To Follow Up and Inquire About the Condition and Well-being of Political Prisoners Under Torture
Bijan Kazemi, Mohammad Akbari Monfared, Amirhossein Akbari Monfared, and Maryam Akbari Monfared
In response to the plea of Bijan Kazemi’s distressed mother, who, after 120 days, has still not been permitted to see her son and, despite all her efforts and inquiries, has only managed to speak with him for two minutes by phone, the Iranian Resistance urgently calls on Ms. Mai Sato, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, as well as other international human rights organizations, to immediately visit political prisoners Bijan Kazemi, Mohammad Akbari Monfared, Amirhossein Akbari Monfared, and Maryam Akbari Monfared to obtain information about the condition of each of them.
- Bijan Kazemi, born in 1981 in Kuhdasht, was arrested by agents of the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence in April 2020 and spent over two years in Khorramabad Prison. He was released with an electronic ankle monitor that remained on him for a year and a half. His arrest in 2020 was reported to the Special Rapporteur and Amnesty International.
The re-arrest of Bijan Kazemi on January 20, 2025, is entirely baseless and lacks any justification.
- A group of intelligence agents, all wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles, raided the home of Amirhossein Akbari Monfared (22 years old) in Tehran on Sunday, January 19, 2025, the day after the killing of regime henchmen Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh. They violently dragged him away after physically assaulting him. Since then, no information has emerged regarding his fate.
- On Tuesday, January 21, 2025, intelligence agents raided Amirhossein’s home once again and took away his father, Mohammad Akbari Monfared. Mohammad Akbari Monfared is a former political prisoner from the 1980s who was also arrested for a period during the 2022 uprising. Currently, no information is available about him either.
- In the following days, intelligence interrogators began threatening the families, questioning them about any ties to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
- Maryam Akbari Monfared, a well-known political prisoner from this family, is currently being held in Qarchak Varamin Prison alongside ordinary criminals. Her health is in critical condition. Despite suffering from a serious illness and constant pain, she hasn’t been granted a single medical leave in the past 16 years. Three of her brothers and one sister—all members of the PMOI—were executed in the 1980s. Her only “crime” has been her pursuit of justice for her slain siblings.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
22 May 2025