Biography:

Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee is an author and a life-long campaigner for human rights and women’s rights. Despite Golrokh Iraee being a Shi’a Muslim in a majority Shi’a Muslim country, the Iranian government has criminalized certain activities on the basis of its interpretation of Shi’a Islam and furthermore prosecutes those who speak out against this interpretation or are perceived to have violated it. In Iran, the boundaries between the political and the religious are blurred as the state itself claims religious authority.  Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran is governed under the doctrine of vilayet-e faqih or “leadership of the Islamic jurist” in which the Ayatollah is not only a religious authority but a political authority as well.

On September 6, 2014, plainclothes officers believed to be Revolutionary Guard agents arrested Golrokh, her husband Arash Sadeghi, and two others from Arash’s workplace. Authorities took them to Golrokh and Arash’s home, searched the premises without a warrant, and confiscated their possessions, including notebooks, laptops, and CDs. While detained, Golrokh was frequently blindfolded and forced to listen to interrogators threaten and abuse her husband in the adjacent cell. She was also unable to see her family or a lawyer and was subjected to long periods of interrogation. Officers interrogated Golrokh about her social media activity and a fictional, unpublished story she had handwritten in her notebook about a woman who burns a Qur’an after watching a Persian film depicting the real-life stoning of a woman for adultery. After 20 days, Golrokh was released on bail.

Golrokh and Arash’s trial began in May 2015 and was filled with due process violations. Their first lawyer was pressured to drop their case, and the government prohibited their second lawyer from accessing their case file and representing them at trial. A judge rejected Golrokh’s request to adjourn her second hearing scheduled in July 2015 since she was scheduled to undergo surgery the same day. On July 26, 2015, Golrokh was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for blasphemy, formally called “insulting Islamic sanctities,” (Art. 513 IPC) in relation to her unpublished story, and one year in prison for spreading propaganda against the state (Art. 500 IPC) in relation to her social media activity. 

On October 24, 2016, agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested Golrokh from her home and brought her to Evin Prison to begin serving her sentence. In January 2017, Golrokh was released from prison while a further appeal was pending. Later that same month, she was arrested again and brought back to Evin Prison. In March 2017, Golrokh’s sentence was reportedly reduced to two years and six months in prison as part of an Iranian New Year (Nowruz) pardon. In April 2019, Golrokh was released from prison after posting bail.

While Golrokh was out on bail, new charges were brought against her in June 2019 for her alleged involvement in prison protests against the execution of Kurdish activists. In July 2019, Golrokh was sentenced to two years and one month in prison for “insulting the Supreme Leader” (Art. 514 IPC) and one year and six months in prison for spreading propaganda against the state (Art. 500 IPC). Since the sentences run concurrently, she was effectively sentenced to two years and one month in prison. In September 2019, an appeals court affirmed her sentence. On November 9, 2019, security forces arrested Golrokh again from her home in Tehran.

In April 2021, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Golrokh in absentia to another year in prison for spreading propaganda against the state (Art. 500 IPC). The court also imposed two-year travel ban and banned her from participating in political groups for two years.

During her original imprisonment, Golrokh experienced harsh, inhumane living conditions. In July 2017, Golrokh and another prisoner issued an open letter documenting unsanitary conditions, lack of clean water, and an absence of medical care for political prisoners. In January 2018, guards assaulted Golrokh, and then transferred her to another prison known for denying prisoners sufficient food and potable water. She was also housed in a ward that included criminals convicted of violent crimes. In February 2018, Golrokh went on hunger strike in protest of her new prison conditions. During this time, Golrokh’s health deteriorated. In March 2018, guards transferred several violent offenders into the unit Golrokh lived in. The prisoners then verbally abused and physically assaulted Golrokh. Instead of stopping the violence, prison guards also assaulted Golrokh. In April 2018, Golrokh was transferred to a hospital in a critical condition after experiencing severe nausea, vomiting, and gallbladder issues. After 81 days, Golrokh ended her hunger strike.  Weeks later, she was transferred back to Evin Prison.

