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| Journalist imprisoned in Iran's letter from prison: 'Medications were changed before recording the forced confession |
Vida Rabbani, a journalist imprisoned in Iran, has published a letter in response to the country's Judiciary News Agency, which says she has been "taking medication for psychiatric problems." was not placed in the center.
Rabbani is a 34-year-old freelance journalist and political activist who has been arrested four times. At present, he has two cases against him and is in Evan Jail.
Protesting the news of the disclosure of his private medical information, he pointed to the government's attempt to "demoralize" workers by calling mental and neurological diseases "disgraceful".
He wrote: 'We have seen how you use these methods to humiliate people. Are you saying that the people we have in prison are completely insane?'
'Sedatives distributed like toffees'
A major part of Vada Rabbani's letter is his account of the distribution of sedatives to the prisoners.
He claimed: "In Qarchak prison, he asked to give as much medicine as he wanted to the inmates of Ward 8 (arrested after protesting the death of Mehsa Amini)."
She claims that clonazepam, trencopan, and peroxide were distributed like toffees. They used to describe sedatives as a cause of happiness. One night I was worried about some girls, I tried it myself, I said to the nurse in Kurchak, please give me two clonazepam and she did. I returned the pill and protested the situation.
Allegations of 'suicide' and death of several prisoners shortly after release
Yalda Agha Fazli, Arshiya Imam Qalizada, Amir Hussain Tarwal Iman, and Atefe Noomi are among those detained after the recent protests, who were declared suspiciously dead a few days after their release.
The issue drew a lot of attention to conditions in prisons and detention centers last year during a spike in arrests. Many points to the 'failure to respect the human dignity of prisoners and the violation of protocols that are emphasized in the laws of the Islamic Republic.
Vida Rabbani wrote about Yalda Aghafazli: 'I have never forgotten the beautiful face of Yalda Aghafazli, and the fear and excitement of the girls of Ward Eight after her death and the failed suicide of another inmate after the news of Yalda's death. Unforgettable. You killed Yalda, Yalda would be alive today if she hadn't been arrested, but does that matter to you? no! People's lives don't matter to you.
A mental illness label
The Judiciary has a history of transferring political prisoners to the Neurology Department and the Aminabad Psychiatric Asylum. Observers say the act is meant to humiliate the prisoners and is tantamount to stigmatizing mental illness among some sections of society.
Rabbani wrote: 'I'm not ashamed to say that my mental health has suffered and I take medication for anxiety and depression, it's not shameful. Rather, the system should be ashamed, which is designed to harm the psychology of its opponents, but they are not ashamed.
"The fact that you send political prisoners to Aminabad to defame them does not denigrate them, but you are creating your own secondaries," she claims.
Response from ex-prisoners
Mona Mufi, a psychologist and social worker, wrote in response to the publication of Vida Rabbani's letter: 'I am not ashamed to say that after six months of solitary confinement, I suffered from anxiety and depression and until now I Suffering from stress and depression and still taking medication and psychotherapy.'
"During the year I was detained, they gave me 17 pills that I don't know what they were, I was released after 6 months of solitary confinement and I was off medication for a long time," she says. Panic attacks continued. They did not even give medicine for headaches.
Detained student Zahra Kashkaki confirmed the story, writing: 'There was a box full of colored pills, they don't tell you the name of the pills, they don't guide you about the dosage of the pills, no one comes to see you. There was no doctor's prescription! They ask you what your problem is. Do you want to be happy? Do you want to sleep? What do you want? They will give you a handful of pills! Qarchak was hell.
Another journalist, Naseem Sultan Begi, discussed the issue of sedative pills in the prison and wrote: 'In Do A Prison, officials and prison guards insisted on the use of these drugs to solve the problem of sleep or restlessness. As a prisoner moving from place to place, I pretended to black out and closed my eyes so as not to be part of the prison doctor's experience. Later, when I was in the same cell, I saw how they gave sedatives to the prisoners.
Abuse of neuroleptics to elicit confessions
One inmate told a prison interrogation that he was pressured by officers to admit he was 'under the influence of drugs or alcohol.'
The inmate claims that he was already taking sedatives and that they stopped him a few days ago when he was forced to confess on camera and put him back on a regular schedule. Instead of a pill, he gave a stronger medicine.
The detainee claims that before the forced confession was recorded, 'I spent a day thinking about suicide after not being given another shot.'
Right to privacy
Vada Rabbani's husband Hamid Raza Amiri wrote on his profile: 'According to the announcement made in the jail, Vada Rabbani has been pardoned in the second case. So today I was searching about the first case and Vida's treatment but I didn't get any specific response from Avon and, interestingly, the Meezan news agency is exposing people's private information.
Confidentiality of patient information by doctors and medical staff is a patient's right. Its violation is punishable under the laws of Iran and many countries of the world.
Jail Doctor
Ex-prisoners have previously written about their experiences with the prison doctor. A group has accused some of these doctors of malpractice, who prevent prisoners from being transferred to medical facilities for treatment. However, there are also rumors that the prison doctor was also imprisoned.
Earlier, the video of Nargis Mohammadi from the medical center of the prison caused a lot of reaction.
Due to the lack of timely treatment and the carelessness of the prison authorities, the health of some prisoners has been severely damaged. Among them are Alireza Rajai (a national religious activist) and Arash Sadeghi (a student activist).
But the name of Ramin Purandarjani, the doctor who examined Kehrezik's patients, is mentioned a lot. He died suspiciously in 2008.
A few years ago, the then-head of the prison organization said that doctors do not want to work in prisons.
Loneliness as torture
Rabbani claimed in his letter that during his 40 days of solitary confinement at the Information Ministry's 209 detention center, he was interrogated for only three hours and until he went on a hunger strike, prison authorities decided to transfer him to a regular prison. had refused.
Human rights activist Nargis Mohammadi, Australian researcher Kylie Moore and American mountaineer Sarah Sheward, who was imprisoned in Iran for a long time, have likened solitary confinement to prisoner torture.
Ex-prisoners say that prolonged solitary confinement during interrogation deprives a prisoner of human contact and is designed to make him feel 'forgotten, useless and deserving of punishment' to force confessions. The investigator benefited in the process.