Probe my daughter’s situation, says mother of Iranian prisoner in US

TEHRAN, Dec. 20 (MNA) – Belqeis Roshan, the mother of Iranian citizen Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan who is in prison in the United States on false charges, has called on the international human rights institutions to launch an investigation into deplorable condition in which her daughter is being held. “My daughter is in a bad state physically and mentally,” Roshan said during a press conference in Tehran on Monday which was held to commemorate the fourth anniversary of Mir-Qolikhan’s imprisonment. Roshan also asked everyone to help free Mir-Qolikhan from the U.S. custody and pave the way for her to return to the embrace of the motherland, saying, "Each day passes like a year for Shahrzad and her children.” She said that Mir-Qolikhan and her husband were arrested by the Austrian police on charges of purchasing dual-use equipment on November 2004. “After serving 28 days of her sentence and being more than two months under surveillance, she was released from prison and returned to Dubai after she was not found guilty,” Roshan said. “In 2005 an Austrian court sentenced her to 52 days in prison,” she said, adding, “The court weighed the evidences, but could not prove Shahrzad guilty again.” Mir-Qolikhan’s mother went on to say that after completing her sentence, Shahrzad’s case was closed, and she returned to Iran. However, Mir-Qolikhan was then arrested during a trip to Cyprus in 2007 and was extradited to the U.S. in response to a request by the U.S. government, she said. In a travesty of justice, she was sentenced to five years in prison and has been incarcerated in the United States since December 19, 2007, she added. Recently, after nearly four years, Mir-Qolikhan’s mother and her children were allowed to visit her in the U.S. They visited each other at the house of detention, while the mothers of the three U.S. citizens, who were arrested after illegally entering Iran in 2009 and charged with espionage, met with each other at Iran’s best hotels.