Political Prisoners Beaten Up In Iran’s Yazd Prison In A Staged Fight
A human rights organization reported the beating of political prisoners in the central Iranian city of Yazd in an apparent fight staged to punish them..
A human rights organization reported the beating of political prisoners in the central Iranian city of Yazd in an apparent fight staged to punish them..
Karun Human Rights Organization said the attack happened in Yazd Central Prison June 19, during which a number of prisoners were injured.
“The prison's medical facilities were insufficient to treat the injured, and some of the prisoners were transferred to Yazd City Hospital,” added the report.
Among the injured, Mohammad Haydari, 35, from Ahvaz, is known to be a political prisoner but there is no information about his health so far.
The Arab political activist, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the charge of moharebeh (War against God), was stabbed in the chest.
One of the prisoners who witnessed the conflict told Karun that more than 20 Afghan prisoners were also injured.
According to this report, another Arab political prisoner named Jafar Beit Abdollah, 33, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on the charge of moharebeh was also injured on his arm.
Karun added that most of the Afghan prisoners and some political prisoners have been transferred to solitary confinement.
Yazd Central Prison is home to about three thousand prisoners, among them over one thousand foreign nationals held in the worst conditions.
Eleven political prisoners in Yazd live in inappropriate conditions and have to endure discrimination and insults from officials and targeted conflicts inside the prison staged to harass them.
In a session of the Security Council on Friday, Britain, France and Albania joined the US demanding an urgent investigation after months of mass Russia drone attacks by Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones against Ukrainian civilian and military targets.
What was most notable is that Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council that the deployment of Iranian drones in a foreign war is a potential violation of Council’s 2015 resolution 2231. That resolution, which accompanies the JCPOA nuclear accord, banned certain Iranian weapons exports until October 2023.
“The United Nations must implement Security Council Resolution 2231. We still have no explanation as to why experts from the 2231 team have not been dispatched to Ukraine to review evidence of these weapons’ origins, and the destruction these weapons have caused. The UN must act with urgency. This is a matter of life or death for the Ukrainian people,” the US ambassador said in her address.
Russia was one of the signatories of the Obama-era nuclear agreement that aimed to restrict Iran’s nuclear program. Resolution 2231 by extension was to deny Iran the development of weapons systems that could be used in the delivery of nuclear weapons.
US, British and French warnings about the potential violation of Res. 2231 was first voiced in mid-October, when evidence and images emerged of Iranian drones shot down by Ukraine.
The Biden administration warned about Russian plans to acquire the drones as early as in July 2022. First mass deployment of the one-way killer drones emerged in early October.
Russia uses the Shahed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for three purposes. First, is to use them to hit targets, but the drones fly slowly and are very noisy. Ukrainian forces have learned to shoot most of them down. But the Russian military has used dozens of Shahed’s in many attacks during missile barrages to overwhelm air defenses and allow the more expensive missiles to penetrate Ukraine’s anti-air shield.
The third purpose, according to some experts, is simply to force Ukraine to use the expensive and limited number of its Western-supplied anti-air missiles on the Iranian drones, which are much cheaper, estimated to cost around $20,000.
The United States and its allies have imposed rounds of sanction on individuals and entities involved in assisting Iran’s drone program and their delivery to Russia. Lately, concerns have increased over reports of Russia planning to build a plant to produce the Iranian drones.
They have also told Tehran that it should stop its expanding military cooperation with Russia if it wants an agreement over its nuclear program resulting in reduction of sanctions.
“We know the Kremlin has procured hundreds of UAVs and is now working with Iran to produce these weapons inside Russia. And we know that in recent weeks, the Kremlin has used these UAVs to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and kill and terrorize civilians,” ambassador Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council on Friday.
Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who just completed a tour of four Persian Gulf nations and returned to Tehran highlighted good relations and the importance of cooperation for the sake of “a better and more secure future.”
He visited Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait days after Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan went to Tehran after years of rivalry and animosity.
The foreign minister wrote on Instagram that “The Islamic Republic of Iran believes establishing mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation with all countries of the important Persian Gulf region is needed and could be beneficial more than ever before.”
At the same time Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Rear Admiral Ali-Reza Tangsiri said, “Any ship that wants to pass through the Strait of Hormuz must inform us of its nationality, type of cargo, and destination in Farsi, and if it does not do this, we will definitely go after it.”
This is hardly a sign of de-escalation that Western media and some officials have been referring to when describing the purpose of recent diplomatic contacts with Tehran.
In fact, Iran has seized and harassed several commercial vessels this year in the Persian Gulf and the greater region, for no clear reason, prompting the United States to increase readiness to provide maritime security.
US 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces spokesperson Cmdr. Tim Hawkins told Breaking Defense earlier this month that in the past two years alone, Iran has attacked or seized 15 internationally flagged merchant vessels.
The United States announced in May that it will begin to bolster its defensive posture in the Middle East region.
“[The] United States will not allow foreign or regional powers to jeopardize freedom of navigation through the Middle East waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters May 12, adding that there is “simply no justification” for Iranian forces to interfere, harass or attack merchant ships.
Since then, a flurry of reports have indicated that Washington has been in talks with Tehran over a possible informal arrangement to reduce tensions. The scheme, that the State Department has dismissed as erroneous reporting, would provide the Islamic Republic with financial incentives in return for a cap on the level of its uranium enrichment.
The official government news website, IRNA, publishing Tangsiri’s statement Friday added that “The Islamic Republic has also made it clear that it views US military presence in the region as a threat to its national security and a destabilizing factor in regional countries.”
A day earlier, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Amirali Hajizadeh said that Iran plans to increase the range of its recently unveiled “hypersonic missile” to 2,000 kilometers from 1,400 km.
He added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has mastered all complicated technologies in the field of the defense industry, praising President Ebrahim Raisi’s government for full support, while criticizing his predecessor for restraining the missile program.
