:Full Name
Ali Ashraf Rashidi Aghdam
Background:
No information is available on his birth and education.
Positions:
- Head of Dizel Abad Prison from 2006 to 2010
- Director General of the Prisons Organisation in Kermanshah Province from 2010 to 2012
- Director of Evin Prison from 2012 to 2015
- Deputy of Health and Rehabilitation for prisons in Tehran Province from 2012 until present
Human Rights Violations:
During his various tenures as a prison authority, Ali Ashraf Rashidi Aghdam has become responsible for numerous human rights violations against political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
- Political Prisoners in Dizel Abad
As head of Dizel Abad Prison, Rashidi Aghdam was responsible for the harassment of political prisoners, through his failure to separate them from populations of drug and sex offenders.[1]
- Ill Treatment of Prisoners in Evin
As Director of Evin Prison, Rashidi Aghdam was responsible for the widespread physical abuse and medical neglect of prisoners of conscience. He was also responsible for a violent raid on ward 350 of the prison, during which dozens of prisoners were injured and had their personal belongings destroyed. Many of these injured prisoners were handcuffed to their beds, transferred to solitary confinement, denied medical treatments, and tortured.
- Sexual Violence in Evin
As Deputy of Health and Rehabilitation for prisons in Tehran Province, Rashidi Aghdam is responsible the physical and sexual violence against female political prisoners in Evin Prison.[2]
Female political prisoners in a quarantined section of Evin Prison, protested against violent and invasive body cavity searches and sexual abuse, by going on hunger strike on 30 October 2012. According to their families, they were brutally searched at the hands of three female guards after their ward was raided by prison security forces.
In a letter to Ali Ashraf Rashidi Aghdam, the prisoners wrote, “the brutal behaviour of some of the prison officers during the body cavity searches of the female prisoners cannot and will not be forgiven. As this violent and obvious act of aggression and desecration is so reprehensible, putting pen to paper to describe it makes one feel ashamed and disgraced. Given the existence of a myriad of security cameras watching prisoners’ every move and the restrictions imposed upon prisoners regarding what is allowed to be taken into the ward, not to mention the modern electronic tools available for conducting body searches in a respectable manner, we are at a loss for words regarding why prison authorities have resorted to such humiliating behaviour.”
[1] Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides: “1. All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.”
[2] http://justiceforiran.org/call-for-action/womeninhungerstrike/?lang=en
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