In December 2020, guards entered Golrokh’s cell in Qarchak Prison using stun guns and dragged Iraee out by her hair. She was then transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison, which is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence unit. On January 24, 2021, she was moved back to Qarchak prison and transferred hours later to Amol Prison. She remains unable to make phone calls or contact her family and has also been denied visitation with her husband Arash Sadeghi, who is undergoing cancer treatment. 

On May 9, 2022, Golrokh was released from prison after her sentences were consolidated. 

Biography:

Gulmira Imin is a Uyghur Muslim and former web administrator for the Uighur-language website Salkin. Ms. Imin was also a government employee in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwest China. Xinjiang is home to the majority of the country’s Uyghur Muslim population.

Ms. Imin was born in 1978 in Aksu in Xinjiang and graduated in 2000 from the Chinese-Uyghur translation department of Xinjiang University. In spring 2009, Ms. Imin became the moderator of Salkin, a Uyghur-language culture and news website to which she had previously contributed poetry and short stories. Many of her online writings criticized government policies.

On July 5, 2009, Ms. Imin participated in a major demonstration protesting the deaths of Uighur migrant workers in Guangdong Province.  Initially peaceful, the protests turned violent, with about 200 people, including ethnic Han Chinese, killed during the uprisings and confrontations with police. On July 14, 2009, Ms. Imin was arrested in Aksu after authorities alleged she had organized the protests, posted an announcement for them on Salkin, and leaked state secrets by phone to her husband in Norway.  Her family was not notified of the arrest and was unaware of her location until the October 2009 airing of a China Central Television documentary that depicted Imin in prison garb.

On April 1, 2010, the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Ms. Imin to life in prison under Articles 103, 111, and 296 of China’s Criminal Law on charges of “splittism, leaking state secrets, and organizing an illegal demonstration.” She alleges she was tortured and forced to sign documents while in detention.  She reportedly was not allowed to meet with her lawyer until the trial. Her appeal subsequently was rejected. Ms. Imin is currently detained in the Xinjiang Women’s Prison (Xinjiang No. 2 Prison) located in Urumqi, where she is allowed one family visit every three months.

According to reports in June 2021, Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have reduced her life sentence to 19 years and 8 months after she signed a written statement of remorse in 2017. Chinese authorities videotaped her 2017 statement, which activists and her supporters say was likely forced, and later showed the video in prisons and re-education camps, according to a policeman worked in Kashgar’s Yanbulaq Prison as well as in an internment camp in Opal

Biography:

A Dao, resident of Gia Xieng Village, Ro Koi Commune, Sa Thay District, Kontum Province, is a Protestant pastor of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of Christ (MECC). He took over as the lead pastor of this church after his predecessor, Pastor A Ga, fled to Thailand in 2013 (in July 2019, A Ga met with U.S. President Donald J. Trump during the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom).

A Dao has also advocated for religious freedom for his fellow church members in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and elsewhere. In August 2016, he attended the conference on Freedom of Religion in Southeast Asia and the ASEAN Civil Society Conference / ASEAN People's Forum in East Timor. At these events, he presented the plight of MECC and asked the international community for help.

A Dao was arrested on August 18, 2016, shortly after his return to Vietnam. On April 28, 2017 was sentenced to 5 years in prison for “helping individuals to escape abroad illegally” under Article 275 of the country’s Penal Code. During interrogation, he was reportedly tortured in order to extract a confession. He denied the charge and claimed his innocence.

He continues to suffer mistreatment in detention. For example, in the morning of September 1, 2018, his wife, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuoi visited him in Gia Trung Prison of Gia Lai Province. The guards allowed a very brief visit, much shorter than in the past. His face was bruised, with traces of blood. She learned that in August 2018 the prison guards had been using other inmates to beat him. His health was poor as a result of frequent beatings.

Pastor A Dao’s health has deteriorated as a result of the harsh treatment typically reserved for prisoners of conscience. It was reported that he was tortured in late 2019. Without viable means of livelihood, his wife had to sell their land and move in with her own relatives after sending their two school-age children to live separately with different relatives. His son is now 16 years old, while his daughter is 6 years old.

On September 18, 2020, Dao was released from prison nearly a year before his expected release date.