This article was last updated on May 25, 2022
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More than 300 Iranian activists have issued a statement demanding an easing on the restrictions on Mostafa Tajzadeh, one of Iran’s most prominent pro-reform figures, who is currently serving a six-year jail term in the quarantine ward of the notorious Evin Prison.
In a joint statement, 300 activists called on Iranian authorities to facilitate the 56-year-old’s removal from solitary confinement and to provide him with adequate medical attention.
“Based on domestic and international laws and regulations, the health and treatment of prisoners is the responsibility of the Judiciary and prison governors. Any shortcoming or wrongdoing in this regard is unacceptable, and will be seen as unjustifiable and significant before the public opinion in Iran,” the statement went on to add.
Tajzadeh served as deputy Interior Minister during Mohammad Khatami’s first term as president between 1997 and 2001. Two of the freest elections in Iran’s history—1998 for city councils around the country and the elections for the sixth Majlis in March 2000—were held while he was still in office.
The outspoken member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front was arrested one day after the fraudulent 2009 presidential election. He, along with fellow reformists, was paraded in televised show trials held just months later and was sentenced to six years in prison and a ten-year ban on journalistic and partisan activities. He never requested an appeal.
After nine months of imprisonment, four months of which he spent in solitary confinement, Tajzadeh was released temporarily.
His freedom would soon come to an end after he and six other leading reformist figures filed a lawsuit against several commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps for their extensive involvement in the widespread fraud that took place in the 2009 race. After his arrest, Tajzadeh was transferred to the quarantine ward of Evin Prison, where he is still being held. Since then, the veteran activist has been fasting to protest the illegal conditions of his detention.
While in prison, Tajzadeh has developed a number of health conditions including heart problems and kidney disease. He also suffers from blood pressure fluctuations.
Tajzadeh and members of his family maintain that his case is being overseen by the Supreme Leader’s son Mojtaba Khamenei. In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Tajzadeh’s son-in-law Ali Tabatabaei said that Mojtaba Khamenei’s role in handling Tajzadeh’s case was the main reason for the lack of medical attention given to him.
“No one has the authority to make a decision and to take action for transferring him to hospital. That’s why they’re indecisive. [Evin] Prison is partly run by the prosecution and partly by the Revolutionary Guards and they are not coordinated with one another,” Tabatabaei said.
‘It is you who has to apologise, not Mousavi and Karroubi’
In a recent letter to the Supreme Leader Tajzadeh wrote, “If there is to be an apology to the nation, who must lead the way, Your Excellency, or Mr Mousavi and Karroubi?”
In recent months, various figures close to the leadership have stated that the reformists must “repent” for their role in the 2009 unrest and distance themselves from Green Movement leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as preconditions for taking part in the forthcoming presidential elections in June 2013.
In an interview with the pro-reform Etemad daily, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, former Tehran mayor and top advisor to Karroubi, said that the hardliners who had situated Iran on the brink of a precipice ought to “repent” for their actions.
In July 2012, former President Mohammad Khatami suggested that any debate over the upcoming presidential elections would have to take place after the release of opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi.
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