Maryam Akbari Monfared sentenced to two additional years in jail
Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared has received additional sentences based on new cases filed against her by the clerical regime’s Ministry of Intelligence.
Branch 101 of the Criminal Court of Semnan sentenced Mrs. Akbari Monfared in absentia to two additional years in jail and 150 million rials in fines for “disseminating falsities in social media.”
Two new cases had been filed against Maryam Akbari Monfared by the Ministry of Intelligence. The first case concerned her time in Evin Prison, which accused her of disseminating “propaganda against the state.” The second case concerned her time in the Prison of Semnan for which she is accused of insulting Khamenei, propaganda against the state, assembly and collusion, disseminating falsities and disrupting public opinion, and inciting people against national and external security.
The last case concerns the letters published in social media in the name of Maryam Akbari Monfared. It is reiterated in the verdict that the Ministry of Intelligence is the complainant in this case.
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 sentences are handed down while Mrs. Akbari Monfared has served almost 14 years of her 15-year sentence. Usually, prisoners are released after serving two-thirds of their prison term. However, this is not the case for Maryam Akbari Monfared.
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.
