By Mojtaba Samienejad, December 2009
On September 2nd, 2007, the 60 year old Ali Saremi returned home from a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran. Upon his return, he was arrested by agents who had been waiting for him at his house. He was then brought to his old home: Evin prison.
All Ali Saremi had done before returning home was to take part and give a speech in a ceremony at Kharavan cemetery to commemorate the people who had lost their lives in the most inhumane way. However, in the eyes of intelligence and judiciary authorities, who, when given a chance, send bulldozers to desecrate the bodies of dead political prisoners, Saremi had committed an unforgivable crime by simply being present at the ceremony – a crime for which he had to spend the next 26 months in prison based on a temporary detention order, being subjected to every and any possible mistreatment along the way by the prison authorities.
Saremi was first taken to Evin’s ward 209, where he was detained for 7 months, 4 of which were spent in solitary. He was subjected to daily doses of torture and long and painful interrogation sessions. What was better for the Evin interrogators than to deny medication to Saremi, who suffered from an overactive thyroid gland? They stopped delivering his medication twice, which resulted in multiple complications for Saremi. Currently, Saremi suffers problems with his vision, and prison authorities continue to deny him medical help.
Like all other political prisoners, Ali Saremi did not endure the pains of prison all by himself. On November 4th, 2007, under the order of judge Haddad, Saremi’s wife Mahin was arrested and detained for a few weeks in Evin’s ward 209, in solitary, after her insistence to seek information on her husband. After her release, the interrogators ordered the family to refrain from seeking information and to be mindful of the intelligence guidelines.
After his 7 month ordeal in ward 209, Saremi was finally transferred to ward 350 of the same prison. The warden, Bozorgnia, had his own mandatory regulations for the prisoners. They had to take part in prayer sessions and all religious mourning ceremonies and, additionally, their phone conversations were monitored by guards. Saremi, who, along with other prisoners, protested the warden’s conduct, was punished and sent on January 24th, 2009, to a solitary cell in ward 240, where he spent the next 2-3 months.
The fates of Saremi and Misagh Yazdan-Nejad and Mohammad-Ali Mansouri, who were arrested with him, took another turn when their cases were assigned to the 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court: judge Salavati’s domain. Salavati is the same man who sentenced Hamed Rouhinejad to death for his role in the post-election unrest. Rouhinejad had been arrested before the June elections.
Saremi’s trial and court hearings were repeatedly postponed for unknown reasons. Additionally, he was no longer being charged with participating in the commemoration ceremony; the indictment had changed, and his new charges included supporting the Mojahedin Khalgh organization (MEK), enmity with the regime, and traveling to Iraq to visit the MEK’s base in Ashraf. The pressure on Saremi, who was then detained in Evin’s ward 350, continued, and, finally on October 17th, 2009, for unknown reasons, he was transferred to a solitary cell in ward 2A.
Saremi’s tribulation ended on December 29th, 2009. His ordeal had included 26 months – ۷ of which were spent in solitary confinement – of prison on a temporary detention order; torture, endless interrogation sessions; insults; death threats by an interrogator named Alavi; court delays; and a lengthy investigation process. A courier from the judiciary served the 62 year old political prisoner with a death sentence. After spending 20 years of the last 3 decades in prison, Saremi realized that all he could see was a noose.
One day after receiving the letter delivered to him in prison by the judiciary’s courier, the old political prisoner broke his customary silence and wrote a letter to his fellow Iranians, a letter written after Saremi was subjected to thousands of illegal acts and violations of his rights, a letter written by a man who has spent 20 years in prison and suffered the consequences of human rights violations throughout:
“In concurrence with the ever-growing tide of the Iranian people’s righteous uprising for freedom and for saving our land from the clutches of oppression, the regime seeks to arrest and even execute a number of innocent people in order to disseminate fear and terror in the hearts of the people and youths, hoping to deflect their anger and protests. That is why, perhaps with the death sentence issued to myself yesterday, there may be signs that the regime has drafted another plan for a massacre. This is while, even in the context of this regime’s laws, I have not committed any crimes, except for paying my respects and praying for the massacred political prisoners who are buried in the mass graves of Khavaran, more than two years ago.
It is clear that my death sentence lacks a legal basis and their only goal of hanging me is to intimidate the people and youths of this country, and scare them away from pursuing their demands. Therefore, in these days which are symbolized by the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, I deem it appropriate to once again say these words inspired by the leader of freedom-loving people (Imam Hussein):
If Mohammad’s path, and now our own country’s fate, won’t see peace except if the blood of me and people like me is shed, then nooses of the gallows, take me now!
My blood is not any different than the blood of Neda and other young people whose blood is shed daily on the streets. This will only add to the righteousness of this path, and our fearlessness and pride, especially in the days of Moharram and especially because it is at the hands of the most cruel human beings.
In the end, I would like to bring it to the attention of everyone around the world and all humanitarians, that the regime is seeking to take me, people like me, or some of the young people and prisoners to the gallows so that it can intimidate and terrify the people with our corpses, just like Ibn Ziad did.
The Tehran Prosecutor, the Majlis Speaker, Larijani, and some of the other criminal officials have also repeated this shamelessly on TV in order to intimidate people. But, there is no doubt that such sentences and threats will not result in the slightest retreat by myself or any of my compatriots on the path of establishing a free Iran.
And, as a father who has spent 23 years of his life in the prisons of the previous and current regimes in defense of freedom in this homeland, I declare to the likes of Larijani and other criminals:
In your existence, you must live a pure life
How tainted I would be if I fail to build my faith as sturdy as a mountain
A higher legacy towering over the lifeless dirt”

Ali Saremi
What has become of a country, when a 62 year old man who has spent two decades in prison now has to face a death sentence and lose all his rights simply because of the vindictive whim of intelligence and judiciary officials?

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