The International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights, IOPHR, expresses its deep concern regarding the situation of all political and prisoners of conscience in Iran.
Numerous reports from prisons of the Islamic Republic indicate that political, civil, labour, legal and ideological detainees are not only deprived of fair trial guarantees, but are also subjected to security pressures, lack of communication with their families, undisclosed transfers, psychological torture, and deliberate denial of access to medication and medical treatment.
Among these cases, the condition of Ms Narges Mohammadi, civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is gravely alarming.
According to published reports, following a severe deterioration in her physical condition, repeated loss of consciousness, and a cardiac crisis, she has been transferred from prison to hospital only after a prolonged period of medical neglect and obstruction of treatment.
This situation raises serious concerns that the Islamic Republic authorities may be deliberately exposing her to a slow death by preventing access to medication, specialist physicians, and effective medical care.
The denial of medical treatment to a prisoner, particularly in critical conditions, may constitute inhuman treatment and could be regarded as an attempt at the silent elimination of a well-known detainee.
The situation of Ms Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent lawyer and human rights defender, is also deeply concerning. Ms Sotoudeh is a well-known jurist who has for years insisted on the necessity of upholding human rights principles, the right to defence, fair trial standards, and fundamental freedoms. Recent reports indicate her re-arrest, transfer to an undisclosed location, confiscation of personal and electronic belongings, and a lack of transparent information regarding her health and place of detention.
The continued absence of information about her physical and legal condition is a dangerous indication of a broader pattern of repression and the silencing of independent legal professionals in Iran.
The International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights warns that in recent months, the Islamic Republic of Iran has intensified executions and the repression of prisoners to an unprecedented degree.
Human rights reports point to widespread executions, expedited trials, forced confessions, and the denial of due process.
International reports further indicate that Iran recorded one of the highest execution rates in the world over the past year, with the execution of political and security-related prisoners continuing at an alarming pace in recent months.
In such circumstances, there is a serious concern that, in order to reduce the international costs of overt executions or killings of well-known figures such as Narges Mohammadi and Nasrin Sotoudeh, the authorities may resort to a more covert method: interference with access to medication, treatment, medical transfers, independent doctors, and specialised care.
If deliberate and systematic, such a method is fundamentally no different from physical elimination; only its form is more concealed and its political cost lower.
We call upon all governments, the United Nations, the European Union, national parliaments, human rights organisations, UN Special Rapporteurs, bar associations, medical organisations, and the conscience of the global public to urgently place the situation of political prisoners in Iran, particularly Ms Narges Mohammadi and Ms Nasrin Sotoudeh, on their agendas.
The International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political and prisoners of conscience; immediate access for ill prisoners to independent and specialised medical care; official disclosure of the place of detention of Nasrin Sotoudeh; an end to the denial of medical treatment for Narges Mohammadi; a halt to executions; and the establishment of an international mechanism to monitor the conditions of prisons in Iran.
Silence in the face of the gradual death of political prisoners constitutes indirect complicity in a crime. The international community must act before it is too late.