All Hands On Deck to Free Political Prisoners

by Shahla Daneshfar
Translated on January 10 2010

According to published reports, during the mass demonstrations on the 26th and 27th of December 2009 (Tasua and Ashoura), approximately one thousand people were arrested. There are no accurate statistics of the numbers of arrestees, but according to news leaked from the prisons, the numbers are so high that there are 50 Prisoners being kept in the Section 240 of Evin Prison alone. It has been said that a large number of prisoners have also been placed in the cellar of Evin; others have been transferred to Gohardasht prison in Keraj.

Families of those arrested in recent days have been gathered in front of Evin prison, “the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Court.” They have requested information about their beloved and asked for their immediate release from prison.

On Jan 3 2010 at 9am, hundreds of people from the families of those detainees went to the “Revolutionary Court of the Islamic Republic” and asked for the release of their beloved. The situation of many of these detainees is unclear, and this has led to great concern among the families. Out of this serious concern, a number of families have even contacted the forensic authorities in an effort to obtain news about their beloveds, but they have received no reply.

Detainees who have had contact with their families have informed the families that there have been a very large number of people arrested.

On the 27th of December (Ashoura), the Islamic Republic savagely attacked the protestors and violently engaged them by kicking and punching and using batons. The violent attitude of the security forces has caused particular concern among the families. Families of those detainees are worried about the possibility of their children being under torture in order to confess and perhaps to be forced to take part in the Regime’s televised show trials, particularly after the threats made by butchers like Radan and Ezheie saying that the punishment for detainees is execution. These threats have added to the concerns of those families and compounded their anger and rage. Families of detainees have recently announced that until the release of the detainees, they are going to continue their daily gatherings.

Through the mass protests on Ashoura, the peoples’ revolution has taken another big step forward. In the aftermath of this event, the desperation and disarray of the regime is more visible. People’s confrontation on Ashoura with the regime’s security forces, which extended in some cases to disarming them, has rattled the regime. The Islamic Republic has no other recourse. The Islamic Republic has seen with its own eyes that no martial law nor torture and imprisonment can force protesting people to retreat, which is why the Regime has resorted to mass arrests and threatening execution and massacre.

Apart from arresting people in demonstration, at this moment, 6 Haft Tappeh sugar cane workers are in prison and Reza Rakhshan, another one of the members of board of directors of this factory has been arrested in this week and imprisoned. Childrens’ rights activists, and among them Maryam Zia, have also been arrested this week. But peoples’ mass demonstrations on the 27th of December have shown that this regime is taking its last breath and the end of Islamic Republic is near. We have even heard this from the international mass media. Our revolution is in a decisive moment; releasing the political prisoners from the hands of these butchers is a significant step in the progress of the revolution.

We need all hands on deck, with ALL power, to get behind the families of those recently arrested and all other political prisoners, to help throw open wide the prison gates.

Gather in the university, in front of Evin prison, and in all the centers the arrestees have been moved to, and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners from prison.

We need to fill walls and doors with graffiti: “Free all political prisoners!” and use all possible forms of protest and gatherings to create pressure to effect the immediate release of prisoners. The lives of political prisoners are in danger. ALL HANDS ON DECK to release them.