Atena Daemi Demands Unconditional release of Prisoners of Conscience an Political Prisoners in Iran

International Liberty Association: According to the reports from Lakan Prison, in Rasht Atena Daemi sent a message out of the prison rejecting the authorities’ offer of asking for an amnesty, and said: I believe that unconditional release is the right of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

The following is the children’s rights activist prisoner, Atena Daemi, message from Lakan Prison, in Rasht, that was posted on twitter be her father, Mr. Hossein Daemi, on 21 March.

“Six of the best years of my life passed behind bars with much agony and torture because I stood up to criminals who have been pushing people towards poverty, jails, and death for 42 years. With utmost shamelessness, they tell me to write a request for amnesty to examine and set me free if they agree with it. But I believe that unconditional release is the right of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Not only will I not ask the oppressors for clemency for free-thinking and freedom-loving and insistence on what’s rights, but I will continue my path more determined than ever. I remind them that you are the ones to plea to people to forgive you and grant you amnesty.”

Atena Daemi, 32, must have been released on 04 July 4, 2020, after completing her 5-year prison term. But the Judiciary of Iran sentenced her again to a total of 5 years imprisonment and 74 lashes because of the fake allagations filed against her by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Atena was forcibly exiled to Lakan prison, in Rasht, by the Evin Prison authorities on 16 March 2021, just few days befor Iranian New Year’s Day.
ILA: Last year she also wrote an open letter and in that letter she said:

Yes, I mourned for the innocent people oppressed in our time and I accept the flogging sentence for it.

Good for the man who will strike the lashes. There is a proverb that says, “That who hits once, would receive two hits in return.”

They have been flogging people for a lifetime. These lashes are nothing compared to the numerous bullets which have pierced the hearts and heads of our people for 40 years.

I am willing to sacrifice for the families who have lost their loved ones, and those whose blood has been spilt.

These sham trials and the verdicts they have issued against me are so ridiculous that I don’t even think about them and I won’t appeal. Let them have more time to fabricate more cases against me.

I am free today because being free does not necessarily mean that you should be on the other side of the bars. Every new sentence affirms that I am free. And I will stand to the end and until I am alive.
Atena Daemi – Evin Prison – July 2020

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