Davoodi, aged 63, served the first 10 years of his sentence, but subsequently received a sentence of another 20 years and 8 months. He was sentenced to death at Branch 1, Karaj Islamic Revolutionary Court on the charges of  Membership and active support of People’s Mujahedin of Iran party (MEK) at prison,” but that ruling was reduced to five years of imprisonment at Zabol. 

His letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees follows: 

His Excellency Mr. Zeid Raad Al Hussein

UN High Commissioner on Human Rights – Geneva

With Greetings

As a secular person who believes in democracy and non-religious government, I was convicted in 2003 of forming the Iranian Freedom Movement. Following months of being kept in solitary confinements and going through various physical and mental tortures, I was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment following a trial which lasted only a few minutes in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Injustice.

Due to unsparing supports by the National Council of Resistance, defending me and my family against the barbaric conduct of the ruling regime during the time I was in Bandar Abbas Central Prison in 2004, I was sentenced in absentia to death by the Karaj Revolutionary Court of Injustice for ‘effective activities to advance PMOI objectives’ but due to strong reactions by human rights communities, this cruel sentence was reduced to 5 years’ imprisonment in Zabol (south eastern city) prison.

On September 22, 2016, I was sent from Rajaee Shahr Prison into exile in Zabol Central Prison while wearing the same clothes and without being allowed to bring my clothes and personal belongings with me.

His Excellency Mr. Zeid Raad Al Hussein

Zabol is located in a very hot area where the air is always polluted due to continuous dust storms. The only prison in this small city which is accommodating more than 1000 prisoners, is lacking even healthy drinking water, let alone other sanitary and welfare facilities or …

I hereby urge you to send a delegation of human rights activists for visiting the prisons in Iran, especially those far from the capital, and pay special attention to Zabol Central Prison as the world’s most deprived prison. 

With respect 

Arjang Davoodi, Political prisoner in Zabol Central Prison, September 27, 2016