Mass Hunger Strike by Saveh Prison Inmates in Protest Against Islamic Republic’s Security Sentences
Protests against judicial repression by the Islamic Republic are now being heard from behind the walls of Saveh Central Prison, where approximately 30 political prisoners have launched a collective hunger strike in protest against heavy sentences, unfair trial proceedings, and what they consider “security-based fabrications” against themselves. This protest action has once again drawn attention to the performance of the Islamic Republic’s judicial system; an institution that, from the perspective of critics, has been transformed from an instrument of justice into a tool for silencing every voice of dissent.
According to published reports, the hunger strike began on the current Friday, Tir 5, 1405 (June 25, 2026) in a coordinated manner across different wards of Saveh Central Prison. The protesting inmates include detainees from last December’s protests who, after months of detention, have been faced with heavy prison sentences and additional punishments.
Based on information released by human rights sources, these inmates consider the proceedings of their cases to lack the standards of fair trial. Reports indicate that the Revolutionary and Criminal Courts of the Central Province have issued heavy sentences against them without effectively considering the defendants’ defense arguments and based on security files. Human rights sources have also claimed that some of these sentences have been issued based on confessions extracted from detainees under pressure and torture.
These inmates have been held in Saveh Central Prison for approximately six months, and according to reports received, during this time they have faced unsuitable welfare and sanitary conditions, limited access to medical facilities, and deprivation of the right to choose an independent lawyer. Human rights activists say that the continuation of such conditions seriously threatens the physical and mental health of the inmates.
The hunger strike by Saveh inmates has begun at a time when, in recent years, political prisoners in various parts of Iran have repeatedly used this method as a last resort for protest; an action that, according to human rights organizations, reflects the closure of legal pathways for seeking justice and protesting within the Islamic Republic’s judicial structure.
Critics of the Islamic Republic believe that the country’s security and judicial apparatus, rather than seeking the truth and implementing justice, has defined its mission as suppressing public protests, creating an atmosphere of fear, and issuing deterrent sentences. From this perspective, mass arrests, security-based case fabrications, and the issuance of heavy sentences against protesters are part of a policy aimed at preventing the emergence of any voice of opposition in society; a policy whose costs continue to be borne by citizens who sought to peacefully express their demands.
