Iran: Here’s what it’s like to be a political prisoner in Iran

Metro: Here’s what it’s like to be a political prisoner in Iran

in this article Farzad Madadzadeh, the prominent Iranian political 

prisoner, speaks at length about the harsh conditions he experienced first-hand, and describes Shocking Treatment of the Political Prisoners Held in Evin Prison and its notorious Ward 209 – run by the intelligence ministry

What followed was an arrest, months of interrogation, what he described as brutal beatings and solitary confinement, followed by a trial that lasted a matter of minutes and then five years in prison.

Arrested in 2009 and then released from prison in 2014, he was one of tens of thousands of prisoners incarcerated at that time.

Amnesty International estimates that between 2013 and 2015 around 2,000 people have been executed in Iran.

And a recent escalation – including the hanging of 20 Sunni inmates at Gohardasht Prison earlier this month – has left many fearing we could see a return of something akin to one of the bloodiest periods in Iran’s recent history.

In 1988 the regime executed as manyas 30,000 political prisoners. Something which The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom recently said should be considered a crime against humanity.

In 2009, Farzad became a political prisoner himself. His active support of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), an opposition group within Iran, had captured the attention of the authorities.

Farzad would sevre four years of his term under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rule and then the final year under that of Hassan Rouhani, the current president.

He said in that time, and since his release, things have got worse, not better.

‘The number of arrests increased; teachers workers, all sorts of people. Also the number of executions of prisoners was higher.’

The increasing level of suppression has led to a growing fear that the government could exercise its power in a mass execution akin to that in 1988.

Last year alone, Amnesty International says some 977 prisoners were executed.

Farzad fears a repeat of what occurred in 88 is as a real possibility.

The number of executions in Iran:

Last year real number in Iran Last year 1000 prisoners were executed and between 2013 and 2016 around 2,650 (August) people have been executed in Iran.