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Iran-HRM – A report on the status of detained Iranian protesters in Sheyban Prison;
Recent reports indicate hundreds of Ahwazi Arab activists who were recently arrested for protesting a discriminatory agenda against the Arabs of Ahwaz, face harsh conditions in Ahwaz Sheyban Prison.
The detainees are held in 10 quarantine sections. Each section contains seven cells where some Iranian protesters are kept in dire condition. The detainees, who were generally arrested by IRGC intelligence, have been severely tortured. Prison guards regularly attack the detainees using batons. Sources say every day a number of detained protesters are taken from Sheyban Prison to an intelligence detention centre where they are tortured.
According to a court decree some of the detainees must be released on bail. but prison officials refuse to release them because the evidence of torture on their bodies.
Sajjad Savari, 32, is one of the detainees who has been severely tortured and his ribs are broken. Ahwazi Arab activist Saeed Fakhernasab is another example who suffered a heart attack due to being placed under torture while in custody.
Javad Kazem Nasab Albaji, an MP from the Khuzestan capital has recently confirmed that around 150 protesters who had participated in recent demonstrations in this town were still in detention. In an interview published in the state-run Etemad Daily, Kazem Nasab al-Baji called the Ahwaz protests “peaceful” and “controlled.” Unofficial figures how ever put the number of Iranian protesters arrested during Ahwaz protests on at least 500. Women and children are among those arrested.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation has identified 190 of the arrested people by name, while five of the activists reported that the detainees were being held on security charges.
Major discontent flared up on March 30 in the city of Ahwaz, the Khuzestan provincial capital, protesting what locals called the Iranian authorities’ marginalization of Iranians of Arab origin and their efforts to erase their Arab identity. Soon, other cities across the region including Abadan, Mahshahr, Hamidiyeh and Sheyban joined the protests. The State Security forces violently responded in the early hours with the arrest of at least 500 Iranian protesters including children and women. The videos circulated on social media showed state forces firing extensive bird shots and arresting several Ahwazi Arabs as random shots were being fired.
