Azar Korvandi, a political prisoner held in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, is suffering from heart disease and cancer while being systematically denied access to specialized medical care.
Mrs. Korvandi, who was transferred to Qarchak prison following the destruction of Evin Prison in June, is in critical condition and urgently requires regular check-ups and specialized treatment. Nevertheless, judicial authorities and prison officials continue to refuse her transfer to outside medical facilities.
So far, Azar Korvandi has been taken out of prison only once—escorted in handcuffs—to Farabi Hospital for an eye examination. The degrading transfer conditions not only violated her basic dignity but also aggravated her severe arthritis in the neck and shoulder, intensifying her pain.
Relatives and sources close to Azar Korvandi emphasize that Qarchak Prison lacks not only specialized medical facilities but even the most basic healthcare services for ill prisoners.
Who is Azar Korvandi?
Born in 1962, Azar Korvandi is married and has two children. She was previously imprisoned as a political detainee in the 1980s, during which she was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth while enduring harsh prison conditions under interrogation.
She was arrested in the summer of 2019 on charges of collaborating with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and promoting anti-regime propaganda after holding family counseling sessions in her private garden in Shahriar. She was released on bail then but later convicted in December 2021 by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Mrs. Korvandi received a five-year prison sentence for “assembly and collusion to act against national security” and an additional one-year sentence for “propaganda against the state.” As supplementary punishment, she was banned from leaving the country for two years and prohibited from membership and activity in social, political, and cultural groups for two years.
On July 30, 2023, she was summoned to the First Branch of the Enforcement Office of the Tehran District 33 Prosecutor’s Office, arrested, and transferred to Evin Prison to serve her sentence.
