Iran-Renowned political activist recounts conditions of her hospitalization under torture

Political prisoner Nargess Mohammadi

Political prisoner Nargess Mohammadi, Vice-President of the Human Rights League, wrote an open letter to Tehran's Prosecutor, explaining conditions of her dispatch to hospital and protested the way she was treated by security forces in this process.

Text of her letter is translated below:

The Honorable Jaafari Dowlat Abadi

Tehran’s Prosecutor

Greetings,

On October 5, I reported for inspection before being sent to hospital. I told the female guard that I would probably have to undergo echography for my heart; so, please don't come behind the partition when I take off my clothes. She said, “No. We must come.” I asked her to go with me to the colonel so that we could resolve the issue, but the colonel was not in. I explained the situation to his deputy and I said it was not morally and religiously proper to do so. The person in charge of sending me to hospital impudently and in an offending manner said, “You shouldn't speak of religion. If you were Muslim, your place would have not been in Evin.” He went on with more abusive words and manners. I returned to the ward because I was not feeling well.

The next day, I suffered a sudden attack and a nervous seizure. My beloved cell-mates helped me walk from the second floor down to the ward's entrance on the first floor because there was no [wheelchair or any] other equipment in the ward. Then they got me on the ambulance. The ambulance's door could not be completely closed. My head was located near the half-open doors and while I was in a terrible condition, I had to also worry about the likelihood of falling out of the ambulance.

Evin's dispensary had coordinated my transfer with Imam-Khomeini Hospital as an emergency case. I was lying on the stretcher in the ambulance, when suddenly a female soldier and two male soldiers came with handcuffs and shackles and stood over my head. I put my hands under my arms and said, "I won't allow you to handcuff me, because I'm really not feeling well and I won't be able to escape. On the other hand, you are four people inside the ambulance. What do you need the handcuffs for? The female soldier said, “Even if you go into coma, we are supposed to handcuff you” and then she put the handcuffs on me.

I had become really nervous and my convulsions began. Then I had another nervous seizure so they had to stop the ambulance for a few minutes by the side of the road.

When I was placed from the ambulance on the hospital's stretcher, they put back the handcuffs. In all the stages at the hospital, from the beginning to the end when I left the hospital, I had to wear the handcuffs and they were attached to the stretcher. The only time they removed the iron handcuffs was for the CT scan.

A neurologist came to me and explained that because I had that nervous convulsion I had to be monitored until the next morning and that I had to be hospitalized for three days. In light of the history of my disease since 2010 in the solitary cells of the 209th ward of Evin, and considering the difficult conditions including the handcuffs, I asked the doctor to release me at my own consent. So the honorable doctor wrote a letter indicating that the patient needs to be visited by her doctors but she can leave the hospital.

After five days, I was finally hospitalized. Since the moment I was sent to the hospital, my hands were in handcuffs, even when the doctor was examining me. My handcuffs were not removed, even when he was taking my blood pressure. When we entered my hospital room, the soldiers immediately handcuffed me and tied me to the bed such that I could not even sit or sleep comfortably.

Due to nervous pressure, my situation deteriorated further more. My requests and protests went unheeded. From October 11 to October 19 (nine days), I was held without permission to be visited even by my parents. I was not allowed to go out of the room. I was on the bed and I could only use the bathroom. It was forbidden for me to have money and they did not even bring me the fruits I had in the ward in prison, either. I had nothing to eat except for hospital food. The room's door and curtains were also closed all the time.

Two days after I was hospitalized, I went unconscious in the examination room. So upon doctor's instructions, two nurses came the next day to give me a bath and wash my hair and prepare me for brain scan. The female soldier immediately called the colonel and asked for instructions. The instruction was that she had to accompany me in the bathroom. In protest to such a decision and such an inhuman treatment I went under the shower with all my clothes on and the female soldier was also present.

On October 18, the colonel came to my room. I asked him to please allow me to be examined alone whenever I had to undress for certain checkups or examinations and the female soldier can make her inspections beforehand and leave, so that I would not have to be examined in front of the soldiers. The colonel accepted.

From October 20 to 12 noon on October 21, I was being prepared for endoscopy and colonoscopy. I should have refrained from eating and I had to use 4 liters of material that would wash away my digestive system. Finally at 1 p.m. I was taken to the operation room. The female soldier also came in with me. I asked her to please stay behind the door of the operation room. She talked to the colonel and said that she would stay in the operation room. So, exactly at the last moment that I was supposed to be anesthetized, I walked out of the operation room and waited until evening may be she would agree to stay out, but she did not.

I talked to the colonel on the phone, explained my situation and asked him to allow the female soldier to stay out of the operation room so that I could receive my treatment. Again, he promised that the female soldier would stay out and that I could repeat the stage.

Again, the preparation lasted from 9 a.m. on October 24 until 12 noon on October 25. As I was getting ready to go to the operation room, again the colonel ordered the female soldier to stand inside the operation room during the colonoscopy. So, I refused to go to the operation room.

My doctor talked to the colonel on the phone and said they had to take samples. He explained that this stage is necessary for treatment of the patient and that it must be done in the operation room which is a sterilized environment and only the doctor and the nurses are allowed to be present. He asked the colonel to allow the medical operation go on, but the colonel did not allow the operation even in the presence of military inspectors and for the second time, I was deprived of receiving my treatment.