Saeed Hajjarian, a prominent reformist cleric and thinker detained since the June 12 controversial presidential elections in Iran, is under intense psychological and physical pressure to give fake confessions and is under extremely dangerous conditions. The daughter of this reformist who was maimed because of an assassination attempt on his life in 2000 and is now dependant on a wheelchair, told Rooz that she is extremely concerned about her father’s condition in prison, particularly his health.
Talking about the last visit that her mother, brother and herself had with Saeed Hajjarian, his daughter Zeinab Hajjarian said that “her father has been subjected to intense pressure to extract fake confessions from him,” adding that her father, “was very pale and weak with many spots on his face making us think that he may have caught jaundice. But what he suffers from is not jaundice but something worse.”
Speaking with an emotional voice, Zeinab told Rooz, “My father said that they took him out of the building into the 40-42 degree Celcius heat everyday and kept him under the sun. After than, they would take him inside the building and pour ice on him. In speaking with his doctor, he said that this would lead to a mental stroke and since one of his veins has already been seriously damaged because of the assassination attempt on him, they want to force a blood clot onto my father and thus kill him in this fashion.”
“They do not accept his medicine from us and are not providing him with the medicine he needs. We are concerned with the drugs that they themselves are giving him and are afraid that they are inappropriate or are not of the right dosage,” she said.
Zeinab talked about her last visit with her father in the prison and said that three prison guards were present during their meeting. “One of them sternly asked my mother why she did not say that his health was ok, to which my mother replied that even if we did so people would not be fooled to accept it.”
Saeed Hajjarian’s daughter said that her captors had one goal, either to get a fake confession from my father or to destroy him, in which case they will not be able to get a confession. “My father has already died once and will never make any such confession,” she confidently said.
She also spoke of interrogations that were made of her mother and brother adding that she did not know whether they were carried out in the presence of her father or that he was simply informed about them. “But he was very upset about this issue,” she said.
She explained that her mother had been interrogated for 4 hours, adding, “They put some forms in front of my mother and asked her to write her whole life story. They pressured her to write that she was in contact with the Mojaheddin Khalq organization [an outlawed armed opposition group with members in Iraq]. They asked her questions about every aspect of her life, her foreign trips and her communications.”
According to her, her brother has been interrogated several times as well. “We don’t know what their plans are and wonder what they will do next. But we are very concerned about our father, and I am afraid for my mother and brother as well. Whatever happens to them I will hold the government responsible for it,” she said.
Turning to others, she asked for help in emotional words. “I plead for help from anyone who can help us in anyway. My father has already given up his life and will not make any fake confession. Don’t let them kill him.”
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