Yasser Goli, a student from the town of Sanandaj who is marked by university authorities with a star – meaning that he or she is a dissident activist – has been detained by authorities since 20 days ago. During this period, he has not been allowed to contact his relatives even once. His mother, who is naturally very concerned about the condition of her son told Rooz in exclusive exchange, “I have absolutely no news about my son. I go to court everyday to get some news from him but nobody says anything. There, authorities even threatened us that they can keep my son for as long they wish. One of the authorities even threatened to arrest us as well.”
Yasser’s mother spoke of her son’s heart ailment and how any kind of tension was detrimental to his health. “He suffers from high blood pressure for years, which has forced him to be hospitalized. I am afraid that this situation will cause more damage to his health, which it probably will,” she said. “The assistant prosecutor told me, “Your son has no heart problems and he simply lies about it. We know he is healthy and we are not responsible for his health. If your son has a heart attack or commits suicide inside prison, we are not responsible.”
Yasser’s mother is both angry and concerned. “I worked for 25 years to raise my son but is this what I deserve? Our life has been completely disrupted because of this arrest. Yasser’s father can’t work and his brother has refrained from attending his college classes because we all concerned about Yasser’s fate. If my son is doing well, then why don’t they let us see him,” she asks. She did acknowledge that she had accidentally seen her son some days earlier when she was visiting the court to enquire about the condition of her son. “I could not believe what I saw: my son was very thin and his hair was all messy while he wore handcuffs. He looked so bad that I wish I had not seen him in that condition. That scene keeps coming back to me and it frightens me. In the courthouse, they make fun of us and the authorities tell the guards to throw us out of the building. I write a letter everyday to the authorities and give it to the court officials when I go there, but they tear up my letters right in front of my eyes,” she grieved.
In response to the Rooz reported who asked what she would like human rights activists and groups to do for her, she said, “Help us, and all those others behind bars. Do it before anything bad happens to them because if anything does happen to my son, then I would not want anybody’s help.”
