Student activist Abdollah Momeni has been repeatedly denied rights to furlough and family visits after writing a letter addressed to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, detailing torture, abuse, and ill-treatment in prison. The letter was first published by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Photo courtesy: ISNA

In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, activist Abdollah Momeni’s wife, Fatemeh Adinehvand, expressed concern about Momeni’s physical condition. “Mr. Momeni suffers from backache and has a heart condition. Since last week, he has been transferred to the prison infirmary twice. He received painkiller injections twice in order to relieve his back pain. He needs treatment outside the prison, but prison officials do not pay any attention to our requests for granting him furlough,” Adinehvand said.

Abdollah Momeni, a former spokesperson for Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat (Office to Foster Unity) student organization, was arrested following the 2009 presidential election. He is currently serving his prison sentence of four years and 11 months inside Ward 350 of Evin Prison in Tehran.

“Unfortunately after he wrote a letter about being tortured during his interrogations, he has even been deprived from in-person visits with his children and has not been granted furlough to seek treatment for his illnesses. The physician at Evin Prison said several times that Momeni needs treatment outside the prison for his illnesses, especially for his heart condition, but they have not granted it so far. I have, therefore, abandoned submitting requests for leave. Mr. Momeni is following up this [request] inside prison. The authorities know his situation better than anybody else,” Adinehvand told the Campaign.

“He says everything is repetitive and upsetting in prison. We take him books to engage him in prison, but they won’t deliver the books to him, and they won’t return them to us. Mr. Momeni studied social sciences. Most of the books I have taken him are in this field. I mean I didn’t take him books that might generate sensitivity. They routinely [take the books and] deliver them to him once, and the next time they are neither delivered to him, nor returned to us,” said Adinehvand about other constraints placed on Momeni.

“During the past year, the kids were allowed to have in-person visits with their father only twice. The second time was in March when the children and their father were able to see each other in person after ten months. Since then, no matter how hard I tried, I was unable to get another in-person visit,” she continued.

“I am sad to be away from him, to not have him next to me and my children. He is somewhere where I can only see him through glass. When the kids see him like this, they get so upset. They feel that their innocent father is on the other side of the glass. The children want to kiss their father, so does he. They have only been able to see each other in-person twice for about 20 minutes in one whole year,” Adinehvand concluded.