Iranian of the Day

JARAS: Massoud Pedram, a writer and a nationalist-religious political activist, has been transferred from General Ward 350 to a solitary cell inside the IRGC's Ward 2-A in Evin Prison. To protest his treatment, Pedram has embarked on a hunger strike to protest his prison treatment and confinement inside a solitary cell. According to reports, he remains under interrogation and psychological pressure by IRGC interrogators.

According to Iranian laws, a prisoner who has been tried and is serving his prison sentence may not be transferred to another prison facility and re-interrogated.

Massoud Pedram, a social researcher who holds a Ph.D. degree in political science, is a member of the Iran Nationalist-Religious Council. He was initially arrested in March 2000, during the mass arrests of Nationalist-Religious members, and served more than three months in solitary cells inside IRGC's Eshratabad Detention Center. After five months in prison, he was released on bail and his case file remained open inside a Tehran appeals court, alongside cases of several other Nationalist-Religious activists.

In 2011, Judge Haddad at Tehran Revolutionary Courts sentenced Pedram to four years in prison and five years' ban on his social rights. Massoud Pedram's sentence was stopped at appeals level and therefor this court never announced its ruling to Pedram and other suspects in the case such as Ezatollah Sahabi, Hoda Saber, Habibollah Peyman, Mahmoud Maleki, Mohammad Bastehnegar, Reza Raees-Tousi, and Hossein Rafiee.

After numerous summonses and repeated threats, security forces arrested Pedram, a supporter of the Green Movement, on 11 November 2011 and transferred him to Evin Prison.