Iran Judiciary Spokesman Claims: No Political Prisoners in Iran
Published by Ali on July 4, 2019
Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for Iran’s Judiciary, says there are no political prisoners in Iran.
Gholamhossein Esmaili made the claim at a live televised program, after being asked about the recent death of a political prisoner murdered in Tehran’s notorious Fashafuyeh Prison and why political prisoners were not separated from ordinary criminals.
Esmaili said; “Those who sometimes claim (to be political prisoners) are those who have committed crimes against security”.
Esmaili also tried to cover up the regime’s responsibility for the death of 21-year-old Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali, who was stabbed to death by two prisoners on June 10.
Shir Mohammad Ali was sentenced to eight years behind bars on the security charges of “blasphemy,” “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic,” “insulting the leader” and “spreading propaganda” against the regime.
Other officials of the Iranian regime have also denied the existence of political prisoners in Iran time and again.
Earlier in February 2019 the former Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani claimed that Iran has no political prisoners.
In a meeting with Judiciary officials in Tehran on February 4, Amoli Larijani said that “We currently do not have such prisoners.”
Several activists on social media explained that time that the Judiciary’s jargon for “political prisoners” is “security prisoners.”
International human rights watchdogs have observed that most political activists in Iran are charged with “acting against security,” possibly because the government does not want to be criticized for having “political prisoners.”
According to a Human Rights Watch 2018 report on Iran, there are currently about one thousand political prisoners in Iran. These include political prisoners affiliated with various political groups, as well as journalists, hundreds of members of religious minorities including Bahais, dervishes and those who have converted into Christianity.
Most recently, a 28-year-old detainee from the Ahvazi Arab minority, died under suspicious circumstances in a detention centre in Ahvaz, in south western Iran.
