Atena Daemi, the children and women’s right activist and campaigner against execution, in a new case that has been made up against her has been sentenced to two years prison and 74 lashes – the barbaric Islamic punishment. Atena has been in prison since 2015 and in the new case which was made up against her by Ministry of Intelligence and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, she was accused of “propaganda against the Islamic regime” for publication of a letter about “execution of children” and in a kangaroo court at branch 24 of Revolutionary Court of Tehran, after a 15 minutes so called trial, she was sentenced on 7 June 2020. Two years and one month for “propaganda against the regime” and 74 lashes for “disrupting public order in prison and celebrating in official mourning days.”
Initially, Atena was sentenced on 14th March 2015 for “propaganda against the regime, conspiracy against national security, insulting the leader of the regime, insulting Khomeini, and concealing evidence.” and since then the government has been making up new cases against her and extending her time in prison and adding to the punishments and the persecutions she has endured.
Atena stands strong! In a part of a letter about the new sentences, she wrote: “Today I was supposed to be released after 5 years prison but as everyone knows, until the Islamic Republic stands, the entire Iran in a prison. But I am free, I am so free that they think they can imprison me by the new sentences! These sentences are laughable, even the flogging! I held a memorial ceremony for the people who lost their lives in the November 2019 protests and they accuse me of celebrating and dancing in Moharam [the Islamic month of mourning]. I mourn for the oppressed of my time and will endure the lashes. Good for those who wants to flog me, it is said that ‘if you hit one, you get two!’ They have been flogging the people for a lifetime and my flogging is nothing compare to the bullets to the heads and hearts of the people in the past 40 years.”
Atena Daemi has been the voice of freedom and humanity from behind bars. Despite the ongoing torture and persecution and the pressure, she has been exposing the injustice and has raised her voice against executions and oppressions.
The Islamic Republic has stepped up its persecutions and vile sentences against political prisoners and activists because the the voices such as Atena’s are heard loudly and clearly in the society. The uprising of January 2018 and November 2019 and the the widespread protests in Iran has made it very clear to the government that the people are not putting up with the reactionary and criminal regime and are determined to put an end to the rule. The Islamic Republic cannot silence the society by the aggressions against the political prisoners, it only encourages the resistance and the social protest against itself. The people are not afraid!
Today, more than ever before, people such as Atena have become international personalities. Amnesty International has strongly reacted to the sentences against Atena Daemi and has demanded her release and other political prisoners’. Also, Pier Antonio Panzeri, a member of Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committees of European Parliament has condemned the persecution and inhuman treatments against Atena.
Free Them Now, campaign to free jailed workers, calls on all the workers and freedom loving people, and all the human rights organisations to act in condemnation of the unjust and inhuman sentences against Atena and imprisoned workers, teachers, and political prisoners in Iran. We call on you to unequivocally condemn the injustice and demand immediate and unconditional release of Atena and the political prisoners.
Free Them Now
July 5,2020