The relatives of recent Iranian detainees are being repeatedly insulted and at times even beaten by Iranian security forces, according to human rights reporters in Iran.
The families who go to Evin Prison in order to put up bail or get a New Year’s furlough for their imprisoned relatives are being mistreated by prison authorities, human rights activists have told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
The report indicates that prison authorities often refuse to accept bail and at times subject the families to insults and beatings.
Most of the people who gather in front of Evin Prison are related to people who were detained on February 14, during the rally called by the opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in solidarity with the recent Arab uprisings. Others were arrested on March 1 and March 8, the Tuesday protests aimed at demanding the release of the opposition leaders, who have been under house arrest since they called for the February 14 rally.
The report indicates some of the detainees are underage and being kept at the Centre for Reform and Education. Their families maintain that even though a bail order has been issued by the court, when they try to comply, the prison authorities reject the bail and refuse to release the prisoners.
The Evin Prison Security Court is part of the Revolutionary Court and has eight interrogation branches on the prison premises.
This court had been shut down by order of the former head of the judiciary and only recently reopened following the outbreak of protests against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The current head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Amoli Larijani, ordered the court reopened, and it now processes the files of all political prisoners in Tehran.
