Mother-of-three refused access to prison scheme allowing more time with children
An Iranian mother-of-three serving a two-year sentence for “spreading ‘Zionist’ Christianity” has been denied access to a scheme that would have allowed her to spend most of her time outside prison working and with her children.
Sakine (Mehri) Behjati, who began serving her sentence in April, was hoping she may be able to serve the remainder of her sentence as an unpaid worker at a factory designated by her prison in Rasht, northern Iran, while also being able to see her children more.
But she has now been informed that, despite positive signals from officials at Lakan Prison, her request to join the scheme was refused by the prosecutor’s office in Tehran.
Mehri’s three children are aged seven, 11 and 16.
Mehri was one of four members of a “Church of Iran” house-church arrested in Rasht in February 2020, including her nephew, Hadi (Moslem) Rahimi, and married couple Ramin Hassanpour and Kathrin (Saeede) Sajadpour.
The four were officially charged in May 2020 and taken to Lakan Prison after being unable to afford the bail set for them – of 500 million tomans (around $30,000).
They were eventually released a week later on reduced bail of 200 million tomans ($11,500).
They were sentenced in August 2020 to between two and five years in prison for “acting against national security” by belonging to a house-church and “spreading Zionist Christianity”.
Ramin was given a five-year sentence, Moslem four years, and Mehri and Saeede two years.
Their appeals were rejected in September 2020.
On 9 January 2022, Moslem left behind his nine-month-old daughter to begin serving his four-year sentence at Evin Prison so that the property deed submitted by a friend to secure his bail may be released.
A month later, the other three were told they must hand themselves in to the authorities in Tehran by the end of February.
Mehri and her nephew, Moslem, applied to the Supreme Court for a retrial, but their applications were rejected by Branch 9 of Iran’s highest court in February.