Masoumeh Nassaji: ailing political prisoner, 64, in Evin prison

Masoumeh Nassaji, a 64-year-old political prisoner in the women's ward of Evin prison, is still being held even though Forensic Medicine has confirmed that she is unfit to endure imprisonment. In a report on the latest condition of the prisoner on Saturday, 17 October 2026, HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, said officials were obstructing the suspension of her sentence.

According to a source close to the family, Ms. Nassaji suffers from heart disease, asthma, and joint and bone pain. Despite the opinion of Forensic Medicine, no step has so far been taken to halt the execution of her sentence or to transfer her out of prison.

Revolutionary Court sentence and solitary confinement

Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Mohammadreza Amouzad, sentenced Masoumeh Nassaji to five years and four months in prison. On 4 September 2022 she was transferred to the women's ward of Evin prison to serve the sentence. Before that, the political prisoner had spent 48 days in solitary confinement.

Amouzad is one of the judges whose name has come up again and again in the cases of political prisoners and in heavy sentences against civil activists. In the Islamic Republic, a finding by Forensic Medicine, itself a body affiliated with the judiciary, that a prisoner cannot endure imprisonment should lead to the postponement of the sentence or to medical leave; yet in the cases of many political prisoners, the prosecutor's office and the security bodies ignore this opinion and turn medical treatment into a tool of pressure.

Health conditions in Evin's women's ward

Concern over Masoumeh Nassaji's health comes as reports have recently emerged of the spread of a respiratory illness with COVID-like symptoms in the women's ward of Evin prison; almost all the women held in the ward are said to have been infected. For a 64-year-old woman with heart disease and asthma, such conditions pose a serious danger to her life.

The denial of treatment to political prisoners has repeatedly ended in deaths in custody in recent months, among them Behzad Rezvanmehr, a political prisoner in Karaj Central Prison, who died after months in solitary confinement and being denied treatment for an infection in the ward. Human rights organizations have repeatedly called on the Islamic Republic to release sick and elderly prisoners for treatment.

Forensic Medicine has confirmed that Masoumeh Nassaji, a 64-year-old political prisoner, cannot withstand imprisonment, yet she is still in Evin.