The Iranian Resistance calls on all defenders of human rights, particularly the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel and inhumane punishments, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to take urgent and effective action to secure the release of the political prisoners on hunger strike.
Mr. Jafar Azimzadeh, after 25 days of hunger strike, is in dire condition. He has gone on hunger strike to protest the “violation of fundamental rights of teachers and workers”, “their imprisonment and trial on bogus charges”, and to revoke the charge of “acting against security” against labor and teacher activists. On May 21, he was transferred to a hospital outside the prison due to severe feebleness and drop in blood pressure, as well as mal-functioning of the kidney. The Iranian regime’s intelligence agents pressured him in the hospital to end his hunger strike, but he stressed that he would not end his hunger strike until his demands are met. Similarly, on May 23, he was again transferred to the hospital because of the deterioration of his condition, but around midnight they pulled him off his hospital bed and returned him from the hospital to prison.
Mr. Mohammad Sediq Kaboudvand, a Kurdish journalist and a political prisoner in Ward 350 of Evin Prison, has gone on hunger strike in protest to fabrication of charges, ramping up of pressure and harassment in the prison. He has been on hunger strike for 17 days. Despite his dire condition, the regime has increased pressure on him and has summoned him to be tried on fresh charges. Mr. Kaboudvand has been in detention since July 1, 2007 and was condemned by a bogus court to 10 years in prison for “acting against security”. He suffers of several ailments, including cardiac and renal diseases, and the persistence of the present conditions is very dangerous for him.
Political prisoner Mr. Abbas Lessani is exiled in Adelabad Prison of Shiraz and has staged a hunger strike in protest to his continued detention despite the end of his prison term. The mullahs’ judiciary is planning to raise fresh charges against him to prolong his imprisonment.
Political prisoner Mr. Sohail Babadi in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison has been on a hunger strike since May 16. Despite suffering from renal infection and stone, he is deprived of the necessary medical treatment. He was arrested in June 2012 for posting sarcastic pieces on his Facebook page and was condemned to five years in prison for insulting ‘sanctities.’ Regime’s judiciary henchmen then added another seven years to his prison term on charges of assembling and colluding against the national security and insulting the supreme leader.
Mr. Shir-Mohammad Shirani, a Baluchi political prisoner who has been exiled to a prison in Ardabil, went on hunger strike on May 2 to protest being deprived of medical care. After he announced his hunger strike, the torturers badly beat him up and transferred him to solitary confinement with a broken head and while bleeding. He was arrested in 2008 and underwent torture in solitary confinement for two years. He was then condemned to 22 years in prison and transferred from a prison in Zahedan to Ardabil. He suffers of renal and other diseases, but intelligence ministry agents prevent him from receiving medical treatment.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 24, 2016