Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared deprived of calling her family

Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared deprived of calling her family

Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared was deprived of talking to her family on Sunday, April 18, 2021.

Maryam Akbari was supposed to call her family at 6 p.m. on Sunday. But the agent who monitors and accompanies her during her calls was late for an hour. This caused Maryam Akbari’s protest as a result of which the agent reacted by abruptly cutting off her call. She was not allowed to call back and continue her conversation with her family.

Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared was abruptly exiled to the Prison of Semnan on March 9, 2021. Ever since being violently and forcibly relocated from Evin Prison, she has been facing double pressure and restrictions.

Mrs. Akbari Monfared is being detained among ordinary prisoners in the general ward of Semnan Prison, in violation of the principle of separation of crimes.

The sanitary conditions in the general ward of the Prison of Semnan are deplorable. Despite widespread outbreak of the coronavirus in prisons, everyone uses the same slippers. Prison authorities do not provide detergents or disinfectants to the inmates.

Mrs. Akbari Monfared has very limited time to make her daily calls which are done in the prison’s Security Office and in the presence of a prison guard.

Maryam Akbari Monfared has three daughters and is serving her 12th year in prison. She was arrested on December 31, 2009, after the tremendous uprising on December 27 that year which shook the pillars of the regime. In June 2010, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran handed down a 15-year prison sentence for Moharebeh on the alleged charge of “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran,” a charge which Mrs. Akbari has never accepted. She has been in prison without a single day of leave since the day she was detained. She suffers from Thyroid malfunction and joint rheumatism.

Maryam Akbari’s sister and brother were executed during the massacre of political prisoners in summer 1988. Another two of her brothers were executed during the mass executions in the early 1980s.