Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared was summoned to the Courthouse of Evin on Saturday, July 1, 2023, where she was arraigned on five new charges. She was immediately returned to the Prison of Semnan, 216 km east of Tehran.
The new charges against Maryam Akbari Monfared come after she has been incarcerated for 13.5 years without a single day of leave, and there are only 18 months left of her 15-year sentence.
The new charges against Ms. Akbari Monfared include “propaganda against the state,” “assembly and collusion,” “dissemination of lies,” “insulting (Khamenei),” and “encouraging people to disrupt public order.” These charges are based on the letters and reports published by Maryam Akbari Monfared on social media.
Who is Maryam Akbari Monfared?
Born in 1975, Maryam Akbari Monfared has three daughters. She was arrested on December 30, 2009, in the middle of the night at home when she was putting her 4-year-old daughter, Sara, to sleep.
In June 2010, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran handed down a 15-year sentence for Moharebeh on the alleged “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran,” a charge Mrs. Akbari has never accepted. She has been in prison without a single day of leave since she was detained. She suffers from Thyroid malfunction and joint rheumatism.
She has been a resilient and resistant political prisoner, firmly adhering to her cause. “We can feel the scent of spring in Evin, and I am sure this beautiful spring will one day grow and embrace our homeland. The spring of freedom is on its way.… Spring will come. It will pass through the barbed wires and land in our homeland,” she wrote from Evin.
Former political prisoner Atena Farghadani describes her as “a woman whose resistance was a rainbow of hope for all the prisoners.”
Maryam Akbari’s sister and brother, Roqieh and Abdulreza Akbari Monfared, were executed during the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Another two of her brothers were executed during the mass executions in 1981 and 1984.
Maryam was abruptly moved from the women’s ward of Evin to the Prison of Semnan on March 9, 2021. No legal authority has accepted the responsibility for the banishment of Maryam Akbari Monfared to the Prison of Semnan.
Her conditions in the Prison of Semnan are not suitable. Maryam Akbari Monfared and her family face more restrictions compared to the past without any legal justifications.
Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared has suffered from fatty liver disease for over two years. However, the Ministry of Intelligence did not allow her to see a doctor outside the prison.
The prison’s doctor prescribed this political prisoner special food for liver patients. However, in the last two years, Ms. Akbari’s requests for proper nutrition and a visit to a specialist have not been answered.
Mrs. Akbari’s physical condition has become extremely acute due to a lack of proper nutrition and treatment access, and she suffers from various side effects.
