Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Seyed Ali Akbar Kheradnejad is among the many protesters who were detained after June 12th election. During his detention, he was subjected to torture and many other illegal acts. He has a bitter story of his detention to tell. We sat down to talk to him to shed light on countless crimes that Ali Akbar and other prisoners have been subjected to. During the conversation he refers to Amir Javadifar’s death whom he had seen in Evin prison. He says Javadifar was very ill and the refusal of the prison guards to let the doctor take Amir to the hospital led to his death later.
Seyed Ali Akbar Kherdnejad was arrested by plain clothes forces on July 9th 2009 at about 4.30 pm around Vali Asr square. He says “They beat me brutally; pepper sprayed my eyes and dragged me into a police van while beating me.”
Kheradnejad goes on to say “They tied my hand behind me and put me in the van. They were attacking me from behind and were beating me. All kinds of insults and threats of rape were flying in the air. I was taken to police precinct 148 which is located on Felestin Street. There were three other people who were arrested with me and were sitting at the back of the van. When we arrived, we were body searched and were beaten again at the court yard of the precinct. First they put us in a cage and insulted us in obscene language. Police officers in the precinct were not in charge. Plain clothes forces were beating us with baton through the bars and were laughing at us. The cage was small and we could not move. Then we were taken to another part of the precinct and from there they took us to the basement. We had to keep our heads low during the movements while they were beating us at the back of our heads. Once in the basement, our Ids were taken.”
But the detainees were not kept in the basement according to Kheradnejad who goes on to say:” Then they put us in a van and took us to the investigative police unit near Enghelab square where we were photographed. They gave to all us a paper to write down our home addresses along with our emails and passwords. We stayed there until noon of the following day. There were about 200 of us in that place and we could barely breathe. The air was heavy and there was not enough space for every one to move. We had to sleep on the floor.”
We ask Ali Akbar about the charges and whether legal procedures were respected : “ one day into my arrest a man who was called Haydaifar came to see us and said that we were not going to be released before the of the summer and we would all be taken to Kahrizak. We were given a paper that contained the charges. When I read the paper I was convinced we were all going to be executed; we were charged with acting against national security, disturbing public order, disregarding police orders, taking part in riot and many other charges. But then they took us to Evin in a police bus. There were 4 police cars that were escorting the bus along the way.”
Click here to read the full article from Human Rights Activists In Iran.