbari is her chanting slogans on the night of 11 February 2020, the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which toppled the Shah.

Maryam Akbari was essentially deprived of access to legal counsel and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a 5-minute trial. She is serving her 11th year in Evin Prison without even a day off.

Also, on Saturday night, 6 June 2020, the Evin Prison authorities informed the civil activist, Atena Daemi, that she had been summoned to the Evin Courthouse on the morning of 7 June.

Atena Daemi appeared in court presuming that the hearing was related to her previous case. But she realized upon arrival that this was a new case and she was accused of disrupting the prison’s order by chanting slogans on the night of 11 February 2020.

Atena Daemi denied the allegations during her interrogations.
Earlier, on 13 May 2020, another hearing was held in the Revolutionary Court of Tehran dealing with other charges levelled against this Children Rights Activist prisoner.

ILA: Atena Daemi, a civil activist defending children’s rights, was arrested on 21 October 2014. She was sentenced to 14 years in prison on 14 March 2015, for her peaceful civil activities, on charges of “propaganda against the state”, “association and collusion against national security”, “insulting the leader”, and “hiding the evidence of a crime.” Atena Daemi was freed on 15 February 2016, after serving 16 months and her sentence was subsequently decreased to 7 years. But she was violently re-arrested on 26 November 2016 and taken to Evin Prison to serve her sentence.

---