July 22, 2016
The wife of Hashem Zeinali, a 70-year-old man sentenced to a lashing for peacefully protesting on behalf of his missing son outside Evin Prison, is hoping the Appeals Court will overturn the sentence.
“My husband, who’s an old man, has been condemned to imprisonment and flogging for a charge that has no basis in reality. He was standing in front of Evin Prison with a portrait of our missing son, Saeed, and the authorities prosecuted him on the charge of participating in a gathering in support of Mohammad-Ali Taheri,” the imprisoned leader of a banned spiritual group, Akram Neghab told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI).
“I already lost my son. I can’t tolerate seeing my husband jailed and flogged.”
While holding a portrait of his son Saeed Zeinali, Hashem Zeinali was arrested in front of Evin Prison last November 21 along with a group of 13 other peaceful demonstrators who were mostly followers of Mohammad-Ali Taheri.
Everyone apprehended outside Evin that day was sentenced to 91 days in prison and 74 lashes for “disturbing the public order by participating in an illegal gathering in support of the head of the Erfan-e Halgheh sect.”
The United Nations has declared lashing a cruel and inhuman punishment tantamount to torture.
Saeed Zeinali was a 22-year-old computer science student at Tehran University when he was arrested at his home, in front of his mother, July 10, 1999, five days after that year’s student protests erupted. Three months later, during a short telephone conversation, Saeed told his parents he was well. He has not been seen or heard from since.
“I have not heard from my son for 17 years. I know I won’t get any answers, but I will not stop asking what happened to him until my last breath,” Akram Neghab told ICHRI.
Iranian officials have denied having any knowledge about Saeed Zeinali being arrested, even though his parents were present when police arrested him and took him away. In January, Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai said, “So far, no document has been found showing that [Saeed Zeinali] was arrested.”
The mother asked sarcastically: “Has any family gotten a receipt when a member was arrested for security reasons during the past 36 years? Was I, the mother of Saeed Zeinali, too stupid not to get a receipt? Seventeen years [after Saeed’s disappearance], what sort of document should I be producing Mr. Ejai?”