After release from prison, former political prisoners in Iran face state seizure of their belongings

After leaving Evin Prison in February, Iranian activist Sanaz Yekta returned to her home and discovered that some of her personal belongings were missing.

Police had searched the 46-year-old’s home in Tehran following her arrest in 2025, when she was accused of insulting the supreme leader. According to Yekta, during the raid the authorities took, among other things, her gold and silver jewelry and her smartwatch.

Although she has since been released, state institutions continue to hold her belongings, failing to comply with a court ruling ordering their return.

“I really don’t know what I am supposed to do to get my belongings back,” Yekta said in an interview with Radio Farda, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty service.

“I really need them,” added the Tehran resident.

Her case is not isolated.

Activists say Iranian authorities often fail to return the property of people considered political prisoners. According to them, this practice is intended to continue punishing them even after they have completed their prison sentences.

For former political prisoners, not receiving their personal belongings represents a significant burden. Many of them cannot work in state institutions, while Iran’s economic crisis has worsened after the nearly seven-month war with the United States, further straining these people’s financial situation.

“Why would security institutions need a political prisoner’s gold?” asked Yekta, who belongs to Iran’s Jewish community. She stressed that after their release, these people have financial needs and face difficulties finding work.

In recent years, Yekta has been arrested and imprisoned several times.

In 2024, she spent six months in detention, accused of displaying an Israeli flag in public and expressing support for Israel, the country that the Islamic Republic considers its main enemy. At the end of last year, she was found guilty of insulting the supreme leader and sentenced to five years in prison, but was released early.

“It is looting”

Other former political prisoners have also reported similar cases.

Mohammad Habibi, a teacher and union activist, said that during his arrest in 2022, police took two phones, a laptop computer and books from him. According to him, none of these items has yet been returned.

“The authorities call it confiscation, but in reality it is looting,” Habibi wrote on the X platform.

Mehdi Mahmoudian, a prominent human rights activist and former political prisoner, said the authorities had not returned his personal property, including mobile phones, even though more than eight months had passed since his detention and release.

He said this had happened even though the courts had issued several orders for the belongings to be returned.

“In the Islamic Republic, a court ruling appears to be worth no more than a piece of paper. This suggests that citizens’ ownership is respected only until a security institution takes an interest in their property,” Mahmoudian wrote on X on September 16.

“When a security body takes people’s property and fails to comply with a court order to return it, the word confiscation becomes merely a softer way of describing the appropriation of property,” he added.

Confiscations without rules

Iran’s Penal Code stipulates that items taken by the authorities must be returned to their owner once they are no longer needed for the criminal investigation. Exceptions apply when ownership is disputed or when the law provides for their confiscation or destruction.

However, Iranian lawyer and Turkey-based legal expert Mousa Barzin told Radio Farda that in practice these rules are not always enforced.

“First of all, the seizure of belongings can take place arbitrarily and without a court authorization. Security agents can enter a person’s home and take their belongings without even making a list of them or having legal permission to confiscate them,” he said.

Barzin added that during the investigation and trial stages, the obligation to return belongings to their owner after the investigation has concluded is often neglected./RFE/RL