NCRI – According to reports from Iran’s notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, the atmosphere of the prison and meeting halls in recent days has become security-intense. The level of check and control of visitors is more than usual. During family visits to inmates, plainclothes groups were patrolling and controlling the meeting hall and prison yard. Outside the prison, soldiers are on alert.
All these circumstances indicate the prison authorities’ fear of a reaction by prisoners and their families to the mass execution of Sunni political prisoners earlier in the week.
Political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison have expressed concern about the situation of their cellmates – PMOI (MEK) supporters Afshin Baymani, Saleh Kohandel and Pirouz Mansouri -who were transferred to solitary confinement on August 1. According to them, some of the prisoners were suffering from different diseases and are not in a good situation in the new conditions.
On Thursday, August 4, political prisoners of Hall 21 of Section 7 of Gohardasht were on their third day of hunger strike to protest the recent cruel executions. Prison guards raided this hall, beat the prisoners, destroyed and stole their belongings and threatened them with execution. The criminal wardens kept the prisoners blindfolded with their hands and feet shackled for nearly seven hours exposed to the sun and hot temperatures in the prison yard.
The prisoners went on hunger strike on August 2.