“I have been on a wet and dry hunger strike for almost 19 hours. The last thing I had was a cup of tea filled with silica water of Ward 2 of the 10th Block where political prisoners and detainees of November 2019 are held. I have stopped eating and drinking until now. Early in the morning, under the pretext of interrogation, I was taken from the political prisoners’ ward, when arrived at the checkpoint, the officer was ready for my transfer. Prison officials continued to say I was to leave the ward for interrogation. I had to get in a van, and taken to the 4th ward, “among prisoners of violent crimes and those accused of murder and armed robbery.”
This is part of the short letter from the political prisoner Hossein Hashemi, one of the detainees of the nationwide November 2019 protests, which was published by HRANA yesterday, Tuesday, June 1, 2021. Hossein Hashemi was transferred to the prison’s intelligence security and interrogated, four days after his letter depicting the catastrophic condition of the Greater Tehran Prison. In his shocking letter on May 21, Hussein wrote about the systematic oppression and injustice imposed on prisoners by the Judiciary and prison officials, and mentioned Amir Hossein Moradi, Vahid Babaei, and Siamak Moghimi.
HRANA has now reported the punitive transfer of Hossein Hashemi to the 4th Ward of the Greater Tehran Prison, where prisoners accused of murder and armed robbery are held. This transfer was ordered by Eliasy, the supervising assistant prosecutor of the Evin court. According to this report, Hossein Hashemi is removed from the political prisoners ward under the pretext of interrogation. There is a verbal argument between Hossein Hashemi and Eliasy. Eliasy threatens the political prisoner, taking him to a place “where he regrets his actions.”
Following this transfer and violation of the principle of segregation of crimes by prison officials, Hossein Hashemi went on a hunger strike and wrote in a short note about his current situation and the danger of repeating a crime:
“About 2 years ago, Alireza Shirmohammadali was expelled from the ward under the same pretext, and after 3 days, they heard about his death. I, Hossein Hashemi, one of the November 2019 detainees, sentenced to 6 years in prison, am in exactly the same position as Alireza two years ago. The only difference is that I went on a wet and dry hunger strike. Before I am killed, I took this action so you hear my voice, the people of Iran.”
As a reminder: Alireza Shirmohammadali’s attorney, after his murder in Fashafoyeh prison, had explained: “Apparently, in the ward he was held, 2 murderers were being held in a solitary cell. Unfortunately, it is not clear what happened that night when they attacked him abruptly without any previous contact and killed him with multiple stabs.” On Monday, June 10, 2019, political prisoner Alireza Shirmohammadali after being transferred to violent crimes’ ward, was stabbed 30 times to death by two prisoner killers. Asked how the two killers managed to get out of their solitary confinement and kill Alireza at night, his attorney said: “I do not know the exact details but based on reliable information in the ward where the late Shirmohammadali was present, there was a cell where two murderers were inside and it was always closed, but that night the two dragged Mr. Shirmohammadali into the cell and killed him.”
Now, two years later, in the same Fashafoyeh prison and in the same month of June, this time, however, in the case of Hossein Hashemi, the exact same crime is about to take place by the prison officials and the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic. Eliasy personally and the Judiciary especially are responsible for anything that happens to Hossein Hashemi in prison.
Hossein Hashemi has welcomed death and wrote in the last part of his letter: “I will most likely be in a coma in about 24 hours, and this is the last thing I want to say to you. When in coma, donate my lungs to Khuzestan so that they can gain new breath after 40 years, and give my lungs to someone in Khuzestan who needs a lung. Give my heart to the children of Sistan-Baluchestan. My heart has always beaten for them and for the wounds of those people. Give the rest of my organs to every Iranian who loves Iran, to the poor like myself who did not achieve anything despite their best! They wanted to, but they could not, and finally donate my body to the universities of medical sciences for the advancement of science. Years later, when my body is worn out, burn it in the oak forests of the Zagros in the land where I was born, and scatter my ashes in those forests so that I may take root in the veins and roots of the oak trees and stare at your happiness from the heights of the Kavirkooh (a mountain) for years to come.
People of Iran! I am innocent! And I have only 72 hours left to embrace death. This is my last voice speaking to you from prison. In the words of the absent hero Farzad Kamangar who said, do not forget, not to turn your back to your loved ones.
Hossein Hashemi – June 1, 2021 – 4th Ward of Greater Tehran Prison.”
Translation of this post by Sahar.
