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2007-09-12 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Iran opens doors of feared prison, bakes cookies, pets bunnies
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 Iran opened the doors of its most feared prison to journalists Tuesday, allowing them to interview a jailed Iranian-American academic in a move seen as an effort to blunt criticism of the country's human rights record. The rare look inside Evin Prison where inmates were seen swimming in an open-air pool, playing naked Twister, cooking meals and studying for university exams contrasted sharply with tales of harsh treatment from some recently released prisoners.
Amnesty International said the tour was not representative of a facility where people have been tortured and political prisoners have been held without charges.| A rare 'well done' to Amnesia Int'l... |
Forty journalists were taken on a 4-hour tour of five cellblocks at the sprawling facility in northern Tehran on the slopes of the Alborz Mountains. The reporters were allowed to talk freely with prisoners in their cells and in the halls. Guards were nearby during the interviews, but did not intervene.
"We have nothing to hide from the world. And we invited you here to see for yourself that how inmates are treated," a top prison official, Sohrab Soleimani, told reporters.
Continued from Page 2
Kian Tajbakhsh, one of two Americans being held in Evin on charges of endangering Iran's security, ran into the journalists as he emerged from a meeting with a judge in his case. He said he believed his release was imminent. It was not clear whether the encounter with Tajbakhsh was orchestrated by the tour organizers or accidental.| We'll take orchestrated for $500, Alex, and make it a Daily Double. |
"Conditions inside the prison are fine," Tajbakhsh told reporters under a tree in the prison yard. "I expect to be released soon."
Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said Tajbakhsh would likely be "released soon, probably within the next few days." Tajbakhsh, 45, a scholar with the financier George Soros' pro-democracy Open Society Institute, appeared relaxed, wearing a gray T-shirt, dark pants, a beard and glasses. He said he was being held in solitary confinement, but that he has access to television and a private bathroom. "I have weekly visits with my wife, and have telephone conversations with her every night," he said.
Tajbakhsh is one of four Iranian-Americans accused by Iranian authorities of being part of a plot to foment a "velvet conspiracy" against the Islamic government. "We look forward to the moment when this distinguished scholar will actually leave prison and be reunited with his family," Soros' spokeswoman Laura Silber told The Associated Press by telephone. Scholar Haleh Esfandiari, 67, was released in August after 105 days of being held at Evin. She returned to her home in suburban Potomac, Md. last week and told reporters Monday that she was never physically mistreated and her jailers were polite and made her life tolerable by bringing her English-language books from Tajbakhsh.
Journalist Parnaz Azima has been prevented from leaving the country but was recently given her passport back and said she would leave Iran in the near future.
Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine, also is reportedly being held at Evin, but media did not see him during the visit and officials have not described his release as imminent.
The facility, with about 2,500 inmates, is large with roads between the numerous buildings.
One of the blocks was for people detained on suspicion of "security crimes" a broad category that includes dissidents another was a women's facility, while others held people imprisoned for fraud, manslaughter or other crimes.
 Outside one of the blocks was a swimming pool, where about a dozen inmates were taking a dip. Officials said up to 50 at a time can swim for an hour. In a large communal kitchen, inmates were cooking their lunches. Jamshidi, the judiciary spokesman, said inmates are no longer required to wear prison uniforms. "Respecting the character of inmates is a right we can't violate. Abandoning prison uniforms is one of many decisions in line with improving our standards," Jamshidi told reporters.
Babak Dadbaksh, halfway through a 10-year sentence for security crimes, said he had weekly private meetings with his wife inside Evin and was free to call outside day and night. His only complaint was high prices for extra food that prisoners can buy beyond daily rations. "We have free access to telephone, bath, shower, television, swimming pool ... conditions are really fine, but we have to pay a lot for vegetables and additional food," said Dadbaksh, who would not elaborate on the security crimes he was convicted of.
Elsewhere, officials showed journalists a block with dozens of rooms where inmates can spend up to 24 hours once a week with spouses. Most were locked from the inside, though one was open, showing a bed, television and bathroom.
In the women's block, teenager Behnaz Jangi said she was jailed for riding a motorcycle with her boyfriend. "Anti-vice police arrested me for riding a motorcycle with an unrelated man. He was my boyfriend. That's all. I have spent 42 days here without trial and without any conviction," she complained. She was spending her time sewing dolls.
Some former prisoners have described harsher conditions at Evin. In April, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a woman activist arrested during a demonstration the previous month, told The Associated Press that she was held in a room with no bed and with constant fluorescent light, which she described as "white torture." Elise Auerbach, a Chicago-based Iran specialist with Amnesty International, said the group had catalogued a number of abuses at Evin prison through contacts with current and former detainees, including beatings, severe torture, deprivation of medical care and the inability to receive visits from family and lawyers. "I think it's great that journalists have been able to get access to the prison, but I hope that people don't get the impression that what the Iranian government allows us to see is representative of what is actually going on there," said Auerbach. "Certainly the fact that people have been tortured and some have died at Evin prison speaks to the reality of the situation." 
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Posted by Seafarious 2007-09-12 00:00||
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File under: Govt of Iran
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Posted by McZoid 2007-09-12 09:14||
2007-09-12 09:14||
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