Ex-political prisoner recounts memories of executed dissident

, 04 August 2016  

Handicraft produced by executed Iranian dissident Shahram Ahmadi for Atena Daemi

A former Iranian political prisoner who is still being prosecuted by the mullahs’ regime has bravely published a memoir about an executed Sunni political prisoner.

Atena Daemi, who was arrested for opposing executions and who was recently released on bail pending a review of her charges, recounts the sad tale of one of the Sunni political prisoners’ imprisonment in Iran, where executions are a daily occurrence.

Writing on her Facebook page, she speaks about the time when an interrogator came in and told her: “Good news. We also executed your Reyhaneh Jabbari”; at this point, Daemi had been in prison for just three days. Reyhaneh was hanged at the age of 26 in 2014 after seven years in prison for killing an intelligence agent who had tried to rape her.

Atena Daemi tells the horrific tale of nine Kurds who were brought to court in one February and how they were forced to hear their death sentences read a second time, just so that the court clerk could smirk directly at Daemi and Farzad Honarju as he read out the death sentence, stating that their ‘heads would roll.’

Then, she spoke of Shahram Ahmadi who was executed on August 2, in a mass execution in Iran. She said: “A week ago I received a necklace from Shahram Ahmadi and today, Shahram Ahmadi, Farzad Honarju and the rest were executed, or as the court clerk said, their ‘heads had rolled!’ How merciful Haj Agha was by letting them live until August 2nd, and executed them without the pain and suffering of a last family meeting!!!”

Of the charges levied against her, Daemi said: “They insult us by taking us to court for such measures! But I will go to court with my head held high, just like Shahram Ahmadi who went to the gallows today with his head high. I, too, am executed each time with each execution. Tomorrow I will go to court, but not to be executed and we continue to condemn killings anywhere across the globe, such as today’s massacre and the gallows.”

During Daemi’s court session, on August 3, the court claimed that she had conducted interviews and appeared nightly on satellite television.

Daemi announced that this was simply untrue but the court did not listen. Her sentence has not yet been announced.

In the case of Daemi’s father, who is also on trial, the court announced that a fine cannot be appealed and has to be paid.

Daemi mentioned that she had seen political prisoner Amir Amir Gholi in Evin Prison and that Amir Gholi was doing well.