02 Nov 2009

Torture Causes Prisoner to Commit Suicide

According to reports received from section 1 of Gohar-Dasht prison in Karaj, Iran, a prisoner committed suicide this morning. The prisoner, Tork-Ashan, was found by his cellmates who carried him to the medical clinic of the prison. His condition was grim during his transfer and reports indicate that he passed away.

There are also rumors that even before this incident, the prison guards were trying to murder him. Tork-Ashan was severely tortured in a barbaric manner numerous times by prison guards "Marjani" and "Bakhshi" who also had a hand in the murder of Zahra Kazemi (the Canadian journalist).

Tork-Ashan was arrested due to an altercation with another person. He was sentenced to pay $430.00, but because he was unable to pay the amount, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He spent some time in section 4 of Gohar-Dasht prison before being transferred to section 1, known as the "end of the line" section.

Since Saturday, all communications to section 1 have been cut off and the prisoners are not allowed to contact their families. It is said that this decision has been made in response to the Nov. 4th protests.

At this time the political prisoners: Mansour Osanlou (head of the bus drivers syndicate of Tehran and suburbs) and Behrouz Javid-Tehrani (a prisoner of the student uprisings of 1999) are detained in this section. section 1 operates under conditions similar to those of the middle ages.

Human rights and democracy activists in Iran condemn intolerable and medieval conditions that drive prisoners to commit suicide. The high commissioner of human rights of the U.N. has requested to send a contingent to Iran to investigate crimes committed in prisons.

Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran