Intensified Pressure On Political Prisoners Pezhman Zafarmand And Akbar Amini To Force Confessions

Father of political prisoner Pezhman Zafarmand said his son contacted the family. He is still in solitary confinement at Ward 240 of Evin prison and is under psychological pressure to extract a false confession. Zafarmand has not been permitted a family visit yet and has only had two phone contacts since his arrest.

According to Zafarmand’s father, in his latest phone conversation, Pezhman was not in a good mental state and was extremely agitated. These intensified pressures are to extract false confessions.

According to Jaras, Akbar Amini is also facing the same situation. Amini was arrested a few days prior to the recent presidential election and Zafarmand was arrested few days after the election.

Amini also continues to be incarcerated in solitary confinement. According to received reports, both Amini and Zafarmand face the same charges and the purpose of the interrogations is to obtain false confessions of contact with hostile foreigners and other false charges. But according to family and friends both Zafarmand and Amini’s activities were limited to the presidential campaign activities.

Pezhman Zafarmand was an activist at Mohamad Reza Aref’s presidential campaign headquarters in East Tehran prior to Aref’s withdrawal from the race. After that, he became an activist in Hassan Rohani’s campaign.

Zafarmand was previously arrested during a raid on the Pen Society meeting, and was released after a one month detention. He was tried and sentenced in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Salavati, and was given a 3 year imprisonment sentence.

Akbar Amini, also arrested during the raid on the Pen Society, was sentenced by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court to 5 years imprisonment.

A few days after the presidential election, Amini was re-arrested in a middle of the night raid when the agents broke down the front door and entered his home.

The family of Pezhman Zafarmand did not have any news on his status or detention location for days after his arrest until he was finally permitted to call them from Evin prison.

Source: Jaras

According to HRANA (report) Akbar Amini has yet to be permitted to contact his family since his last arrest.