The leading members of the South Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement, Dr. Latif Hasani, Ayet Mehrelibegli, Behbud Quluzade, Mahmud Fezli and Shehram Radmehr have been re-transferred  to Tabriz Prison after months of exile in one of Tehran prisons.

According to  sources close to the family  of the Azerbaijani activists, the South Azerbaijani leaders were held in solitary confinement prior to the transfer and abused by prison guards.

Dr. Latif Hasan also know as Araz Qarabaghli the leader of NEW SANAM

In accordance with the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor’s directive,  the leaders of NEW SANAM  are compelled  to distinct prison cells  of Tabriz Prison . They are currently held with dangerous criminals, and therefore, their  families expressed concerns over  their safety and health.

The leader of SANAM,  Latif Hasani ,  scholar with a  doctorate degree in International Law  has been allocated to the “Labor Treatment Cell”,  almost a  middle century style LABOR CAMP in which the prisoners are forced to harsh labor of  10-12 hours a day.

The holding cells  of Tabriz Prison are reported to have been unfit for habitation of inmates, extremely overcrowded with inadequate ventilation system,  inadequate beds and service facilities and  infested with mice,  bed bugs and roaches. Up to 75 per cent of the inmates are forced to sleep on the concrete  floor.

The SANAM leaders were sentenced to 9 years in prison for establishing an “illegal political organization”__ New SANAM which is promoting the Right to Self Determination of  Southern Azerbaijani people__ and “anti- state  propaganda” . They were exiled to Rajai Shehr Prison near Tehran in a punishing response to their  month long hunger strike.

The Iranian Supreme Court has  recently refused the prisoners’  appeals and  upheld the lower  court’s conviction of 9 years in prison for each.

SouthernAzerbaijan.com