Call for the release of Maryam Akbari and other political prisoners, especially women
While Maryam Akbari Monfared’s 15-year sentence as a political prisoner ends on October 12, 2024, and she has spent the entire period in prison without a single day of leave for medical treatment, the regime’s judiciary prevents her release by implementing additional sentences.
Maryam Akbari Monfared, one of the longest-serving female political prisoners in Iran, should have been released in 2019 after serving 10 years in prison according to the regime’s laws and regulations.
As stated in previous announcements by the NCRI Secretariat and the NCRI Women’s Committee, to prevent Maryam Akbari’s release, she was convicted in two separate cases fabricated by the Ministry of Intelligence, with two show trials held in Semnan and Evin, sentencing her to additional prison time. One charge was “propaganda against the regime” and the other included “insulting the leader [i.e Ali Khamenei], assembly and collusion, spreading lies and disturbing public opinion, and inciting people against national security.”
Seeking justice for her siblings has been this political prisoner’s main “crime” for over a decade.
Prof. Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, wrote about Maryam Akbari in his report on “Atrocity Crimes” in Iran published last July: ” One poignant example illustrating this pattern of harassment and persecution is the case of Maryam Akbari-Monfared, a political prisoner in the country. Ms. Akbari-Monfared displayed immense courage by filing an official complaint from inside prison on 15 October 2016, addressing the Iranian judiciary regarding the execution of her siblings during the 1988 massacre.
“In response to her pursuit of accountability, she has faced increased pressure while incarcerated, including the denial of visitations and her forced exile to a remote location, far from her children… Despite enduring a 15-year sentence without a single day of furlough, … she was summoned to the Courthouse of Evin Prison and arraigned on five new charges, subsequently receiving an additional two-year sentence… her continued detention is aimed at coercing her into renouncing her pursuit of accountability.”
In a vile and inhuman action in July 2024, the regime’s judiciary issued an order to confiscate the properties of Maryam Akbari and her relatives due to her seeking justice for her three brothers and one sister who were executed.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran once again calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, and other human rights and women’s rights advocates to strongly condemn the clerical regime’s inhumane treatment of political prisoners, especially women prisoners, and to take immediate action for the release of Maryam Akbari Monfared.
National Council of Resistance of Iran – Women’s Committee
October 12, 2024
