Authorities Agree to Treatment Outside Prison; Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi End Hunger Strike
Richard Ratcliffe announced that his wife Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi ended their hunger strike after judicial authorities agreed to provide treatment for these two political prisoners outside of prison.
According to France Press agency, Richard Ratcliffe stated in a statement: After three days, these two political prisoners ended their hunger strike, and on Wednesday afternoon, Gabriella, Nazanin’s daughter, and her mother were able to visit her in prison.
“Richard Ratcliffe,” husband of Nazanin Zaghari, an Iranian-British prisoner, had announced on Monday, December 15, in a conversation with Reuters that his wife had informed him by phone that she had begun a three-day hunger strike along with Narges Mohammadi. These two prisoners initiated this three-day hunger strike in protest of the lack of access to a specialist doctor outside the prison and the required specialized medical treatment.
Following the publication of news about Ms. Zaghari’s hunger strike, Jeremy Hunt, British Foreign Secretary, summoned Hamid Baeidi Nejad, Iran’s ambassador to London.
He wrote on Twitter that he told Iran’s ambassador that the imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari under these circumstances is unacceptable and that access to medical services is a fundamental right of this prisoner.
Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to 16 years and Nazanin Zaghari to 5 years in prison. Both of these prisoners need medical care, but security and judicial authorities do not allow their treatment outside of prison.
Previously, Nazanin Zaghari’s husband explained that recently nodules were found in Nazanin Zaghari’s chest, the correct diagnosis of which requires a repeat mammogram and MRI, but prison officials do not permit it.
Last month, Mohammad Jafari, Narges Mohammadi’s lawyer, stated that his client’s physical condition, considering pulmonary embolism and the development of esophageal tumor, has created severe conditions for her and is very concerning.
This legal representative stated that while Ms. Mohammadi’s treatment process is in a critical condition, she is still held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, and requests for holding a medical commission, granting leave, hospital referral, and discussion of her conditional release have not been approved.
Human rights activists and officials from several countries have repeatedly protested the imprisonment of Narges Mohammadi and Nazanin Zaghari and called for their release.
Source: Voice of America
