Iran: Sick Political Activist Held Incommunicado

Following his arbitrary arrest on 1 September 2021, Abbas Vahedian was held for more than six months in solitary confinement nearly 24 hours a day in an informal, unmarked Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Mashhad. During this period, he was denied access to fresh air and natural light and held in a windowless cell where bright lamps were kept on 24 hours a day, causing him sleep deprivation and distress. Every few days, he was taken to a hallway for a short walk while blindfolded. He was also denied adequate healthcare, bedding, warm clothing, and regular family visits. Ministry of Intelligence agents told him that for his detention conditions to improve, he must denounce his political activities in writing and reveal the password to his phone. On 6 March 2022, the authorities transferred him to Vakilabad prison in Mashhad and locked him there in a room where prisoners are held in isolation. For a month, the authorities forced him to share the room with five or six other prisoners who were charged with or convicted of robbery and murder and had records of assault and self-harm. For example, Abbas Vahedian reported that one of the prisoners had dozens of self-inflicted stab injuries on his body and regularly burned himself with a heated spoon in prison. These conditions caused Abbas Vahedian mental anguish and sparked fears about his safety. On 4 April 2022, after his family and lawyer publicly spoke out, the authorities removed the abovementioned prisoners from the room and placed a prisoner also held for politically motivated reasons next to him.  

Throughout his imprisonment period, intelligence agents and prison officials have repeatedly withheld the medication that Abbas Vahedian needs for various health problems, including high blood pressure, high levels of lipid in his blood, lung complications and a skin condition, and on many occasions, when he has complained of pain, they have simply given him painkillers. Abbas Vahedian’s family understands that the authorities have also failed to vaccinate him against Covid-19. This is while he has a history of lung complications including breathing difficulties and a persistent cough and is at increased risk of severe illness if he contracts Covid-19 in prison. Abbas Vahedian also suffers from gum disease, which emerged during his previous 11-month imprisonment in 2019 and 2020 as a result of medical neglect of the open wounds he sustained in his mouth during arrest. In December 2021, after repeated follow-ups by his family, he was transferred to a dental clinic outside prison and two of his teeth were pulled out. No adequate pain relief or further care were provided, despite warnings by his dentist that he would risk worsening gum infections and tooth loss without long-term routine dental treatment. 

On 26 February 2022, Abbas Vahedian was transferred, while semi-conscious, to a hospital in Mashhad and admitted to a department specializing in drug toxicity. The authorities refused to provide his family with any information about the causes and circumstances leading to his partial loss of consciousness and hospitalization. According to an informed source, he said at the hospital that his health deteriorated after the authorities put unknown drugs in his food. On 28 February 2022, his family learned from hospital staff that he had been forcibly discharged against medical advice and while still disoriented. The authorities held him incommunicado for 48 hours and refused to provide his family with any information about his fate or whereabouts until his relatives spoke out publicly. In a brief phone call granted on 2 March 2022, he told his family that he had been returned to the informal, unmarked Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Mashhad where he had been held in solitary confinement since 1 September 2021. He confirmed to his family that he had fainted after eating tainted food. He also said that three nights before his latest hospitalization, that is, on 24 February 2022, he had also been brought to hospital with dangerously high blood pressure. The authorities interrupted his treatment on that occasion as well and returned him to prison against medical advice

Abbas Vahedian has been sentenced to a total of 21 years in prison on spurious “national security” charges solely stemming from his peaceful political activism. This consists of an 11-year prison sentence imposed in December 2021 for his peaceful work with political groups, which call for the formation of a secular democratic system in Iran, and a 10-year prison sentence imposed in October 2021 for authoring and co-signing an open letter, published in June 2019, which called for the resignation of Iran’s Supreme Leader and a fundamental change to the country’s constitution. In both cases, he was suddenly taken, without prior notice and information about the nature of charges against him, from detention to the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad, and told by judges whom he has described as aggressive and biased that he was on trial for acting against “national security”. In both instances, he responded that due to the serious legal breaches committed, he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court hearings and insisted that his lawyer be present. In both cases, the presiding judges ended the hearings within minutes and refused to reconvene. He was only allowed to meet his lawyer once in late December 2021 after his second verdict was issued.