Valedeh Yousefova

Valedeh Yousefova is a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan. She was arrested by the security forces in 2021 after traveling to Iran. She was transferred to a mental asylum in July 2023 due to psychological torture and harassment by the interrogators and warden of Evin prison.

• <coverage-outsourcing id='52374'> She was arrested. Yousefova's mother told Atlas that her daughter was detained by the security forces after traveling by air from Turkey to Iran. She says that the agents told Valedeh during the arrest that the reason for her arrest was the problem with the identification documents of this citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='52375'> In the second month since her arrest, she has been locked up in the solitary cell of Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Later, Yousefova's mother told Atlas that her daughter was kept in solitary confinement for months after her arrest and was denied access to a lawyer and contact with outsiders. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='52376'> He went on a hunger strike. According to an Atlas source, Valedeh Yousefova started a hunger strike due to the harassment of one of her ward-mates and to protest the continued detention, indecision, and inhumane behavior of Evin Prison officers. After the hunger strike, she lost a lot of weight, and her physical condition deteriorated. Following the deterioration of Yousefova's physical condition, the authorities of Evin Prison prescribed drugs for her, which gradually caused her mental condition to become imbalanced and deteriorate. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='52377'> She was accused of espionage. According to Yousefova's mother, the court hearing of her daughter's accusations was held in branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Abolqasem Salvati. Judge Salvati acquitted Valedeh Yousefova from drug-related charges and instead accused her of espionage without providing evidence. In this meeting, which was held without the presence of Yousefova's lawyer, she denied all the accusations. When Valedeh Yousefova was arrested, she was accused that her identification documents were not complete. That charge was changed shortly, and investigators charged her with drug-related crimes. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='52378'> After intensifying the pressure of the interrogators and the harassment by the prison guards, she was transferred to an asylum for mental patients. While announcing this news, Valedeh Yousefova's mother told Atlas that her daughter told her in their last phone call that she was transferred from Evin Prison to the "mental hospital". In this phone call, she was very disturbed and told her mother that the prison guards and her interrogators had given her drugs that disturbed her mental health. This phone call was suddenly cut off after Yousefova asked her mother to publicize the case and expose the harassment of the agents of the Islamic Republic. Describing this phone call, Yousefova's mother told Atlas that the last phone call with her daughter lasted less than a few minutes and the phone was disconnected after she heard the sound of her daughter being beaten. Expressing concern about her daughter's condition, she said that her child did not have any mental problems before her arrest, and her current condition is due to the harassment of the agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the drugs they gave her during her imprisonment. Yousefova's mother went on to say that the judicial and security institutions of the Islamic Republic have contacted her many times and said that her daughter has been acquitted of the charges and will be released soon. They have advised the mother to avoid publicizing her child's case. This mother says that only a few days before the armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran, for the first time a person who introduced himself as the person responsible for her daughter's case called her and said that Valedeh Yousefova's problem had been resolved and she will soon be transferred to Tabriz, and then they will release her. Yousefova's mother says that in phone calls, her daughter told her that the relations between the Islamic Republic and Azerbaijan would affect the behavior of the interrogators and prison guards of Evin prison: > Every time after a tension between Iran and Azerbaijan, the interrogators and prison guards would humiliate my daughter. During this period, they denied her the right to make phone calls many times and tortured my daughter more and more. According to Yousefova's mother, recently the harassment of her child has intensified again and her daughter's physical and mental condition has worsened. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='52523'> According to a source informed to Atlas, Ms. Yousefova has been returned to Evin Prison from the psychiatric hospital in recent days. The authorities of Evin prison have not allowed this citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan to make phone calls with her family for the past week. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='52780'> She was transferred from Evin Prison to Astara Prison. According to Atlas sources, at noon on Sunday, the officials of Evin prison took Ms. Yousefova out of the women's ward of this prison. They transferred her to Astara Prison with the promise of her release. The judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic have not allowed Yousefova to contact her family since Monday, July 3. Also, there is still no information about the reasons for Ms. Yousefova's transfer from Evin prison to Astara. The officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan also expressed ignorance of this event in response to the Atlas researcher's follow-up. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53045'> <reference source='https://shorturl.at/yAHQ6'> After enduring more than a year of temporary detention, she was released from prison. According to IranWire, the judicial officers of the Islamic Republic have handed over Valedeh Yousefova to the border guards of Azerbaijan. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>