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Iran: Musician, Cameraman in Critical Condition at Evin Prison

Mehdi-Hossein-Rajabian

NCRI – Due to lack of access to medical facilities, the detained musician Mehdi Rajabian is now losing his ability to walk after being diagnosed with MS a few months ago.

Based on the warnings his doctor gave, Rajabian’s family had informed Evin Prison official from the first day he arrived there, that he would be afflicted with MS and his life put in danger unless he received necessary medical services.

Now, three months after his illness has been approved and while spending his 319th day of unfair prison term, Rajabian’s physical strength has deteriorated so much that he’ losing his ability to walk.

Being held at Evin Prison from May 2016 for his artistic activities, Rajabian has now gone on a longtime hunger strike to protest against being denied of taking sick leave.

Following his hunger strike, Rajabian’s health status has deteriorated, leaving him in a too critical condition. Meanwhile, the prison doctor has also approved his illness, but this has had no effect on the way he’s being held in prison.

Rajabian’s disease has also been approved by the medical commission, but the officers responsible for his case (the Revolutionary Guards) are still preventing him from being treated or released.

Also held in Evin Prison is the artist’s brother, Hossein Rajabian, who like his brother is denied of having access to medical services despite suffering from kidney problems.

Tried in Branch 28 of the so-called Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by judge Mohammad Moghiseh , Mehdi and Hossein were each sentenced to six years in jail on charges of ‘propaganda against the regime’. They were then taken to Evin prison on 5 June 2016 to serve their terms.

Their sentence were later changed by Branch 54 of the same court to three years’ imprisonment, three years’ suspended prison term, and a fine of 20 million tomans, and sent to Evin Prison Court Enforcement Office to be implemented.

The two were deprived of having access to a lawyer during their trial, which reportedly lasted only a quarter of an hour. An informed source says in this regard “they had no lawyer during interrogation, and not even in court, as they were told that their case status required them to give explanations themselves.”