Maryam Akbari Monfared Faces Another Prison Sentence After 15 Years in Detention
Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner whose family members were killed in the eighties, h
Hengaw: Tuesday, January 2, 2023
Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner whose family members were killed in the eighties, has been sentenced to a three-year prison term by the judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite 15 years of continuous imprisonment without a day of leave, she has been sentenced once again.
According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Maryam Akbari Monfared, a 48-year-old mother of three, recently received a three-year prison sentence from the criminal court of Semnan province.
Maryam Akbari Monfared, currently detained in Semnan Central Prison, faced charges including "propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran," "gathering and collusion," and "insulting Khamenei," as indicted by the Evin Prosecutor's Office.
In the summer of 1988, amid the mass execution of political prisoners by the Islamic Republic of Iran, Maryam Akbari Monfared lost two more family members: a brother named Abdolreza and a sister named Ruqiye Akbari Monfared. Also, in the years 1981 and 1984, two of her brothers were executed.
Arrested by the forces of the intelligence department on December 30, 2008, Maryam Akbari Monfared faced accusations of "war against God through membership in the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran" by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran.
On June 1, 2010, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, led by Abolqasem Salvati, sentenced her to 15 years in prison for her previous charges, a verdict later affirmed by Branch 36 of the Court of Appeal of Tehran Province.
Maryam Akbari Monfared filed a complaint with the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances with the United Nations in February 2017. As a result of this complaint, the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances for the United Nations recognized her siblings, Ruqiyeh and Abdolreza Akbari Monfard, in the list of "enforced disappearances" and requested the Islamic Republic of Iran to explain their fate.
Exiled from Tehran's Evin prison to Semnan prison on March 9, 2021, Maryam Akbari Monfared continues to serve her sentence in the latter facility.
