The health of the Kurdish political prisoners who have been on hunger strike since November 20 in the central prison in the city of Orumieh is deteriorating.
Over two dozen prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest the attempts by the mullahs’ intelligence to dissolve the ward dedicated to the political prisoners.
To this end, the authorities in the prison have taken many measures including transferring ordinary convicts to this ward and transferring the political prisoners to the wards were convicts are being held.
Also the authorities have been imposing pressures on the prisoners and their families.
Instead of looking into the condition of the prisoners and their demands, regime’s intelligence agents summoned a number of striking prisoners and threatened them with death.
The intelligence agents have said that “your lives are in the hands of the Ministry of the Intelligence and Security and not human rights organizations or Ahmed Shaheed [and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran]. No one can do anything for you”.
Amnesty International condemned the Iranian regime’s threat to expedite the execution of political prisoners in retaliation for going on hunger strike as ‘deplorable.’
One of the condemned was Saman Naseem, a Kurd who was a minor when he was arrested for taking part in a gun battle during which a member of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “It is truly deplorable that the Iranian authorities are playing games with the lives of these men in such a manner. Resorting to death threats and other punitive measures to quell prisoners’ hunger strikes only serves to underscore how rotten Iran’s criminal justice system is.
“Saman Naseem was a child at the time of his alleged offence. He says he has been tortured in detention and forced to ‘confess’. Now, the authorities are effectively blackmailing him with the prospect of death. Executing him would be a flagrant violation of international law. His sentence must be commuted immediately.”
The Iranian Resistance has called on all international human rights bodies to take urgent and effective measures to save the lives the Kurdish political prisoners.
The Iranian Resistance called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran to look into the demands of the prisoners as the condition of a number of them has deteriorated due to hunger strike.
