Iran: Sham trial of political prisoner Ali Moezzi for a third time on absurd charges

Mr. Moezzi’s sentence is finished and he should be released from prison

NCRI - On Sunday, September 6, the Iranian regime’s henchmen transferred Mr. Ali Moezzi, a political prisoner and supporter of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), in shackles from Karaj Central Prison to a branch of the regime’s tyrannical courts dubbed “Tehran Revolutionary Court”. He was “tried” for a third time by a henchman mullah known as Judge Moqissa for “propaganda against the regime”. Mr. Moezzi emphasized the unlawful nature of the court, and in protest to his forcible transfer and fresh fabrication of charges against him, he refused to respond to the charges or the questions posed by this criminal judge.

Similarly, in May 2015, while his 5-year sentence was almost over, he was “tried” in a sham trial for a second time and condemned to another year in prison. At the time, in response to the summoning of the court, he declared in a written statement that he “considers the court unlawful and illegitimate and will not participate in it”. This response resulted in a group of Revolutionary Guards attacking and beating him, and he was forcibly transferred to the court in shackles with a ruptured forehead.

Henchmen overtly threatened that they would sentence him to death for propaganda against the system. The henchmen have repeatedly threatened him as the father of two PMOI members in Camp Liberty that “you should not leave the prison alive, and we shall ultimately torment you to death inside the prison”.

Mr. Ali Moezzi, a political prisoner of the 1980s, suffers from various maladies, including acute renal disease and blocked intestine, due to his many years of imprisonment and torture. He was arrested in June 2011 for the last time and was transferred to prison while in dire conditions as he was suffering from cancer. Since then he has been deprived of medical care and treatment. During this period he has constantly been under the most severe pressures and physical and psychological tortures.

The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights institutions, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and the Special Rapporteur on torture to condemn the judicial process in Iran, including arbitrary trials, and to take immediate action to secure the release of political prisoner Mr. Ali Moezzi.