![\"Said-Sangar-13022021\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Said-Sangar-13022021.jpg\" "\\"Said-Sangar-13022021\\"")
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Last month, the Iranian judiciary arbitrarily added 11 months to the prison term for Saeid Sangar<\/a>, after having previously extended his sentence from 18 to 20 years. By the time the latest extension was announced, he had already been behind bars for more than the full 20 years, having first been arrested in August 2000 before being prosecuted on charges of \u201cwaging war on God\u201d and maintaining contacts with Iran\u2019s main democratic opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK<\/a>).<\/p>\n Sangar is already one of Iran\u2019s longest-serving targets of political imprisonment, and the dual extensions to his sentence are reminiscent of many other cases in which authorities have halted a scheduled release in order to exert additional psychological pressure on a detainee, or to prevent them from resuming political activities outside of prison.<\/p>\n Over the course of two decades during which he spent time in Tehran\u2019s Evin Prison and also in Urmia Central Prison, Sangar was reportedly subjected to various forms of torture including 13 mock executions. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>), described his ongoing harsh treatment as \u201cretaliation\u201d for prior refusal to disavow his political affiliation and issue public statements condemning the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n Tehran has a long history of using torture and threats against prisoners\u2019 families in order to secure false confessions which are then broadcast on state media in an effort to poison public sentiment against anti-government activists. These efforts seemingly accelerate in the midst of major crisis for the Iranian regime, including sudden outpourings of popular dissent. There have been several of these in recent years, with one full-scale nationwide uprising<\/a> taking place at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, and another flaring up briefly across nearly 200 localities in November 2019<\/a>, before being suppressed by government action that claimed an estimated 1,500 lives.<\/p>\n In September 2020, Amnesty International issued a report<\/a> on the aftermath of that uprising and crackdown, titled \u201cTrampling Humanity.\u201d It noted that the initial killings and arrests were merely the start of a larger pattern, with the Iranian judiciary \u201cbringing national security charges against hundreds of people solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, while judges doled out guilty verdicts on the basis of torture-tainted \u2018confessions\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n This report was recently cited in a statement<\/a> signed by 24 members of the European Parliament, which focused attention on the case of Saeid Sangar and argued that his extended prison term is similarly part of a larger pattern of escalating repression. \u201cWe are deeply concerned about the alarming human rights situation in Iran, especially a recent surge of executions and mass arrests across the country since December 2020,\u201d the statement began, before adding that many of these incidents are connected to the ongoing crackdown on participants in the 2019 uprising.<\/p>\n Statement by 24 Members of the #EuropeanParliament<\/a> on #HumanRights<\/a> in #Iran<\/a> Calling for the Immediate Release of political prisoner Saeid Sangar — NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 12, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
He is one of Iran\u2019s longest imprisoned #political<\/a> activists https:\/\/t.co\/JlN3sDPUxm<\/a><\/p>\n