Mehran Raouf
Age: 67
Activities/Rights: Workers rights
Status: Evin Prison
Judicial status: 7 years and 6 months imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention, denial of medical care, prolonged solitary confinement, access to lawyer, lack of due process, unfair trial
Mehran Raouf is a British-Iranian workers rights activist and English teacher. He was arrested at his home on 16 October 2020 and transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison. Mehran’s health deteriorated due to prolonged solitary confinement and he went on a hunger strike for a few days in March 2021 to protest. He was held in solitary confinement for eight months and deprived of legal representation in court, which his lawyer, Mostafa Nili filed a complaint against. His request for a pen and paper to write his own defence was also refused and he was later mocked in court for reading from a piece of cardboard he had found in prison. He was transferred from solitary confinement on 12 June 2021 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment on the charge of “running an illegal group” and eight months for “propaganda against the system” by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Translating and publishing books were cited as evidence of his membership in the Iran Communist Party. Shortly after his lawyer Mostafa Nili was arrested on August 14, his client case files including that of Mehran, were found scattered outside Evin Prison. His sentence was reduced to seven years and six months on appeal. In a letter from prison, Mehran described the discrimination against dual-nationals who were excluded from the February general amnesty list. He has also been denied phone calls, visits and furlough. He continues to serve his sentence in Evin Prison.