Abolish Exiling Prisoners to Prisons in Remote Locations

The practice of combining prison sentences with exile is an illegal practice of Iranian judiciary system commonly used for political prisoners in the past few years. This practice on one hand punishes families of the prisoners by forcing them to travel long distances to visit their loved ones, and on the other hand inflicts intense psychological harm on the prisoner as he or she worries about the family members' safety and health while going through long distance travels.

Such was the case of Amir Reza (Peyman) Arefi who was first arrested in March 2009, a couple of months before the election in June 2009 on charges of supporting a monarchist group. Even though he was in prison at the time of the protests following the disputed June 2009 presidential election, Arefi was put on trial on charges of interfering in the 2009 elections after he made confessions under torture about his involvement in the protests. The Revolutionary Court first sentenced Arefi to death, however the appeal court reduced his sentence to 15 years of prison in exile at a prison in Masjed Soleyman, a city in the Southern Iran province of Khouzestan.

Arefi lost his mother and his wife in a car accident on December 19th, 2013 as they were heading back to the nearest train station to return to Tehran from visiting him at the exile prison. Ironically his wife, Ziba Sadeghzadeh, in one of her last facebook status updates had pointed out that Peyman has been asking her not to visit him in exile, because he was afraid that something happens to them in one of these trips which would make him eternally miserable.

Regardless of one's political views, one cannot stand the burden of the silence that is indifferent to the denial of the most basic human right of a man or woman to grieve his or her family members' loss by attending their funeral and saying goodbye to them for the last time.

UPDATE:
December 21st 2013: Peyman Arefi was released on 1 billion Tomans bail for a week-long furlough to participate in the funerals of his late mother, Nahid Rahmani, and wife, Ziba Sadeghzadeh. At the end Ziba Sadeghzadeh was finally able to get her husband a furlough - one that was caused by her and her mother in law's tragic deaths.

Every prisoner in exile goes through tremendous psychological stress as he or she awaits the hours before his or her family arrives safely from long distance trip to his or her visit. Denying the prisoners the right to contact the family members amplifies the impact of the psychological harm of the exile on the prisoners who cannot be sure of the safe arrival of their loved ones to their home returning back from visiting the prisoners in exile.