In the name of God

General and Revolutionary Prosecutor for Tehran

Greetings

At about 3.30pm on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007, Mr. Reza Ziayi, deputy of Ward ‎no 8 of Evin prison along with other prison staff and in the presence of the warden of the ‎Ward (Mr. Bozorgnia) attacked and assaulted me, Majid Tavakoli and brutally beat me ‎up while yelling all sorts of insults at me.‎

Furthermore, following the announcement of the transfer of Ahmad Ghasaban to Ward ‎number 7, when Ghasaban returned to the ward to pick up his personal belongings and ‎bid farewell to other inmates, he was interrupted and verbally insulted by a security guard ‎named Abbasi who had followed the prisoner to escort him out, and then dragged him in ‎a despicable manner all the way out of the ward to the guard, depriving him of collecting ‎his belongings such as a blanket, clothing, and cup. With this site, Ghasaban, I and a few ‎other prisoners verbally protested this behavior by the guards. This in turn led to a sudden ‎and unprovoked assault on Ghasaban by Reza Ziayi, the deputy of Ward number 8, who ‎kicked the prisoner, hit him in the face, head, chest and other parts of his body and then ‎dragged him from the guard’s office all the way outside ward 8.‎

I who had been standing behind the railings outside the guards’ office while these events ‎unfolded, verbally protested to the guards and approached Ziayi, extending my hand ‎towards him in an effort to stop him from continuing his blows on the prisoner. Ziayi ‎however turned towards me and began beating me, while continuing his verbal assault on ‎me. We were separated and I again protested to the head of the ward, saying “What is ‎going on here?”, “Why are you beating a prisoner”, and “You have no right to beat any ‎one.” At this time Ziayi again attacked me while Hamid Manazahian (head attorney of ‎the ward) pushed me downstairs towards the guard’s room, where a guard eventually held ‎me and ordered that I be returned to my ward. Manazahian however, pushed me towards ‎Ziayi and hit me several times in my ribs and back while I stood there. Now Ziayi began ‎hitting me with full force as well while pushing me outside the ward. Outside, at the door ‎to the ward, a number of prisoners who worked for the prison guards, Shahrokh Tabidi ‎among others including Mehdi Maarufi, helped Ziayi to throw me down in front of ward ‎no 8. Then they dragged me on the ground, while I was wet, and continued to strike me ‎with their fists and legs and pulled me all the way to the left side of the ward where he ‎threw me onto a lower level, all the time beating me and cursing me with the most ‎derogatory language.‎

While standing at the entrance of the ward, Ziayi appeared and seeing that I was ‎threatening to take up his behavior with prison and judiciary officials, he again began ‎assaulting me physically and hit my face against the wall of the building. His slaps at my ‎face were so loud that other prisoners said they had heard the sound of slapping. Ziayi ‎again threw me down and continued to strike me with his legs, at the same time ridiculing ‎judiciary officials to whom I said I would complain about his behavior. He yelled that he ‎was in charge of everything while continuing to strike me. He stopped only when it began ‎to rain and I was completely soaked. An hour later, Mr. Bozorgnia who had been present ‎in all of these beatings and kept giving orders to the prison guards, and who had also ‎pushed me violently, now took me to the office of the guards and the head of the ward ‎and through lengthy talks tried to explain that all of this was a misunderstanding and ‎asked me to remain silent about the incident. I refrained from relating any of this to the ‎other prisoners. ‎

Now, while presenting this complaint which describes in detail the unlawful behavior and ‎brutality that I was subjected to by the deputy prison warden and which are in violation of ‎prison rules and regulations, I request that this matter be immediately, justly and legally ‎investigated. I declare that I shall present the details of the behavior of those involved and ‎the names of witnesses to these incidents in a court of law as be required.‎

The following are the injuries that I have suffered because of this incident:‎

 The left part of my tongue has been torn because of the beatings that I suffered on my ‎face
 Severe pain on my face and cheeks, which now have inflammations, because of the ‎slaps and fist-beatings
 Severe pain in my jaw and the inability to move my jaw for 24 hours which has ‎prevented me from eating my food
 Several cuts and bruises on my throat and back of my hands‎
 Intense coughing with blood in the first 24 hours after the incident, which were caused ‎because of being hit in the ribs by the knees of the assailants
 Severe pain in my stomach and groins because of the kicks that I was subjected
 Muscle pain in the hands and legs and the wait because I was violently thrown on the ‎ground, table, and stairs‎
 Severe headache because I was pushed and hit against a wall
 Severe neck pain, particularly on the back because of the strikes that I was subjected to
 Continued body pain that I experience because I was kept under the rain for a ‎prolonged period of time (about 2 hours), without any sandals while all of my cloths ‎were completely wet
 Being subjected to very derogatory verbal abuse, each of which qualifies for statutory ‎punishment, but which I cannot even mention or write down‎
 Repeated insults and humiliation which are against any human treatment of a person or ‎a student
 Mentioning issues from my interrogations while I was subjected to this violent physical ‎abuse, which is indicative of the premeditative aspect of the behavior of the prison ‎warden and guards. “So you thought this is a university,” “You thought this is a ‎tribune”, “So you thought you could threaten national security”, “Mr. Anvari is our ‎friend and had asked us to confront you, but we had refrained”, etc are some of the ‎remarks that were yelled at me during the beatings

In conclusion, I expect the appropriate authorities to deal with Mr. Ziayi and others who ‎had a hand and a responsibility in these events to the fullest extent of the law because of ‎their inhuman behavior which taints the judiciary so that such behavior is not repeated ‎again in the future.‎

The various events that have taken place over me in prison are so severe that I request ‎special attention be paid to the security of my life as the first duty of any prison is to ‎protect the life of the prisoners.‎

I thank the efforts of every one who seeks justice, and prey for the accomplishment of ‎your efforts to attain justice and prevent unlawful acts and injustice.‎

Majid Tavakoli
November 23, 2007‎

Copies to:‎
‎1.‎ Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
‎2.‎ Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi, head of the Judiciary branch of government
‎3.‎ Mr. Dr Haddad Adel, Speaker of the Majlis‎
‎4.‎ Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the State Expediency Council‎
‎5.‎ Head of the Majlis Judiciary Committee
‎6.‎ Head of Article 90 (of the Constitution) Commission
‎7.‎ Head of the UN Human Rights Council
‎8.‎ European Commission of Human Rights
‎9.‎ Amnesty International
‎10.‎ Human Rights Watch
‎11.‎ Human Rights Committee Islamic Association of Polytechnic University
‎12.‎ Mr. Aghayi, head of the Judiciary of Tehran Province‎
‎13.‎ Human Rights Commission of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran
‎14.‎ Association for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights
‎15.‎ Center for the Protection of Human Rights