Iran uses criminal inmates to torment political prisoners - Report
"Whenever the intelligence agents want to pressure political prisoners, they use criminal inmates for the purpose, leaving no tracks of their involvement," dissident Alireza Golipour told Radio Farda
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFIranians walk past a large picture of Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a park in Tehran, Iran, January 17, 2016.(photo credit: RAHEB HOMAVANDI/TIMA VIA REUTERS)
Iranian authorities keep political prisoners separate from each other, jailing them with common criminals who often cooperate with the guards to make their life in prison very difficult, according to a report by Radio Farda.The Iranian branch of Radio Free Europe managed to get a short interview with dissident Alireza Golipour, who is serving a twelve-year sentence in the famed Evin Prison in Tehran."Prison authorities scatter the political prisoners among criminal inmates, to punish them further," Golipour told Radio Farda, at great risk for his personal safety as the report pointed out."Whenever the intelligence agents want to pressure political prisoners, they use criminal inmates for the purpose, leaving no tracks of their involvement," he added. "The prisoners sentenced for crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnapping not only act as informers for the prison authorities but make the life for political inmates twice as difficult and burdensome," he further said.The report highlighted several incidents involving violence against political prisoners, including the death of 21-year-old Alireza Shir-Mohammad-Ali, who was stabbed by two inmates in June.Golipour was arrested by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence in 2012. At the time, he was an employee of the country's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and a student in telecommunications. He was accused of being an American spy and sentenced to 39 years in prison and 170 lashes by the Tehran Revolutionary Court. His sentence was later reduced to 12 years.According to Golipour, political prisoners are also often denied seeing a doctor."We are practically condemned to bear pains and a gradual death that nobody can accept," Golipour told Radio Farda.
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