Moezzi was a political prisoner during the eighties. In 2008 he was arrested and given a two year prison sentence because he visited his daughters in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. He was arrested again in 2011 and was given a four year prison sentence for going to the funeral of a PMOI member. Despite being due to be released last month, he was given an additional year to his sentence. He has numerous serious health conditions and has been repeatedly put in solitary confinement and tortured.
Numerous human rights organisations have since called for his unconditional and immediate release, but he is still missing. It is additionally worrying because Moezzi’s health conditions need medical attention.
His daughters, Hejrat and Forough Moezzi, members of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), are extremely concerned about their father and worry that he has been executed due to his opposition to the Iranian regime. The sisters fled Iran over a decade ago.
Twenty-nine year-old Hejrat said: “I am really worried about him. They have executed many political prisoners, they killed many of them in prison and I am afraid, I don’t know if he is still alive.”
The sisters, in a letter to the international community, pleaded for help in finding him. Recently the Iranian authorities temporarily released Iranian writer and activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee after a huge amount of pressure from inside Iran and across the world. They hope there will be a similar outcome for their father.
Twenty-seven year-old Forough said: “I am very concerned because I know the Iranian regime is bad for human rights activists, and I don’t know if he is still alive or not. It’s a hard situation – this is an issue of life or death. We want the international community to take action. My father is in a bad situation – the Iranian people are victims of silence. I want you to ask human rights communities and the UN to condemn the Iranian regime and take action.”
