More than 250 days since the arrest of political prisoner Varisha Moradi, she is still being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison in a state of limbo.
Varisha Moradi was summoned to court after more than eight months of detention. On April 9, she appeared at the 15th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, but due to lack of counsel, the hearing on her charges was not held.
Ms. Moradi was also not allowed to meet with her lawyer before the trial as planned. It is not clear when the next court session will be held.
Varisha Moradi was arrested on August 1, 2023, by security forces in the outskirts of Sanandaj, western Iran.
She was transferred from the Sanandaj Intelligence Department detention center to Section 209 of Evin Prison by the end of August. On December 26, 2023, after the interrogation process was completed, Moradi was transferred to Evin Prison’s women’s ward.
Varisha Moradi, who is originally from Sanandaj, was charged in January by the Fifth Investigative Branch of the Tehran Public Prosecutor’s Office. Her case was then referred to the 15th Branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges of “armed rebellion” for membership in an opposition group.
According to reports, Varisha spent the first five months of her imprisonment in solitary confinement in the detention center of the Intelligence Department in Sanandaj and in Ward 209 in Evin Prison, where she was severely tortured to make false confessions against herself.
