A Kurdish citizen from Sarvabad, in Iran’s Kurdistan province, Mohammadi was sentenced to six years in prison in a court session presided over by Judge Salavati on the charges of “gathering and colluding with the intention of undermining national security” and “propaganda against the state.” His appeal was heard in Branch 54 of the Court of Appeals of Tehran on February 23, 2019. The court ruled that Mohammadi's sentence should be reduced to three years and six months in prison.

Mohammadi gained public attention when his cellmate and friend, Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali, a 21-year-old political prisoner, was stabbed to death in the Greater Tehran Prison, also known as Fashafuyeh, on June 10, 2019.


Life in the Mire of Fashafuyeh

Mohammadi was transferred to the Greater Tehran Prison to serve his prison sentence, where he met Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali. Prison authorities meanwhile violated the principle of holding prisoners according to their crimes – i.e. keeping political prisoners together and regular prisoners together – and held Mohammadi and Shir Mohammad Ali with dangerous offenders.

Mohammadi and his friend protested this, as well as the poor living conditions in the prison and the opposition to requests to be transferred to Evin Prison, Mohammadi and Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali went on hunger strike.

On the 19th day of their hunger strike, Mohammadi and Shir Mohammad Ali wrote a joint statement in which they described their living situation in the Greater Tehran Prison, emphasizing the unsafe conditions and the authorities’ indifference to their demands.

The joint statement said: “We have been on a hunger strike from March 14, 2019 until today, April 1, 2019. We have undertaken this hunger strike because we do not belong in this prison. We must also emphasise that not one of the other prisoners belong here either, because in this prison, even the most fundamental human rights, including access to welfare, sanitary and medical facilities, are not granted to prisoners here. Numerous prisoners have passed away because of the lack of even the most basic facilities. We are being held here involuntarily and under duress.”

The statement continued: "We have resorted to going on a hunger strike due to the lack of these facilities and the lack of security, in this way we are protesting against our detention in this prison but our health and our lives do not matter to the directors and officials of the prison. Even yesterday, Reza Haghovardi, one of the prison guards, told us very bluntly that if we ended our hunger strike we would be signing our own death warrants. Needless to say, these types of threats have been accompanied by insults against our family which we cannot repeat for moral reasons.”

Mohammadi and Shir Mohammad Ali’s statement concluded by saying: “Knowing this prison and its officials, we will never tire or become disillusioned with our strike and we will continue our protests until we achieve the desired result. We will conclude by once again declaring that we will not stay silent, because we do not deserve the indignity of living in this mire.”

Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali’s request to be transferred to Evin Prison was never granted. He was killed in the Greater Tehran Prison on June 10, 2019 when two violent offenders attacked and stabbed him repeatedly.


Disclosures from Inside Prison

Following Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali’s death, Barzan Mohammadi revealed the details of his murder in a letter.

A part of the letter reads: “After the tragic and unbelievable butchery of Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali’s weak body, not only have the prison officials not changed their immoral policy of keeping the political prisoners with dangerous criminals, but they also insist on subjecting me to daily interrogations about the crime and the events surrounding the murder.”

Mohammadi continued by saying: “Mr. Shir Mohammad Ali’s murder was entirely predictable. Everything was clear, and I have said everything that I had to say during the interrogations. I said to my interrogators that Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali was completely innocent and that it was only the prison authorities’ negligence that killed him by illegally keeping two murderers in our cellblock."

Mohammadi concluded his letter by saying: “From that day on, prison officials have been constantly threatening me to try and get more information about his murder. It’s clear that they are planning to shed even more blood just to avoid taking responsibility for his death. However, I explicitly declare that not one of the political or ideological prisoners being detained in this prison, such as Soheil Arabi or me, is dangerous. As soon as possible we must be transferred out of Fashafuyeh to a standard prison which conforms to the principle of the separation of crimes and criminals so that we can serve out the rest of our unjust sentences.”

 

Transfer to Evin Prison

Shortly after Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali’s murder, Barzan Mohammadi was transferred from Greater Tehran Prison to Evin Prison. In February 2020, he and three of his cellmates went on a hunger strike in protest against their inability to be granted parole from prison, prison officials ignoring demands made by political prisoners, the violation of the principle of the separation of crimes and criminals, the postponement of trials, the issuance of heavy sentences and the enforcing og lower court rulings without any appeal hearings. Some time later they ended their hunger strike.


Continued Imprisonment and Obstructionism by Officials

On May 23, 2020, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported the most recent developments with Mohammadi’s imprisonment. He is currently serving his prison sentence in Section 4 of Evin Prison, has repeatedly been denied his right to leave and early release, despite having served more than half of his 42-month prison sentence.

Mohammadi has made numerous parole requests but his release has been repeatedly opposed and denied.

A source close to his family told HRANA about his condition: “On March 13, 2020, Barzan Mohammadi and his family were informed that he would be granted conditional leave from prison if they provided a bail of 200 million tomans as collateral. However, even after Mr. Mohammadi’s family travelled to Tehran three times to try to pay his bail and to secure his release, Amin Vaziri, the chief judicial official of political prisoners, opposed Mr. Mohammadi’s release. 

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak in Tehran and following new guidelines published by the head of the Iranian judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, which stated that prison officials should grant leave to certain categories of prisoners, including political prisoners, Mohammadi’s family and lawyer renewed their requests for his release.

As a result of these requests, they learnt that, since March 24, 2020, Mohammadi had been registered as a political prisoner whose sentence had been pardoned.

Despite this pardon, two months later no action had been taken by judicial authorities to secure Mohammadi’s release. It is still unclear which individual or security institution was obstructing and undermining Barzan Mohammadi’s release from prison.