I Was in Solitary Confinement for 80 Days

Journalist and human rights activist Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi was released on Sunday on bail after spending more than one hundred days behind prison bars in Iran. Moments after his release, this human rights activist spoke to Rooz in an exclusive interview and described his hunger strike and general conditions while in detention.

In his first interview following his release, Kermanshahi thanked individuals, groups and human rights organizations that helped to secure his release, telling Rooz, “I spent a total of 80 days in solitary confinement before being transferred to a three-person cell in the general ward.”

This human rights activist continued, “The most fundamental issue is my illegal detention after the conclusion of the interrogation process. According to the law, no individual can remain behind bars without a verdict after the interrogation process.”

Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi noted that he went on a hunger strike to protest his illegal detention, adding, “After my numerous objections against my situation went unanswered, finally last week I went on hunger strike for a week, which fortunately bore fruit and forced the officials to look into my situation.”

Commenting on his treatment by prison officials throughout his confinement, Kermanshahi said, “I was satisfied with their behavior, it was generally good. There weren’t any physical confrontations, in particular.”

Kermanshahi is an experienced human rights activist and a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign, the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization, the dissolved Zhiar Association as well as Advar Tahkim Vahdat student alumni organization. He was barred from communicating with his family throughout his detention, except for two occasions when he met with them. The charges against him remain unknown, and his lawyers have not yet been authorized to view his case files.

More than 160 bloggers, journalists and civil society activists had previously written an open letter to the judiciary chief objecting to Kermanshahi’s continued detention and demandied the immediate and unconditional release of the civil society activists.

Amnesty International, the Campaign for Defense of Human Rights in Iran, the Human Rights Defenders Protection Program, the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization, the human rights organization “Khat-e Moghaddam” [“Front Line”], Kurdistan’s Human Rights Watch news agency, and the Kermanshah office of Advar Tahkim organization has also demanded the immediate release of Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi.

Three days before the release of this member of the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization, the organization’s spokesman, Ajlal Ghavami, who had been arrested last month in Sanandaj, was also released.

The organization’s founder Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand, however, has been behind bars for years for his human rights activities.