Narges Mohammadi transferred to Qarchak prison after two months of incommunicado

On 19 January 2022, woman human rights defender Narges Mohammadi was transferred to Qarchak prison in Varamin, a neighbourhood in Tehran. The woman human rights defender has been denied access to telephone calls during the solitary confinement, and the family of the woman human rights defender has not yet been able to contact her since the transfer. For over two months, she was held in solitary confinement in Ward 2A of Evin prison, in Tehran, which is run by the intelligence service of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps since 17 November 2021.

While in solitary confinement in Evin prison, new charges were brought against Narges Mohammadi. On 22 November 2021, she was brought before Shahid Moqadas Amniat (Evin) Court for a hearing regarding new charges pressed against her and a list of human rights activities flagged as criminal acts that she has been undertaking since her release in October 2020. These activities include her nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize, which has reportedly been interpreted as “espionage for a hostile state,” “participation in a memorial of the victims of November 2019 mass protest”, and “commemoration of the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shot down in January 2020 by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”. The list also refers to the book “White Torture”, which includes testimonies of victims of solitary confinement and those who spoke out against the sexual abuse of women prisoners in the Iranian prisons.

On 17 November 2021, Narges Mohammadi informed her family during a short phone call that she is being held in a solitary confinement in Ward 2A of Evin prison, which is run by the intelligence service of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. On 16 November 2021, she was physically assaulted and arrested without a warrant while attending the second death anniversary of a protester who was killed during the November 2019 general protest in Iran. After her arrest, the woman human rights defender was told that the 30 months prison sentence and 80 lashes handed down to her by Branch 1177 of Tehran Criminal Court II of Quds Judicial Complex on 22 May 2021 was now in effect.

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Narges Mohammadi is a woman human rights defender and deputy director and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Iran. She has campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran, and was awarded the Per Anger Prize by the Swedish government for her human rights work in 2011. The woman human rights defender continued her human rights activities while in detention and most recently has been campaigning against the torture strategy known as “White Torture” which includes the cruel use of solitary confinement and other abusive treatment and conditions for prisoners in Iran.

On 17 November 2021, Narges Mohammadi told her family that she was detained in solitary confinement in Ward 2A of Evin prison, which is run by the intelligence service of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. On 16 November 2021, the woman human rights defender was physically attacked and violently arrested without a warrant by intelligence service agents while she was attending the second death anniversary of a protester who was killed in during November 2019 general protest in Iran. While in detention, Narges Mohammadi was informed that the sentence handed down to her on 22 May 2021 was in effect immediately.

On 22 May 2021, Narges Mohammadi was informed that Branch 1177 of Tehran Criminal Court II of Quds Judicial Complex had sentenced her to 30 months in prison, 80 lashes and two fines. The woman human rights defender refused to take part in any of the court proceedings, stating publicly that the new charges are based on her continuous human rights work, including her work from inside Evin and Zanjan prisons where she had been detained, and a legal compliant she made regarding her treatment there. On 26 September 2021, Narges Mohammadi was summoned to prison and informed that her sentence is final and effective, however she refused to comply to the court’s sentence without a fair trial.

Narges Mohammadi’s arrest happens in the context of the five-day International People’s Tribunal on Iran Atrocities of November 2019 which took place in London between 9-14 November 2021. During this symbolic tribunal, witnesses testified to atrocities committed by Iran security forces, which according to the final statement of the Tribunal can amount to gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity. Amnesty International documented that approximately 324 men, women and children were killed by Iran’s security force’s use of disproportionate lethal force against civilians during crackdown on the mass protests that erupted across Iran between 15 and 19 November 2019, following the government’s announcement about the significant overnight rise in the price of fuel.

Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned by the arrest, physical assault and judicial harassment against Narges Mohammadi. Of particular concern is the latest sentence brought against the woman human rights defender without a fair trial, and in particular the cruel punishment of 80 lashes, which seemingly is imminent in reprisal for her attempts to commemorate the victims of the November 2019 mass protest in Iran. Front Line Defenders believes that Narges Mohammadi has been targeted solely as a result of her peaceful and legitimate human rights work and in reprisal for her defence of right to freedom of association and freedom of assembly in Iran.