Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

Mr. Babak Dadbakhsh, a political prisoner currently exiled at Rajaishahr Prison (also known as Karaj’s Gohardasht prison) - solely for advertising and cooperating in gathering documentation related to the book “Corruption Den” and presenting it to inspectors who had come to prison to inspect what had been described in the book - is deprived of the right to visit with his family and to make phone calls. In protesting the situation, he declared a hunger strike and sewed his lips shut over seven days ago.

In continuing to exert pressure on this political prisoner, prison authorities have transferred him to the most dangerous place in the prison, Ward 5, Hall 13.

By presenting a documented report of the events that have occurred in this human slaughterhouse in the last 18 months, the HRA would like to draw the attention of human rights defenders and organizations to the dangers threatening Babak Dadbakhsh’s life, whether due to the precarious conditions and lack of security, or to the continuation of his hunger strike in his dire physical state.

The following is a description of events that have occurred in the last 18 months at Ward 5, Hall 13, which has the capacity to detain only 150 prisoners.

Individuals who have been killed in the conflicts at Rajaishahr Prison’s Ward 5, Hall 13, in the last 18 months:

1. Massud Naqi
2. Sa’eed Mohammadi
3. Asghar Foqani
4. Hossein Arjomandi
5. Farhad Darvishi
6. Davud Baqai
7. Mehran Mohammadi (Mehran Mohammadi was killed for having a knife that he himself claimed was given to him by the prison warden in order to kill another prisoner; he was killed through instigation of the prisoners; he was stabbed 60 times and his head was cut off. 50 days ago)
8. Mehrdad Sabokdast
9. Gholam Bozorgzadeh
10. Abbas Eskandari
11. Ahmad Noruzi
12. Haj Abdolreza
13. Ebrahim Golshani

Names of individuals who have committed suicide in Ward 5, Hall 13:

1. Mohammad Timsar
2. Seyyed Morteza
3. Reza Zandi
4. Seyyed Javad
5. Shahbazi
6. Fereydun Deraz
7. Reza Shah Hosseini
8. Babak Khansari

Suspicious deaths at Ward 5, Hall 13 said to have been suicides:

1. Siamak Bandelu (killed by injection of anesthetic syringe at the infirmary)
2. Ali Sharifi (hanged in his underwear in solitary for insulting the warden and the former head of intelligence protection, Mr. Khadem)
3. Mohammad Azimi (hanged in solitary)
4. Asghar Nassiri (he was killed by hanging and was administered psychotropic pills post mortem to make it look like suicide)
5. Mansur Qazvini (hanged in solitary)
6. Mohammad Ranjbar (hanged in solitary)
7. Asghar Karami (hanged in solitary)
8. Mohammad Fallah (hanged in solitary)
9. Hamid Rahimi (tortured while on hunger strike to break the strike; died from torture)
10. Seyyed Mohammad Rassuli (severely tortured under the pretext of transporting drugs in prison, resulting in a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding of the kidneys and death. The prison report states that he died due to swallowing drugs.)
11. Morteza Jafari (45 days ago, he was suffocated first and hanged subsequently)
12. Mehdi Naderi (after 11 years, he was injured in a fight at the prison infirmary and died there)
13. Farhad (died due to lack of medical attention)

Names of individuals who have suffered broken bones due to torture at Ward 5, Hall 13:

1. Ahad Sakuian (suffered from a broken shin and hand/arm at the hands of Mohammad Alipur and Kazem Kangarani)
2. Mohammad Alipur (broken face, cheekbones, and nose, and then transferred to Sanandaj Prison)
3. Shahin Torki (broken hand/arm)
4. Fereydun Samii (broken leg)
5. Ahmad Eliasi (the current prison warden who was once head of intelligence protection broke his shins with a pickaxe handle. Subsequent to his family’s following up and persistence, they obtained blood money for his injuries from judicial authorities)
6. Hamid Alinabi (tortured in solitary confinement cells for a long time while suffering from a gunshot wound)
7. Seyyed Abolfazl Etemadi (He had a problem of a personal nature with the prison warden outside the prison; he was taken to Ward 5 without a judicial warrant or order where prisoners were instigated to beat and stab him with a knife.)
8. Bahman Massumi (He had a problem of a personal nature with the prison warden outside the prison; he was taken to Ward 5 without a judicial warrant or order where prisoners were instigated to beat and stab him with a knife.)
9. Javad Soltani (broken hand/arm)
10. Nasser Rajabi (broken arm and leg)
11. Hemmat Qanbari (Mr. Khadem, the former head of intelligence protection, broke his arm and leg with a metal rod and subsequently, through beating him with a club, caused him mental disturbance in such a way that he now sleeps on the floor in front of the toilet or on the cold bare floors of the hall.)

