November 21, 2022

As protestors flood the streets of Iran fighting for freedom, one of many stands behind bars in the Evin Prison in Iran fighting for another day. 58 year old Kamran Ghaderi, a citizen of Austria and of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has been unjustly detained since January 2, 2016. 

Ghaderi worked as a managing director and senior information technology consultant for a company in Vienna. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a doctorate in electrical engineering. His company has worked a lot with middle eastern companies for many years and had been traveling to Iran regularly prior to his arrest. On January 2, 2016 Ghaderi was arrested while visiting Iran during a regular business trip. They did not show an arrest warrant nor did they inform him of the reasoning behind the arrest. Ghaderi’s family was not notified of his arrest. 

During the first three months, he was not given legal due process, was held in a house at an unknown location, and other times put in a very small containment space with no windows for periods of over one week. He was interrogated under physical and psychological torture. After almost 2 months, authorities from the ministry of intelligence informed him that his spouse and children are allowed to visit him. His wife arrived in Iran on March 1, 2016 and was given an appointment to see him. However, instead of allowing her to see him they instead interrogated her and then refused to allow her to see him. She had to then travel back to Austria without seeing her husband. She was not allowed to see him until April 7, 2016 at the Evin Prison. The only evidence incriminating him against espionage was the two confessions he gave that were extracted through severe torture. One of the methods that was used to get him to sign a confession was being lied to that his wife and kids were also arrested and will be subjected to torture just as he was, if he does not sign. 

Ghaderi was only ever allowed to consult his lawyer once prior to his court hearing and the meeting had to be carried out in front of guards. The lawyer was not even allowed access to his client or his file. On June 16, 2016 Ghader was presented before a judge and then later sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment under charges of espionage. There was no evidence for these charges except his coerced confessions. He had not been allowed to see any representative of Austria nor were they present at his court hearings. As of now, Ghaderi has been held for almost 7 years. The family is only allowed one short phone call every Tuesday.  

“I cannot comfort them. My daughters were nine and 12 years old. Now they are 15 and 18. Our boy was two years old and now he is eight. He does not remember his father and he was asking every day, ‘where is my father?’ I showed photos with him when he was a baby, but he thought his father was dead. When he was four years old, he asked whether his father was in prison. The older children were scared they might be arrested too. They are still careful to see if anyone is following them.” Harika Ghaderi, Kamran’s wife, has sent over 700 letters to European parliament members, only 5 or 6 have responded to her.