Iran: 23-year-old political prisoner in critical condition

NCRI – A 23 year-old political prisoner, who has spent the last two-and-a-half years in prison, is in critical condition. Misaq Yazdan Nezhad is being held at Ward 4 of Gohardasht prison in the city of Karaj. Due to the severity of tortures imposed on him and the abhorrent prison circumstances, he is suffering from acute illnesses and extreme mental anguish, and in need of urgent medical attention. The contamination of drinking water at Gohardasht prison over the past month and the spread of bloody diarrhea and other severe illnesses have contributed to the deterioration of Misaq’s condition. Despite doctors’ recommendations for an operation, the prison authorities deprive the imprisoned university student from receiving proper medical treatment.

Misaq was arrested on September 9, 2007, for participating at a memorial ceremony for political prisoners who were executed by the mullahs’ regime in 1988 and also for visiting his sister in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. He was transferred to the notorious Ward 209 of Evin prison in Tehran. Last September, during a show trial, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and time in exile.

Three of Misaq’s uncles, Hassan, Hossein, and Ebrahim Sanjari, all members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), have been executed by the regime in the 1980s. His parents have spent three years in prison along with their then toddler.

The Iranian Resistance calls on all international organizations, particularly the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and special rapporteurs for arbitrary arrests and torture, as well as doctors’ unions and syndicates, to enact urgent measures to investigate the situation of political prisoners in Iran, especially prisoners in poor health like Misaq Yazdan Nezhad.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 18, 2010