Iranian of the Day

Kaleme: Political prisoner Gholamreza Hosseini, who served 10 months without any visitation and three months in solitary cells inside the Intelligence Ministry's Ward 209 at Evin Prison, was sentenced to nine years in prison by Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court.

According to reports by Kaleme reporters, Hosseini was accused of "cooperating with enemy states." Hosseini was Head of an IT company that specialized in the field of telecommunications. He was arrested on 24 October 2010 at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport when he intended to board a flight heading for Thailand in order to purchase computer components.

Hosseini's interrogators forced him to make confessions against himself by keeping him inside a solitary cell for three months, detaining his wife, and threatening him with arrests of other members of his family. Other than reports by the Intelligence Ministry and confessions extracted under duress, there is not other evidence in Hosseini's file that would justify his 18-month "temporary detention" and his subsequent nine-year sentence.

After Hosseini's interrogations were complete, he was issued a $300,000 bail ruling, but authorities from Tehran Prosecutor's Office did not allow his family to post his bail to release him.

Under pressure from his interrogators, the political prisoner's lawyer, Payam Aboutalebi, was dismissed from representing him on the excuse that he had the potential to interview with foreign media, and another lawyer took over his case.

During his trial, Hosseini repeatedly told the court that his interrogators had illegally put pressure on him for his confessions during the investigative stages of his case and retracted his confessions. Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, however, sentenced him to nine years on prison based on those confessions.

This prisoner's rights were violated when he was tortured, threatened with execution, threatened with arrests of his family members, and his wife's detention and transfer to Ward 209, in addition to serving three months inside a cell called "the crypt," and ten months' deprivation of visitations and telephone contacts.