Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj: Farhad Fahndezh Transferred to Solitary Confinement on Grounds of Positive Coronavirus Test
Farhad Fahndezh, a 61-year-old imprisoned Baha’i citizen, was transferred on Thursday, October 1, 2020, to one of the solitary cells in the security ward of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on the grounds that his coronavirus test came back positive. Mr. Fahndezh, who is currently in his eighth year of a ten-year prison sentence, suffers from gastrointestinal diseases and also struggles with heart disease. This, combined with his coronavirus infection, has increased the concerns of Mr. Fahndezh’s relatives regarding his health condition. Hrana previously reported on the infection of 45 Sunni inmates in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj and warned of the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak among the prisoners held in this facility, stating that in this way, political prisoners held in this prison and 75 inmates confined in Hall 12 are at risk of contracting the coronavirus.
According to Hrana news agency, the news organ of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, on Thursday, October 1, 2020, Farhad Fahndezh, an imprisoned Baha’i citizen in the subsidiary security hall 10 of ward 4 of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, was transferred to one of the solitary cells in the security ward of this prison on the grounds that his coronavirus test came back positive.
Mr. Fahndezh suffers from gastrointestinal diseases and also struggles with heart disease. This, combined with his coronavirus infection, has increased the concerns of Mr. Fahndezh’s relatives regarding his health condition.
In this prison, a number of other political prisoners, including Arash Sadeghi, who suffers from a malignant form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma, and Afshin Baymani and Abolqasem Foladavand, who suffer from heart disease, are serving their prison sentences; this will put their lives at greater risk of contracting coronavirus disease than others if infected.
Hrana had previously also reported on the infection of 45 Sunni inmates in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj and warned of the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak among the prisoners held in this facility, stating that in this way, political prisoners held in this prison and 75 inmates confined in Hall 12 are at risk of contracting the coronavirus.
Amnesty International recently announced that it had seen copies of four letters written by prison authorities operating under the supervision of the judiciary to the Ministry of Health, raising alarm bells about the severe shortage of personal protective equipment, disinfectants, and key medical equipment and supplies. The Ministry of Health left these requests unanswered, and Iranian prisons continue to catastrophically lack the necessary equipment against the spread of contagious diseases.
This is while Asghar Jahangiri, the head of the prison organization, claimed this spring regarding the preservation of prisoners’ health that “Iran should be recognized as an innovator in supporting prisoners’ rights in the world.”
Hrana, in August of this year, in a report titled “Coronavirus Crisis; A Comprehensive Report on the Situation of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj and the Latest List of Political Prisoners,” addressed the situation of political and security prisoners in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj and warned of the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak among the prisoners held in this facility.
Farhad Fahndezh is a Baha’i citizen born in 1959 in Torbat Heydarieh. He was arrested on October 17, 2012, by security forces at his home in Gorgan, and after seven months of legal limbo, he was sentenced by Branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghisseh, to 10 years of imprisonment on charges of “propagating the Baha’i faith and running Baha’i organizations.”
This Baha’i citizen was also arrested in 1983 (at the age of 24) and sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. Due to poor prison conditions, he has suffered from gastrointestinal diseases.
Source: Hrana