Names of individuals who have been forgotten at Ward 5, Hall 13:

1. Firuz Shahabi, 27 years imprisonment
2. Yahya Mojaveri, 27 years imprisonment (he is over 60 years old)
3. Salaheddin Qorbani, 23 years imprisonment (he is over 60 years old)
4. Salah Dadkhah, 23 years imprisonment (he is over 60 years old)
5. Gholam Jaberi, 18 years imprisonment
6. Zeydan Veisi, 20 years imprisonment
7. Nader Sadeghi, 14 years imprisonment
8. Faramarz Turang, 17 years imprisonment
9. Majid Katani, 14 years imprisonment
10. Mahmud Torabi, 15 years imprisonment (for a mere two million Tuman debt)
11. Baba Arsalan Qorbani, 23 years imprisonment (he is more than 70 years old and has spent his days of incarceration without any visitations)
12. Hamid Abolhassani, 20 years imprisonment
13. Sa’eed Alamdar, 16 years imprisonment
14. Rahmat Gudarzi, 7 years imprisonment (has reached a state of insanity)
15. Reza Sadri, 13 years imprisonment
16. Abbas Hamedani, 8 years imprisonment (has reached a state of insanity; he is an electrical technician)
17. Seyyed Fakhreddin Sadr Afshar, 15 years imprisonment (he has reached a state of insanity)
18. Massud Habibi, 10 years imprisonment (for nonpayment of a mere 10 million Tuman blood money order)
19. Rassul Khademi, 6 years imprisonment (for nonpayment of a mere 10 million Tuman blood money order)

Some of the tragic events that have occurred in Rajaishahr Prison Ward 5, Hall 13 in the past year:

1. Hassan Torki (has reached a state of insanity and has prayed so much that he now thinks he is a prophet)
2. Ali Fathollahi (He had a fight that almost resulted in his death and at night, he was stabbed more than 30 times and every part of his body has been injured. Both his right and left lungs have been punctured; it hasn’t been more than seven days since the occurrence of these injuries.)
3. Behruz Shariati (The plaintiff in his case had him jailed to his inability to pay a blood money order. But prison officials, exercising their own personal preferences, gathered the blood money themselves and executed him.)
4. Ebrahim Ilamlu (His brother who had been sentenced to death was hanged in the prison yard before Ebrahim’s eyes, but the rope tore apart and his brother fell to the ground. He then crawled to a corner in the yard, was dragged on the ground back to the gallows, and hanged again. Witnessing all of this resulted in Ebrahim Ilamlu’s insanity.)
5. Two prisoners were hanged in 2005-2006 in the prison with a single rope, and some of the prisoners were forcibly taken to the place to watch the hanging.
6. Jamshid Malmir, and an individual named Akbari, two of the executioners, suspended themselves from the legs of a woman who was sentenced to death so that she would die a faster and most painful death.
7. Private or religious visitations are issued at the discretion of prison officials for individuals who are willing to kill or beat other prisoners upon the order of these officials, bear false witness on their behalf, spy on other prisoners for them, etc.

Note 1: Some of the murders committed in these wards upon the orders of prison officials, occur mostly in the prison yard. The prison’s closed circuit cameras are directed toward the sky so that there won’t be any proof of the act. These numbers are from Karaj’s Rajaishahr Prison (Gohardasht) Ward 5, Hall 13 only, and the statistics for the prison’s other halls or wards have not been considered. It should be noted that all the cases occurred in this ward in the last 18 months with the exception of two instances.

Note 2: There is no God here.

The title for this documented report is taken from Rajaishahr Prison’s Judicial Deputy, Ali Mohammadi’s famous sentence who always greets prisoners upon their entry into prison with these repetitive words: “Welcome from heaven to hell. Rajaishahr’s God is different than other gods; there is no God here.”