NCRI – More political prisoners are in a critical condition in Iran as they use hunger strikes to protest against the mental and physical abuse inflicted on them in prison.
Abulfazl Abedini stopped eating on July 27 in protest at his transfer from ward 350 of Evin Prison to Karoon Prison in Ahvaz.
Mr Abedini was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment with physical torture.
In Orumieh Central Prison, Seyed Sami Hosseini went on hunger strike on August 12 in protest at his transfer to ward 4 of Orumieh Prison, used for the incarceration of murders and other non-political prisoners.
Mr Hosseini was arrested along with Jamal Mohammadi in June 2008, in the city of Salmas and both received the death penalty. This was later commuted to ten years in prison with physical torture and banishment, on charges of membership of a Kurdish armed group.
Mr Hosseini was now been moved to solitary confinement as punishment for his hunger strike.
Two Kurdish political prisoners sentenced to 13 years imprisonment are now also in critical condition after staging a hunger strike in Mahabad Prison.
Jalal Naseri and Qasem Rahimi-Azar stopped eating on August 5 and were transferred to the prison’s quarantine on their fourth day of hunger strike.
They are now both said to be suffering from kidney disease and tuberculosis and have so far been deprived of any medical treatment.
Reza Shahab, a member Tehran’s Bus Drivers Union, has gone on hunger strike in protest at been denied medical treatment for more than three months.
A fellow prisoner said: “Mr. Shahabi has been suffering from numbness in the left side of his back for more than 3 months and the prison official’s inaction to provide medical treatment or sent him to a hospital, has caused him great problems.”
