Mohammad Nourizad, a prominent political activist jailed in Tehran’s notorious prison of Evin, in a letter asked Iranians to boycott the presidential election in June.
“In Evin Prison, many good people, elites and innocents, from teenagers to elderlies have been tortured, executed, imprisoned, disgraced and their possessions confiscated in horrific ways,” reads the letter.
Nourizad was one of 14 activists in Iran who called on the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to resign in June 2019. All the 14 activists have been arrested since.
“During these days of imprisonment, I hear their cries across doors and walls, saying to me: "O Mohammad Nourizad, if you don't want to be a participant and an accomplice in the crimes of the mullahs, the commanders, the intelligence agents and the judges of the pure ISIS-like Islam of the Islamic Republic, shout out loud, and do not let these bloodsheds, disgraced honors, and battered lives in prison and confiscated fortunes go unanswered,” Nourizad said in the letter.
Nourizad attempted suicide in prison in May 2020 to protest the treatment of political prisoners in Iran.
“Now, in order to prove to myself that I, Mohammad Nourizad, am not ignorant, deceitful, cowardly or an accomplice to the atrocities of these criminals, I will be hitting my head on sharp tiles every day in protest to all the destruction evident or institutionalized in this system, and to leave the graveyard-like silence ruling (dominating) Iran; to date, I have 38 wounds. And I will show my bloody face to the guard officer and I will put it in writing (write its report). Today is the 25th day of my medication strike, and so far I have lost consciousness 35 times, I have 4 stents in my coronary arteries, and "two new blockages that should have been treated," I have fallen 4 times from the stairs of ward 6 backwards and front, losing consciousness,” continues the letter.
Nourizad went on a hunger strike in March in protest of his prison condition and arresting his son.
“I have chosen this path wisely and to the point of death; So be ready, I, Mohammad Nourizad, will lay my corpse on the shoulders of the clerical monsters before the presidential elections, so that those who wish to vote, would stand in line peacefully with smiles, and dedicate a father's grave to the human and civil ideals of the Iranian people,” he said.
“Now that the election market is hot, I want to expose the faces of a group of traitors; I am not concerning myself with the mullahs of the House of Leadership, and the IRGC commanders, and the fundamentalists, all of whom have their hands stained with the blood, fortune and reputation of the innocent and have stolen our monetary, human, and liminal capital and our homeland like its their paternal inheritance, or have granted it to the likes of the murderous Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah or the destructive Qasem Soleimanies, and all this right in front of the eyes of hungry people, and women who sell their bodies, and schoolless children, and unemployed youth of Iran.” He added.
“I can say with confidence that the most treacherous political group in the country are the reformists with deceptive promises and thousand tricks,” Nourizad said.
