Iran: Prisoner with Mental Disability Died After Being Beaten by Guards; IHR Calls for Independent Investigations

MARCH 30, 2019

Iran Human Rights (IHR); March 29, 2019: Prisoner Bahman Mirzaei who was reportedly suffering from a mental disability, died on March 6 after being beaten by Rajai Shahr prison guards.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) urges the international community to pay special attention to the dreadful conditions of Iranian prisons and particularly to the reports of suspicious deaths of the prisoners subjected to torture.

IHR director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said: "We particularly urge UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and Special Rapporteur for extrajudicial executions, to question Iranian authorities regarding the death of Bahman Mirzaei and others who lost their lives in Iranian prisons during the past years."

According to IHR sources, Bahman Rezaei who was transferred from a psychiatric hospital to Rajaei Shahr prison was beaten severely by prison guards on March 25, 2019. Next morning, his dead body was found in the cell. Prison authorities claim that Bahman committed suicide.

"They did not show us Bahman's full body. They just showed us his face to confirm his identity, and his face was full of bruise. We have been told that he was involved in a fight with guards... His friends from prison have told us that he was beaten with sticks and batons...," One of his relatives told IHR while crying on the phone.

One of the prisoners, who were a friend of Bahman, told IHR, "Bahman was transferred from prison to AminAbad psychiatric hospital. He was transferred back after a week while he was under the influence of the prescribed medicines. He quarrelled with guards and they beat him severely. He died the next morning."

Bahman was born on February 9, 1986. He was in prison since three years ago for a gang fight which led to a murder.

Extrajudicial killing is not a new phenomenon in Iranian prisons. Vahid Sayyadi Nassiri, Sina Ghanbari and Kavous Seyed-Emami were among the recent reported cases.

Bahman was beaten previously by prison guards as indicated in the following photos.