Hengameh Shahidi is a freelance journalist and a women’s rights activist. Today she is in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Hengameh was arrested at the beginning of June 2009. She complained of torture in custody, including by beatings and threats of execution. For the first 50 days of her detention, she was held in solitary confinement in a cell that measured only one metre by two metres. During that time, she feared constantly that she was about to be executed. Her captors left her in a room with ropes and knives, which she felt was intended to drive her to commit suicide.

Her trial began on 4 November 2009. The charges against her included taking part in demonstrations to challenge the presidential election, giving an interview to the media, writing articles on her blog, signing statements addressed to the United Nations about human rights in Iran, and collecting signatures for the Campaign for Equality. The Campaign seeks to change discriminatory laws affecting women in Iran. She admitted to having participated in two demonstrations as a journalist. She was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in December 2009 for “gathering and colluding with intent to harm state security” and “propaganda against the system”.

Amnesty International believes that the charges against Hengameh Shahidi in no way justify her imprisonment. The organization calls for her release because she is a prisoner of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression.

The human rights situation in Iran continues to deteriorate, with civil society facing increasing restrictions on fundamental freedoms of expression and association. Scores of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, continue to serve prison sentences imposed following unfair trials in previous years. Thousands of arrests are made every year in Iran, mostly during or following demonstrations. Human rights defenders, including journalists, students and lawyers, are often detained arbitrarily without access to family or legal representation. Torture, especially during periods of pre-trial detention, remains commonplace, and practices such as execution by stoning, and corporal punishment in the way of flogging, amputation and eye-gouging continue to be passed.