Thank you to the Parliament of Canada for inviting me. I'm prepared to talk in Persian.
[Witness spoke in Farsi, interpreted as follows:]
I would like to use this opportunity that's been given to me to thank the Canadian Parliament, from the bottom of my heart, for the support and special attention that's been given regarding human rights violations. While I was in jail there, Amnesty Canada's campaign enabled me to get out of jail within two years. I want to say that this support was very effective.
Universities in Iran are a threat to the authorities of the Islamic Republic. They look at students as a threat. For students who want to attend university, this could be a pathway to jail. If you don't behave as they expect, and if you're deemed to be independent, that is sufficient for that to happen.
When I was 22 years old, I was summoned to court. I was convicted to serve one year in jail, and I was told I would not be able to continue my education for the rest of my life, except for peaceful, regular university activities. If students do similar things in Canada, I'm sure you encourage them. If we do that in Iran, we are denied our rights.
Two years after the cultural revolution, thousands of students were prevented from continuing their education. Teachers and professors were not allowed to continue teaching at the university.
I went to the university. I did not expect to be prevented from continuing my education forever. Then I was arrested a second time, in 2013. I was put in solitary confinement for 65 days, in a very terrible situation in terms of hygiene and psychological pressure. Because of the experiences I had there, after one year of being denied medical treatment on the orders of the judicial authorities, I'm still suffering from diseases I was afflicted with while I was in solitary confinement. I am not the only person it happened to. Narges Mohammadi had a lot of medical issues in jail and remains in jail, and there are many others. Unfortunately, the denial of medical treatment continues.
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, who is a representative of the prosecutor general of Tehran, one of the 19 people, laughed at me because I was in pain and suffering from disease. He asked, “Do you think you will get out of this place alive?” Unfortunately, this process stays with you for the rest of your life, through the pressures on your family and the psychological damage you receive.
Judge Salavati, another of the 19 people on whom the Government of Canada is requested to place sanctions, was my judge. He was the person who sentenced me to jail for seven years. He asked my lawyer to sit behind me, so that I could not see his eyes and facial indications, even to get the slightest help. My lawyer, Amir Salar Davoodi, has been in jail for over six months, in solitary confinement, for the charge of collaboration with enemy countries.
I think that the country could be free, could be saved from the crises that it is involved in, as long as the facilities....
In Iran, the judiciary system is a tool for suppression, for oppression. I can tell you about Judge Salavati and my eight-hour session before his court. I was interrogated by a professional interrogator. He threatened me, saying that any vote could be issued against me because I threatened the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
From the first day after the revolution until now, thousands of people have been killed in Iran for their political opinions or their religious and ethnic views. In the 1980s thousands of people were executed, and last week was the anniversary of the execution of five Kurdish prisoners. Not only were the bodies of these individuals not given back to the family, but after 10 years they have not even allowed the families to know where the bodies are buried.
The mass burials we hear about in Syria and the mass executions of Bashar al-Assad's government or Daesh are bad memories of the Iranian people who were killed for their opinions 40 years ago. Families have even been denied the right to mourn for their families.
The other thing that I might emphasize about the Islamic Republic is that prisoners and their families are always punished together. Under the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, EIKO, from the beginning of the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, the properties of the victims—Baha'is, ethnic minorities, religious minorities—have been seized and confiscated. Recently the houses and the stores of a couple with a 15-year conviction were confiscated and the children left without proper guardians. This happened because of the opinions they expressed.
Thank you.