Atena Daemi
Age: 34
Activism/rights: Human rights activist
Status: Released
Judicial Status: Completed sentence
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of due process, unfair trial, familial punishment, prison-exile, access to lawyer, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of medical treatment
Atena Daemi is a human rights, children’s rights and abolitionist activist. First arrested in 2014, she has been entangled in multiple fabricated cases that have kept her behind bars since 28 November 2016 when she was arrested to serve her initial sentence of seven years for Facebook posts and activism against the death penalty. Atena was sentenced to an additional three months and one day on 3 April 2017 for “insulting the Supreme Leader, insulting state officials, propaganda against the system, resisting arrest and assaulting the arresting officer.” She was sentenced to a further three years and seven months on 18 July 2019 for “insulting the founder and Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and propaganda against the system,” which was upheld in September 2019. Following a group sit-in in protest to the crackdown on the November 2019 nationwide protests, Atena was sentenced to another two year imprisonment and 74 lashes by Branch 24 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Amouzad on on charges of “propaganda against the system and disrupting prison order” on 2 July 2020.[1] Atena was transferred from Evin Prison to Rasht Central Prison in handcuffs and shackles on March 16, just days prior to the Iranian new year, Norouz.
Atena Daemi was released from prison on 24 January 2022 after serving her longest sentence of seven years without a day of furlough. Atena continues to be vocal about human rights breaches and the death penalty while suffering from MS due to the years of prison she endured. She penned the foreword to the 2022 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran.