Amirabbas Azarmvand
Age: 36
Activities/Rights: Journalist
Status: Released
Judicial status: -
Violations: Arbitrary arrest, prolonged solitary confinement,familial punishment, press censorship, access to lawyer, due process
Amirabbas Azarmvand is an economics journalist at Khabar Online and SMT newspaper, and workers’ rights activist. He regularly writes articles about the plight of the unions, workers and the most down-trodden in society within the guidelines of a state newspaper. Previously arrested in 2009, 2017 and 2018, he was arrested on 1 September 2021 when his house was raided by five Ministry of Intelligence officers in the morning.
Amirabbas was transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Despite bail being set in the early days, when his father was finally able to come up with the set amount, he was thrown out of Evin Court by the investigator, Haj Moradi.
Amirabbas was subsequently transferred to Ward 2A of the prison in the custody of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation. He was released on a 500 million tomans bail on 23 September.
On 6 November, Amirabbas filed a complaint against the Ministry of Intelligence and IRGC Intelligence Organisation for unlawful detention in solitary confinement along with tens of other activists. On 19 January 2021, he was sentenced to 3 years and 7 months imprisonment for “assembly and collusion against national security” and 8 months for “propaganda against the system.”
He was violently arrested at a Women’s Day gathering on 8 March 2022 and taken to Evin Prison where his sentence was implemented. He was shot with pellet bullets and beaten in the 15 October attack on Evin Prison and transferred to the punitive Ward 10 of Rajai Shahr (Gohardasht) Prison. A complaint was brought against Amirabbas and several others from the night of the Evin Prison attack which was later dropped. He was released from prison on 11 February 2023 after being included in the general amnesty list. Three years later, he still suffers the consequences of not receiving timely medical treatment.