{"id":1230,"date":"2018-03-01T17:18:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T17:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2018-03-01T17:18:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T17:18:20","slug":"life-of-iranian-american-in-evin-prison-is-in-danger-says-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1230","title":{"rendered":"Life of Iranian-American in Evin Prison is in Danger, Says Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wife and Son of Karan Vafadari Fear For His Life After Suspicious Deaths in Prison<\/p><\/div>\n

March 1, 2018\u2014The son of Iranian-American Karan Vafadari, who is imprisoned in Tehran\u2019s Evin Prison, said his stepmother, Afarin Neyssari, also imprisoned in Iran, fears for her husband\u2019s life after officials claimed without any evidence that two previous detainee deaths in January 2018 were suicides.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAfarin said she fears for Karan\u2019s life,\u201d said Cyrus Vafadari, the son of Karan Vafadari, in a statement obtained by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). \u201cMy family and I share her concerns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make clear that\u00a0Karan Vafadari and Afarin Neyssari<\/a>\u00a0have no suicidal tendencies,\u201d said the son, adding that he believes both his father and stepmother\u2019s lives are in danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement by the son, who lives in the US, continued, \u201cSince Dr. Kavous Seyed-Emami\u2019s recent death in Evin Prison, I feel the need to emphasize, on the record, that at no point since Karan and Afarin\u2019s unjust imprisonment 19 months ago have either of them shown any suicidal tendencies when we have spoken on the phone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kavous Seyed-Emami<\/a>, a prominent Iranian academic and environmentalist who had Canadian citizenship, died in Evin Prison allegedly by suicide on February 9, 2018. Calls by his\u00a0family<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0UN human rights experts<\/a>\u00a0for an independent investigation have gone unheeded in Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cyrus Vafadari noted that his father\u2019s brother, Kasra Vafadari, was murdered in France in 2007 \u201cby someone with a connection to the IRGC 11 years ago,\u201d adding that \u201cKasra lived under constant harassment for being a Zoroastrian.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Karan Vafadari belongs to a prominent Zoroastrian family in Tehran. Recognized in the Iranian\u00a0Constitution<\/a>, followers of the ancient, pre-Islamic Zoroastrian faith have lived in Iran for thousands of years but are subject to\u00a0discrimination<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karan Vafadari and his wife, Afarin Neyssari were\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 (IRGC) Intelligence Organization at Tehran\u2019s Imam Khomeini International airport on July 20, 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

In late January 2018, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided by\u00a0Judge Abolqasem Salavati<\/a>\u2014known for his hardline views and imposition of harsh sentences in cases involving dual nationals\u2014sentenced<\/a>\u00a0Vafadari to 27 years in prison and 124 lashes, and Neyssari to 16 years in prison and 74 lashes. They have also been fined more than nine billion rials ($243,000 USD).<\/span><\/p>\n

In a February 2018\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0from Evin Prison, Vafadari wrote that before he was arrested, he was actively trying to regain some of his family\u2019s confiscated assets through the Iranian legal system. In another letter issued that same month, he\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0the IRGC of pressuring the judiciary to impose heavy sentences on him and his wife.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vafadari was accused of a variety of\u00a0charges<\/a>, ranging from being a Zoroastrian\u00a0dual national<\/a>, \u201ccollusion in plots against national security\u201d and \u201cstoring smuggled foreign alcohol.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The charges against Neyssari remain unclear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKaran had always shown optimism that because he is innocent of any wrongdoing, he would be released when the trial came,\u201d wrote his son in the statement. \u201cEven after being denied his own lawyers and bail, Karan has continued to fight for justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The prosecution of Karan Vafadari and Afarin Neyssari has been marked by the\u00a0denial of due process<\/a>, which has included being denied the counsel of their choice and forced to accept court-appointed lawyers. In addition, the authorities\u00a0refused to release Afarin Neyssari<\/a>\u00a0after the family met the court-designated bail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a family, our top priority is that Karan and Afarin are safe, and that they receive a fair trial that will lead to the only fair conclusion: their unconditional release,\u201d he added. \u201cThey have a right to hire their own team of lawyers (which they have been denied), and they have the right to be considered for release on bail or furlough (which they have also been denied).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that the Islamic Republic will protect its citizens, Karan and Afarin, from current rights violations and the injustices they are facing and free them now,\u201d wrote Cyrus Vafadari.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least\u00a013 dual and foreign nationals<\/a>\u00a0and foreign permanent residents are currently being held in Iranian prisons. In November 2017, Reuters\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that at least 30 dual nationals had been arrested by the IRGC since Iran and world powers signed the nuclear deal in July 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent multiple\u00a0deaths of detainees<\/a>\u00a0under highly suspicious circumstances have raised concerns regarding fatal ill-treatment in Iranian prisons, particularly after swift official statements that the detainees committed \u201csuicide\u201d and the refusal of authorities to allow any independent investigations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iranian officials claimed that the deaths of\u00a0Sina Ghanbari<\/a>\u00a0in Evin Prison on January 7, 2018, and\u00a0Vahid Heydari<\/a>\u00a0at a detention center in the city of Arak that same month were suicides. Heydari\u2019s lawyer, Mohammad Najafi, was\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0in February after he told media outlets that the authorities are trying to cover-up the real cause of Heydari\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\n

For interviews, contact:<\/span>
\n Hadi Ghaemi<\/span>
\n +1-917-669-5996<\/span>
\n hadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 1, 2018\u2014The son of Iranian-American Karan Vafadari, who is imprisoned in Tehran\u2019s Evin Prison, said his stepmother, Afarin Neyssari, also imprisoned in Iran, fears for her husband\u2019s life after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[285],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-karan-vafadari"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}