CFPPI: We are talking to Mrs. Mahnaz Sarabi. (Alireza’s mother)
First of all, our deepest condolences for ……
We understand that after his passing there was news about a letter that Mr. Farzan had written regarding the unfortunate events that happened to ———Would you give us more information regarding your sons capture and martyrdom?
MAHNAZ SARABI: My son was captured by the Iranian guard (….) on Tir 26, 1397 because of having —؟؟— with him. The first three months he was imprisoned he was not allowed any visitors. I myself have problems walking, so in the last year I was only able to see him once during his court appearance in division #36 of the Revolutionary Court. I asked the judge to transfer him to Evin prison but the judge’s sonin law ( !! ) was rudely yelling at me and would not grant this. He yelled and said that not everybody can be sent to Evin. They and everybody told me “you better leave us/them alone before something bad happens to you here. Just pray that your son will be released as soon as possible.” On Farvardin 21, I went to division #26 of the Revolutionary Court of which Judge Babaee was presiding. Over there they sentenced my son to five years of prison. My son held his hunger strike for 33 days starting from Esfand 23. He ended it once the prosecutor gave him hope that he would consider his demands. His hunger strike was because of their treatment of me, his mother, in the court and also because he did not feel safe in the prison. His next court appearance was set for Tir 18 but just days before that he was murdered in the prison just as he predicted he would be.
CFPPI: We know of some messages he was able to pass through while he was imprisoned describing his poor and inhumane treatment while he was there. He said that they would purposely gather the political prisoners and place them along with violent criminals in one room to torture them. One of the dangers of this was that the violent criminals(on death row) would purposely kill or hurt the political prisoners to create an investigation and delay their execution. What message do you have as the mother of Ali Reza for the people who are listening to or reading this interview?
MS: My message is that I want to know who we should go to in order to complain to for all this unjustified treatment of non-violent prisoners and seek justice for their nonsensical, unjustified capture. My son was captured just because of his opinions. He never broke any laws. Why should he have been held in the same place as people on death row? Even if you imprison people for their opinions, you should at least assure their safety there. On one hand, they sentenced him as a political activist, but then on the other hand they are kept with violent criminals. I see mothers, like myself, whose children were being treated even worse than my son was, so I feel ashamed to even talk about my case. He wasn’t even allowed to speak to us over the phone. They beat up Farzan Mohamadi just because he publicly gave me his condolences for what was going on. They constantly yelled and cursed that them on a daily basis. Why should this happen to people just for their opinion? Why do they deserve this kind of treatment? The few times that I was able to talk to my son and he said things were ok, I later found out that he was just lying to me to try to calm me down because he knew it would upset me. Later, I read his memoir he was writing while in prison, that he said he was dying for even a piece of good food. The food their was bad in both quantity and quality.
CFPPI: We heard that Soheil Arabi’s mother, regarding how they treat prisoners in Fashapooyeh prison, said that the prison is the worst layer of hell. (Regarding the healthcare standards, lack of medical care, lack of food, and other horrible conditions of the prison). As you say, they are keeping political prisoners with violent criminals in all these prisons. We heard that Farzan Mohammadi wrote a letter. Would you tell us if you’ve heard of what happened to him after that letter?
MS: I don’t know about any letter but after my son was murdered, Farzan called me to give his condolences and asked what happened to my son. they had beaten him to death. I asked him(since they were in the same jail cell) to let me know what my son was doing and saying during that time. After that, they didn’t let Farzan talk to me anymore. He and Soheil Arabi are both currently in very bad condition in the prison. My question is…when they were given outdoor access while in prison,it was supposed to be at different times…When they were out, my son’s cell was supposed to be locked and vise versa…The night my son was murdered, they give dinner at 6 o’clock, how come at that night was 8:30? The other thing is that at 7pm was always headcount time. How come they let them out for outdoor access at 8:30 when headcount is supposed to be the last thing of the night?
CFPPI: Unfortunately our time is up. Hopefully we can continue another time. I hope that people all over the world can be Ali Reza’s voice. We have to be loud about the anger and hate that they caused when they killed him.
MS: I appreciate you interviewing me. I hope my son is the last victim of theirs and that they investigate more about these innocent lives that are being lost. They are being murdered for just their opinions. Why must they be butchered like this because of that? They stabbed him 30 times and it might as well have been stabbing my heart 30 times . I hope you can spread this word to everyone who hears what I have to say with this interview.
CFFPI: We sure will.