Iran: Visits Withheld From Female Evin Prisoners.

Tehran’s Prosecutor has stopped all in-person visits in the women’s section of Evin Prison, according to opposition websites.

The Kaleme website reported on Thursday November 22 that female inmates who had children were allowed to meet with them in person on Wednesday, but yesterday the prisoners were told that these visits are canceled until further notice.

Prison authorities have informed prisoners that the decision has been handed down from the prosecutor’s office and prison officials have no authority over it.

Kaleme speculates that the decision by Tehran Prosecutor Mahmoud Jafari Dowlatabadi was probably issued as a punishment for the letter that was released earlier by a number of Iranian political prisoners, expressing sympathy for the family of deceased blogger Sattar Beheshti, who died recently while in the custody of cyber police.

Seven female inmates, including Jila Bani-Yaghoub, Bahareh Hedayat, Shiva Nazar-ahari, Hakimeh Shokri, Jila Karamzadeh and Faezeh Hashemi, signed a statement extending condolences to the Beheshti family and calling on the authorities to pursue the case of his death in prison in order to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Sattar Beheshti was arrested on October 30 and, less than a week later, was pronounced dead by the authorities while in prison. Prisoners in ward 350 of Evin Prison claim they saw evidence of torture on his body and claim that he died under torture.

The female prisoners express grave concern regarding the treatment of prisoners in Evin, emphasizing the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh, the jailed human rights lawyer who has been on hunger strike for the past month to protest the violation of her rights as a prisoner.