Pedestrian

Things are bad in prisons. They are going from bad, to worse to macabre.

This is part of a letter written by a high ranking official in the revolutionary guard Hossein Alaie, who is close friends with the father of one of the students who was reported dead two days ago. He has written this account on his weblog and he writes that he has sent it out to numerous newspapers, none of which have agreed to publish it.

He writes that meningitis and other infectious diseases have been so widespread among the prisoners, that Ahmadinejad’s health minister has ordered thousands of penicillin shots to be sent out to the prisons.

In fact, two of the student who recently died passed away as a result of not having been sent to the hospital on time. They have both [one male and one female] died of meningitis.

I will be translating the rest here.

Interesting and sad to note that one of the higest ranking officials in the IRI was no more successful in finding his son than Sohrab’s mother.

[h/t Agh Bahman]

——————–

In the Name of God

The Oppressed Martyr

Thursday afternoon, when the SMS service once again started working in Tehran, I got a message that my dear friend’s 25 year old son, who was arrested in the demonstrations on July 9th, has died and his funeral will be held tomorrow.

[Note, the martyr, Mohsen Rooholamini, was the son of Abdolhossein Rooholamini, high ranking official in the IRI and adviser to Mohsen Rezaie's presidential campaign]

I was shocked. Because I have known Mr. Rooholamini for years and I know him to be an extremely religious man dedicated to the ruling establishment. He was a man who went through great ordeals to bring down the Shahs’ regime. I was shocked to learn that the son of such a high ranking official in the Islamic Republic of Iran would be arrested, and then, two weeks later, his body sent to his family.

[Alaie writes the names of those he sees at the funeral, many high ranks of the revolutionary guard and hardline parliament]

Upon my arrival at the funeral, I met with Mr. Rooholamini and on our way to the ceremony he told me what had happened: from what he knew, his son had been arrested, along with other students, on July 9th by ununiformed militia and taken to the police center in Enghelab Street. The following day they were taken to Evin prison and to Kahrizak detention facility. Mr. Rooholamani than recited a verse from the Koran.

He then continued: From that day, I started running all over the place, but no one was willing to answer me. The police, the revolutionary guard, the judiciary, the intelligence ministry, they all said that it was not their responsibility. That’s how I spent the last two weeks, facing a constant wall of hopelessness. Until I found a dealer who said that if I pay him FOUR MILLION TOMANS [roughly four thousand dollars] he would arrange a meeting with my son.

On the day of the Mabas ceremonies [religious holiday], in a meeting with the supreme leader, I asked the minister of intelligence who was at the meeting, about this dealer . I gave him my number but did not hear from him. Two days later, someone called me at my office and said: “You are a high ranking official in this country, you also have a green passport [he sarcastically meant green card] why aren’t you following up information about your son?” I told him that I have been searching for my son for two weeks with no results.

He told me: “I send you my condolences.”

I thought he was bluffing, but then he gave me an address. I ended up at the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran. They told me that my son was beaten severely after his arrest. When I saw his body, his jaw was completely broken. My son was an honest boy, he would never lie. I am certain that he answered all their questions with honesty and they could not bear it, so they tortured him. I read the report of his death and they crossed out the place of death. I found out that after torturing him, they had not attended to his wounds and his temperature skyrocketed and he was diagnosed with meningitis. They send him to the hospital in Tajrish Square as an anonymous patient and he died there the following day. They send his body to a cold storage and only informed us of his death a week later. To give us the body, they made us sign a letter promising that we would not sue anyone.

They wouldn’t allow us to hold a funeral for him at our house, saying that it was too close to the university where the Friday Prayer is held. Finally, after Mr. Zarghami [head of IRIB] made a request, they agreed. But they made us promise not to take too long and not to chant anything but La-Elaha-Ellal-ah (there is no god but Allah).

From the time she found out of his death his mother told me : My Mohsen is gone now, please take care of the other Mohsens.

Mr. Amini who was wearing his keffiyeh even during his son’s burial, told me: Look at who is wearing this keffiyeh now. Those whose job is to arrest and even kill. Is this what we wanted of the Islamic Republic? I am a friend of Martyr Daghayeghi. I still remember his smile. I remember the early days of the revolution, when Ehsan Tabari [a leading member of the Toudeh Party] was arrested. Tabari ended up criticizing Marxism because he was treated well [and possibly tortured and forced to confess!]. But now Basij has gotten to a point where they arrest religious, dedicated youth and give back the bodies to their families. They make you sign a statement dictating the funeral to you. They are even afraid of a simple funeral?

Last night, Mr. Lankarani, the health minister was at our house to show his condolences. He said: “to fight meningitis and other infectious diseases in prison, we have send two thousand penicilin shots to the prisons.” Hearing this makes me more worried for the political prisoners.

He continued: I am determined to start an NGO to fight for the basic rights of these prisoners. For example, when they arrest someone, they should at least report this to the family so  the families know of the whereabouts of their loved ones. Or that they can be certain of their loved ones’ health while in custody.

Of course he did not forget to mention the kindness that he was bestowed. He said that once they found out his positions under the Ahmadinejad government [the head of the Pasteur Institute of Iran, and top adviser to the ministry of health]  they give him permission to see his son’s record, did not ask for the the burial charges and allowed him to bury his son near the martyr’s plot so his mother who comes to visit there every week, can visit her son’s grave. “They even gave us an extra grave” he said. And noted with humor: “buy one get one free”

In the end of the ceremony, he went to his son’s grave and in high spirits recited this passage from the Koran: We are from God and to him we shall return.