Wife Says Prison Transfer Of Iranian Activist Aimed At Isolating Him

rferl.org – Saeed Madani, a prominent Iranian sociologist serving a nine-year sentence in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, has reportedly been transferred to a facility on the city’s outskirts in an attempt, his wife says, to further isolate him.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, Mansureh Ettefaghstated said her husband was moved to Damavand prison under the directive of the Tehran Prosecutor. She added that during her last visit with Madani before his transfer on April 2, his lawyer noted that there was no explanation given in the transfer documentation.

Ettefagh also noted previous threats, which she says her husband received from interrogators — referred to as “Ministry of Intelligence experts” — suggesting that the relocation was premeditated.

The isolation of Madani, known for his civil activism and social research, has been condemned by fellow political prisoners who view the judiciary’s action as a deliberate attempt by the Islamic republic to assert a facade of authority.

Several notable political detainees, including Narges Mohammadi and Mostafa Tajzadeh, recently made a collective statement highlighting the regime’s intolerance toward peaceful dissent.

In December 2022, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran found Madani guilty of “forming and managing antiestablishment groups” and of “propaganda against the Islamic republic of Iran.”

While he denies the charges, the court sentenced him to nine years in prison — eight for the first charge and one for the second.

In January 2022, Madani was prevented from leaving Iran to begin a one-year research program at Yale University in the United States. He has published several studies on social issues in Iran, including violence against women, child abuse, prostitution, and poverty.

The publication of some of Madani’s books has been banned in Iran.

He has been imprisoned several times before for membership in the banned Nationalist-Religious Alliance political opposition group and for “propaganda against the state.”

In 2016, he was exiled to the southern port city of Bandar Abbas after serving four years of an eight-year prison sentence on the charges.