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| Sina Yousefi, Human Rights Lawyer |
In an interview with Voice of America, lawyer and human rights advocate Sina Yousefi discussed the pressure and illegal practices applied to political activists who have been interrogated for nearly three months by the intelligence department in Tabriz.
Yousefi also commented on the recent increase in pressures on women’s clothing in various cities in Iran under the name "Promoting Good Deeds."
Sina Yousefi emphasized that during the activists' detention, their families remained unaware of their whereabouts. He specifically mentioned that Ali Babayi had previously spoken to his family over the phone, but after that, they had no contact with him for a long period.
According to the lawyer, “The prolonged interrogation period indicates that there was no evidence against the activists, and they were subjected to pressure and torture in an attempt to create evidence.”
Some activists temporarily released, as well as some of their relatives, have reported that they were subjected to torture while being held in intelligence detention centers.
Sina Yousefi told Voice of America, “Being under prolonged interrogation itself is considered torture. It is called mental or psychological torture. But these activists were also physically tortured. In fact, one reason for their prolonged detention is to let the marks of torture heal. They kept the activists detained for a long time so that when they are released, there won’t be visible signs of torture, and they won’t be able to complain or seek medical expertise.”
In recent weeks, social media users have shared information about some of the officials handling the court cases of political activists in Iranian Azerbaijan.
According to Yousefi, some judicial officials, including judges, prosecutors, and investigators, directly take orders from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.
“Some special files or cases related to security accusations and political cases in Azerbaijan go to special departments. In Tabriz, one is the 15th investigation department, headed by Seyyed Ali Moussavi, and the other is the 7th prosecutor's office, where the assistant prosecutor is Hadi Qafari. When the files go to their departments, it can almost be said that the head of these departments is the intelligence department. In other words, intelligence commands them, saying, for example, ‘We need to detain this person for another month, or two more months,’” the human rights lawyer explained.
Sina Yousefi also referred to the widespread protests in Iran in September 2022, stating, “During last year's protests, the number of court files significantly increased, and they were forced to give cases to other departments in addition to these special departments. These special departments couldn’t handle the workload. Then, they realized that other departments were issuing acquittals for detainees or releasing them because there was no evidence, or closing the cases without a ruling... This also shows that the special departments have primarily been trained to violate the people's rights under the control of intelligence.”
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Sina Yusufi: Təbrizdə saxlanılan siyasi fəalların işinə baxan prokuror və hakimlər İran kəşfiyyatından əmr alır