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An Australian-Iranian man has died in a notorious Iranian prison, his family says, days after Amnesty International called for his release and accused Iranian authorities of torturing him through the denial of medical care.
Shokrollah Jebeli, 83, had been held in Tehran's Evin prison since January 2020 over a financial dispute described by the non-government organisation as a debt.
According to several UN Human Rights Office special rapporteurs, who wrote to Iranian authorities last year to express "serious concern" over his imprisonment and call for his release, Iranian law allows imprisonment of debtors, which is prohibited under international law.
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As recently as January, an evaluation by the head of the prison clinic found Mr Jebeli's continued imprisonment would be "life threatening", the human rights group said.
"He is held in conditions that violate the absolute prohibition of torture or other ill-treatment," Amnesty International said in a model letter designed for supporters to send to the head of Iran's judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.
"He shares an overcrowded and insect-infested cell with around 19 other prisoners and is deprived of adequate accommodation, forcing him to sleep on the floor on a mattress. He has difficulty walking unassisted and relies on other prisoners to perform basic daily tasks.
"He has fallen numerous times, chipping his teeth and resulting in cuts to his face and body."
On Sunday night, Peyman Jebeli confirmed his father had died.
"I was just told my father died today," he said, on a Twitter account where he has been issuing updates and begging for his father's release.
"I couldn't save him."
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https://twitter.com/FreeShokrollah/status/1505439221959471107
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian academic who spent more than two years in the same notorious Evin prison, said his death was "tragic and preventable.
"His family had been sounding the alarm for months about his deteriorating health, but was unable to arrange for medical leave or furlough," she said.
https://twitter.com/KMooreGilbert/status/1505464344649347073
Both groups raised concerns the man had not had access to a fair trial.
In an interview with Nine newspapers in May last year, Mr Jebeli declared his innocence, blaming one of the men with whom he had the dispute for putting him behind bars.
His family said the value of the dispute was between $5000 and $20,000 and said that man claimed to be an intelligence officer and "put all their wrongdoings" on Mr Jebeli.
They appealed to the Morrison government for help to get Mr Jebeli released.
Amnesty International also raised concerns the man in question had "links to the political and security establishment in Iran".
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As recently as January, an evaluation by the head of the prison clinic found Mr Jebeli's continued imprisonment would be "life threatening", the human rights group said.
"He is held in conditions that violate the absolute prohibition of torture or other ill-treatment," Amnesty International said in a model letter designed for supporters to send to the head of Iran's judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.
"He shares an overcrowded and insect-infested cell with around 19 other prisoners and is deprived of adequate accommodation, forcing him to sleep on the floor on a mattress. He has difficulty walking unassisted and relies on other prisoners to perform basic daily tasks.
"He has fallen numerous times, chipping his teeth and resulting in cuts to his face and body."
https://twitter.com/FreeShokrollah/status/1505489138128068610
The organisation said he had been denied access to all medication for a series of conditions including enlarged kidney stones, a history of strokes, sciatica in his legs and high blood pressure until January this year. Since then, he had only received some of the treatments he needed.
Mr Jebeli did not find out he had been sentenced to four years and six months in jail over the dispute until Iranian authorities replied to a UN complaint letter sent in May last year, according to Amnesty International.
That UN Human Rights Office letter from special rapporteurs on Iran, the rights of persons with disabilities and other subjects, raised concerns about Mr Jebeli's inappropriate sleeping arrangements, inability to call his family and worsening medical condition, exacerbated by imprisonment.
"It has been reported that the prison lacks reasonable accommodation for prisoners of old age, such as railings to hold on to," the letter said.
"Mr Jebeli relies solely on the help of other prisoners to get around and to take showers. On several occasions, he has fallen in the shower.
"He is unable to go to the prison's medical clinic by himself and he is unable to go to the exercise yard, which has had further deteriorating impact on his mental health."
Authorities had been refusing Mr Jebili's release unless he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Source: 9News
