Iran arrests Ahwazi citizen Maryam Al-Zubaidi to serve a four-year prison sentence

Iranian authorities have arrested Ahwazi citizen Maryam Al-Zubaidi, 58, a resident of Ahwaz city, and transferred her to Sepidar Prison (known locally as Al-Huwaira) to serve a four-year prison sentence. The arrest followed her summons to the Judicial Enforcement Department affiliated with the so-called Revolutionary Court in the city.

According to local sources, Al-Zubaidi’s arrest came after she was officially notified to begin serving her sentence on charges of “acting against national security.” The verdict was issued by the First Branch of the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz and upheld by the Court of Appeals last October.

The source added that Al-Zubaidi, who had been previously detained for her civil activities, suffers from chronic respiratory and digestive illnesses, and that eight months of her prior detention were not counted toward her current sentence.

This case is part of an escalating wave of political arrests carried out by Iranian authorities against Ahwazi activists and citizens, amid growing human rights reports documenting the deteriorating conditions of detainees in Iranian prisons particularly in Sepidar Prison, where systematic abuses against Ahwazi female prisoners have been widely reported.