Mr. Boroujerdi's representatives voiced their deep concern about Boroujerdi's severe health and security in Iran. The prolonged period of house arrest and the pressures caused by the house arrest concern us greatly. He has endured such pain. Therefore, we inform the public that his condition is becoming more and more critical and violent.
Boroujerdi’s physical well-being has significantly deteriorated due to lack of access to proper medical care and essential resources during the eleven years of his imprisonment, continuation of excruciating torture in prison, and oppressive conditions of his six-year house arrest have worsened his existing health issues, so that he does not have the strength to walk and is practically paralyzed. His family is profoundly disturbed by his declining state.
With Tehran experiencing a
volatile environment characterized by political unrest and civil
dissatisfaction, incidents like threatening phone calls and text messages can
have severe consequences for individuals targeted. Boroujerdi has become a
victim of numerous threatening phone calls and text messages that explicitly
convey malicious intent, as it appears that both opposition figures and the
government authorities are intensifying their efforts to harass and intimidate
Boroujerdi.
The aftermath of massive
suppression of protests and critical voices has led to the Iranian government
that is increasingly determined to stifle dissent and eradicate any perceived
threats to its regime. The regime's fear of potential challenges to its
authority in the future has driven its iron fist approach towards both individuals
and groups that it deems to be undermining its control. Therefore, the
government is on a quest to eliminate potential threats of people like
Boroujerdi. It is really evident that the Iranian government's attempt is to
implement plans in silence to murder Boroujerdi, who is their opponent and a
well-known public figure. Arranged scenarios that portray Boroujerdi as a
threat, due to his involvement in political discourse or his affiliation with
political opposition groups, can cause him to
endure further torture, re-imprisonment, or be secretly killed while putting the blame of his murder on the
opponents of the regime.
In addition to the government
officials, there are a number of self-interested politicians who are usually quite motivated to protect and build their
power, who are looking to take advantage of well-known opponents as a powerful
tool to influence their positions to achieve their goals. For this reason, they
constantly forced Boroujerdi to collaborate with them. After he rejected their
requests, they put their efforts to harass and intimidate him by
making threatening calls and text messages, and even threatened to kill him.
They told him that “we easily attribute your death to the government.” By
insinuating that “you are in a fragile and isolated state, either cooperate
with us or we will kill you, and your death will be good propaganda for our
purposes in order to raise our voices.” With these threatening calls, they try
to get Boroujerdi in trouble, leaving no choice except cooperation with them.
Indeed, the alarming reports of threatening phone calls and text messages
targeting him highlight the importance of protecting and saving Boroujerdi’s
life because he is targeted by both adversaries of the regime and the
government agents.
It should be mentioned that
Mr. Boroujerdi has a strong background of about forty years of continuous and
tireless experience in his campaigns against oppression, injustice, and
discrimination in Iran. As a popular leader, he has had continuous fights with
fundamentalism, religious prejudices, and superstitions, and he has paid any
expenses incurred including being imprisoned several times and enduring
excruciating tortures. He conducts his civil campaigns by using his own methods
that are appropriate to both capability of the people and capacity of the
society in order to engage the public’s awareness.
Boroujerdi started extensive
research in religious documents and historical texts in prison where he came to
new thoughts about the gross contradictions in religious documents. Through
phone calls from inside the prison, he used to teach his research outcomes to
his students and train them. Soon after, these educators had begun to enlighten
people's thoughts toward awareness, reasonableness, critical thinking, and to
stay away from superstition throughout the communities around the country. The
results of the efforts of people like Boroujerdi, and the international
activities of his students, are admirable. They have played significant roles,
which are visible in the recent movement, in intellectual development,
capacities for critical thinking, and libertarian ideas among young and old
generations in Iran.
Boroujerdi, who is a popular
figure and one of the victims of human rights violations, has always defended
human rights even from inside the prison. As a brave human right defender, he
put his life on the line to defend people's rights unconditionally. During his eleven-year
imprisonment, he has revealed gross human rights violations by sending numerous
letters to draw attention to human right activists, country’s authorities, UN
officials, and religious leaders around the world to support the Iranian's
civic rights and fundamental freedoms (these letters are available on the Bamazadi
website).
In the prison, Boroujerdi
announced his cooperation with all political parties and human rights defenders
who fight for justice and freedom by sending messages to them regularly, but
instead, these activists ignored his letters and sabotaged his efforts, making
it impossible for him to make progress. In 2017, Boroujerdi, disappointed and
dissatisfied with his observation of the terrible political performance,
announced that he is disgusted with political parties: the ones who
unscrupulously use people as a tool for their own purposes, and manipulate the
death of people unfairly for their own benefit. Furthermore, the attempts of
these self-promoting politicians create deep internal divisions in parties to
achieve their sinister goals.
It is truly disheartening to
witness such profound injustice and the denial of basic human rights.
Boroujerdi is a victim of a system that disregards compassion, fairness, and
dignity. His agony serves as a reminder of the urgent need for increased global
advocacy on human rights matters. Therefore, the representatives of Boroujerdi
implore the international community to pay attention to Boroujerdi’s plight and
take a stand against these blatant human rights violations in Iran. It is essential
for the Iranian government to promptly address his health concerns and
guarantee his safety and well-being. The world must unite
in putting an end to this unjust house arrest, allowing Boroujerdi to live a
life free from oppression and suffering.
In January 2017, despite the
end of his eleven years of unjust imprisonment and enduring various tortures,
Boroujerdi has been effectively placed under house arrest without a judicial
order, after his release from prison on temporary medical leave, and has been
subject to intense pressure from the authorities. In addition to suffering from
the excruciating conditions of house arrest, his family and he have been faced
with strict security conditions; his home is under 24-hour surveillance, and
disguised agents are roaming all around. Furthermore, successive threats, and
enduring economic pressures on his family members, including being deprived of
education in public universities, and/or having any position related to a
government organization job, has led them to the worst economic conditions.
It has caused a lack of
success in his adult children’s lives, and they are back living in their
parents’ house. Currently, he has to live with eight people in a small
two-bedroom apartment, which has made it difficult for him to live (in addition
to Boroujerdi and his wife who live in this small apartment, their two sons,
two daughters, and two grandchildren also live with them).
The obvious consequence of
the lack of access to adequate medicine and treatment, consecutive intolerable
tortures, solitary confinement, punishment wards, or quarantine sections has
led him to incurable diseases and physical destruction since 2006, and he
continues to deteriorate. Due to existing threats and frequent assassination attempts,
he is not even able to follow up with any treatment in the hospital or private
doctor’s offices. His life is constantly shaped by unimaginable pain and
deprivation, and we only witness his daily life constantly declining.
Intimidation and threats
against Boroujerdi have increased by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence
and Iran's Special Clerical Court. In addition, incoming calls get disconnected
after around 30 seconds, and his phone keeps dropping calls automatically
during the conversation.
The consequences of 11 years
of imprisonment and six years of house arrest have caused him musculoskeletal
pain; swelling in his bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles; and the
distortion of the bone from its normal shape and size have caused him extreme
difficulty when trying to walk so that even with assistance, he can only go
short distances. Currently, the physical deterioration of this public figure is
more evident than ever before.
25 July 2023
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