On May 23, Majid Tavakoli, a student activist from Tehran Polytechnic University, started a dry hunger strike to protest against his transfer to solitary confinement. His move follows pressures by the regime’s prosecutor Jaafari Dowlatabadi on 100 political prisoners forcing them to repent in writing and appeal to the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to pardon them. Majid and most of the prisoners have refused to give in to their outrageous demands. Angered by his refusal, the henchmen transferred him to solitary confinement.
They had already threatened to kill Majid after he wrote obituaries about five political prisoners who were executed by the regime on May 9. Majid Tavakoli was arrested on December 7 (Student Day) and transferred immediately to solitary confinement in Ward 209 of notorious Evin prison.
After months of solitary confinement under sever conditions and enduring physical and psychological tortures, he developed various ailments including problems with his lungs.
His transfer to solitary confinement and dry hunger strike has put his life at a great risk.
Majid Tavakoli had been arrested twice before in 2007 and 2008 and had spent more than 18 months in prison.
Iranian Resistance warns against the deteriorating state of Mr. Tavakoli and calls on United Nations Secretary General, High Commissioner for Human Rights, relevant UN special rapporteurs and all international human rights organizations to condemn the clerical regime’s crimes and take urgent and binding measures to save the life of Mr. Tavakoli and facilitate the release of all political prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 27, 2010