Mahaz News
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An Iranian physician and rights activist has been launched from Tehran’s notorious Evin jail one week after images of his severely emaciated situation emerged on social media.
Farhad Meysami was launched from jail on Friday, in line with the Iranian pro-reform outlet Shargh Daily. News of his launch got here as France introduced that the French-Iranian educational Fariba Adelkhah had additionally been launched from Evin.
Meysami was jailed in 2018 after voicing his help for ladies protesting the obligatory hijab regulation. He was charged with “assembly and collusion to act against national security” and of “propaganda against the regime.” in line with a bunch centered on Iran, Human Rights Activists (HRANA).
Images displaying his frail physique, protruding bones and shaved head precipitated outrage on social media after they surfaced final week. Prior to the emergence of the images a human rights lawyer claiming to characterize Meysami mentioned his weight had decreased to 52 kilos (115 lb) and that he had been “beaten due to his resistance” to being transferred to a unique jail.
The textual content of a letter allegedly written by Meysami and offered to Mahaz News by the lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, confirmed that Meysami had gone on starvation strike to protest the execution of prisoners, to name for the discharge of a number of protesters and to demand the tip of enforcement of the obligatory hijab regulation. Mahaz News couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the letter.
After the photographs of Meysami circulated on-line, state affiliated media final Friday denied the activist was on starvation strike, and mentioned that he was in “good condition.”
News of Meysami and Adelkhah’s launch comes after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei issued an amnesty overlaying a lot of prisoners on Sunday.
The amnesty included some individuals who had been arrested in latest anti-government protests which have swept the nation since final fall, in line with HRANA.
Nationwide dissent erupted late final yr, as many years of bitterness over the regime’s remedy of girls and different points boiled over after the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini whereas within the custody of the nation’s morality police.
Authorities have violently repressed the months-long motion, which has posed one of many greatest home threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in additional than a decade.
Mahaz News has reached out to Iran’s authorities for touch upon Meysami’s launch.
For many years, Evin jail within the Iranian capital of Tehran has housed political prisoners and twin nationals whom Iran refuses to formally acknowledge.
Meysami’s launch got here because the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced that French-Iranian educational, Fariba Adelkhah, had additionally been additionally launched from Evin.
The ministry mentioned in a press release Friday that “France rejoices at the release this evening of Madame Fariba Adelkhah, researcher at the International Research Centre at Sciences Po who was unjustly detained in Iran in Evin prison.”
It added it was “essential” that Adelkhah be capable of get well all of her freedoms “including (being allowed) to return to France if she wishes.”
Adelkhah was arrested in Iran on June 5, 2019, in line with the Sciences Po official web site, alongside her colleague and fellow researcher, Roland Marchal.
Adelkhah was accused of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic’s political system” and “collusion to undermine national security.”
While Marchal was launched on March 20, 2020, Adelkhah was served a five-year jail sentence on May 16, 2020.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna known as Adelkhah’s launch a “great joy” in a tweet Friday night.
The director of French college, Sciences Po, Mathias Vicherat additionally responded in a tweet: “What joy, what relief to learn of the confirmation of the release of our friend, our colleague, Fariba Adelkhah.”
France reiterated its demand for the “immediate release” of all French folks arbitrarily detained in Iran, with the overseas minister demanding her Iranian counterpart instantly launch seven French “hostages.”
A ministry spokesman mentioned it’s “extremely concerned” concerning the well being of French nationwide Benjamin Brière and French-Irish nationwide Bernard Phelan particularly.
“It is evident that this politics of state hostages carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran is reprehensible and cannot but contribute to a profound degradation in our bilateral relations like the relations of Iran with Europe,” the spokesperson mentioned Thursday.
Source web site: www.cnn.com
