NCRI – On the evening of Saturday October 22, the demonstrators who had gathered in front of Tehran’s Baghiatollah Hospital to meet with the political prisoner Mohammad Ali Taheri, clashed with the law enforcement forces for the third consecutive day.
While being beaten by the law enforcement agents, 15 of the demonstrators were arrested and taken to an unknown location.
A 16-year old teenager is among the detainees whose mother was severely beaten while trying to prevent her son from being arrested.
The followers of the political prisoner Mohammad Ali Taheri had gathered in front of the hospital from Thursday October 20, following Taheri’s going into a coma due to his hunger strike.
It should be pointed out that on the evening of Friday October 21, Tehran security forces as well as anti-riot units attacked the demonstrators in the second day of their gathering, attempting to disperse them by beating and throwing tear gas as a result of which some women and children in the gathering were poisoned and nauseated due to inhaling the pepper spray.
In addition to Tehran, the followers of the political prisoner held protest rallies in different cities as well. The gatherings were held in Shiraz, Mashhad and Urmia during which the protesters asked for Taheri’s freedom by holding his photos and a number of hand-written signs.
Following his arrest on Wednesday May 4, 2011, the political prisoner Mohammad Ali Taheri was sentenced to five years in jail, pay a fine of 900 million Tomans and 74 lashes for ‘blasphemy’ and ‘illegal intervention in medical affairs and treatment of patients’.
Although Taheri’s sentence regarding the first case has ended and his fine has been paid, but the regime’s judiciary has prevented his release by filing a new lawsuit and extending his detention.
In a recent statement, Amnesty International has announced to be unaware of Mohammad Ali Taheri’s situation or his whereabouts, and called on the Iranian regime to give information in this regard as well as immediately and unconditionally release this prisoner of conscience, who is currently on a hunger strike.