Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Iran-HRM – Javad Roohi’s handwritten notes reveal that he endured the most severe torture while in prison.
Javad Roohi was a protester arrested during the 2022 protests in Nowshahr. He had been sentenced to three executions but was recently murdered in Nowshahr prison.
His published manuscripts show that he endured severe beatings and torture, so much that the wound on his back, the scar of a previous lower back surgery had reopened. Atena Daemi, a civil activist residing in Iran, has published some of these handwritten notes by Javad Roohi.
Javad Roohi, a 35-year-old resident of Amol and a law graduate, had traveled to Nowshahr three days prior to his arrest to visit his ex-wife. He was arrested by security forces in Nowshahr on September 21, 2022, during the nationwide protests. He was sentenced by the Sari Revolutionary Court to three death penalties and seven and a half years in prison. However, in June 2023, his death sentence was overturned, and the case was referred for further review by the appellate branch.
Suspiciously, on August 31, 2023, Nowshahr prison authorities announced his death in prison.
Some excerpts from Javad Roohi’s handwritten notes:
The events of the day of my arrest on September 21, 2022:
🔹 I was violently arrested at 9 PM.
Throughout the night, I was subjected to beatings and physical abuse. I bear the scars of a stun gun hit at my head.
🔹 I underwent lower back surgery in 2021, and I was hospitalized for four months at Imam Reza, Khomeini, and Hevdah Shahrivar hospitals for my wounds and nervous and psychological illnesses. Under torture and heavy blows, the wound of my back surgery reopened.
🔹 During my detention, I was hospitalized at Velayat Hospital in Sari for 48 hours, because I had been tortured to make a forced confession.
🔹 I was subjected to psychological and mental torture and interrogated for 44 days at the Mazandaran Province’s IRGC Intelligence and Security Department. I endured three straight nights of (torture) being whipped by flogs and batons on the soles of my feet.
🔹 As a result of numerous blows, my right leg was paralyzed and numb.
🔹 If I am referred to the Coroner’s Office and they examine my body and investigate, they would verify that I have undergone severe torture, and the scars of torture are visible. With this form of torture, even the strongest and healthiest individuals in society make forced confessions, let alone someone like me.
🔹 If you recognize me as a (protest) leader deserving punishment, you can examine all my bank accounts from a year ago and scrutinize all my (financial) transactions. You can also monitor and audit my revenues for the past year.
Following are a few handwritten pages by Javad Roohi secretly taken out from Nowshahr prison.
