Six political prisoners went on hunger strike to protest unfair trial and prison conditions
Six political prisoners, namely Hossein Sarlak, Morteza Nazari Sedehi, Mohsen Aminpour, Reza Bazazadeh, Behrouz Zare, and Reza Mohammad Hosseini, announced in an open letter that they have gone on a hunger strike to protest the unfair trial process and prison conditions.
According to news published on social media, these six political prisoners in Ward 4 of Evin Prison have announced in an open letter that they have been on a hunger strike since Monday, July 14, to protest against the wrong practices and inadequate conditions of the prisoners in all matters, even regarding food rations, and will continue this protest until their demands are met.
In this open letter, these six prisoners demanded, in light of the authorities' failure to implement the Prisons Organization's regulations, "separate political prisoners from other prisoners, accept conditional release, remove the term security and be recognized, stop judges of the Revolutionary Court from treating lawyers arbitrarily, have a lawyer from the beginning of arrest until the last stage of the case, cancel all death sentences and heavy sentences of several years, quickly implement bail until the trial with reasonable bail, and carefully and properly address the nutritional status and rations of political prisoners."
This is not the first time that political prisoners have gone on hunger strike to protest the functioning of the judicial system and the conditions of political prisoners in Iranian prisons.
Previously, Amir Hossein Mohammadifard, editor of Gam magazine, who has been in detention with his wife, Sanaz Alhayari, since January 9 of last year, wrote an open letter from Evin Prison to Mohammad Moghiseh, the judge in the case, requesting the release of himself and his wife, Sanaz Alhayari, on bail until the trial.
"Soheil Arabi", a imprisoned civil activist who has been serving a seven-year prison sentence in Tehran's Greater Prison (Fashafoyeh) since 2013, has also gone on a hunger strike since June 15, and by publishing a letter, he announced a new movement and boycott.
Ruhollah Mardani, a teacher imprisoned in Evin, has also been on a hunger strike since late March to protest the prison's problems and the lack of respect for prisoners' rights, including the denial of parole and leave. The imprisoned teacher has gone on hunger strike several times over the past two years.
According to a report by Amnesty International, in 2018, more than seven thousand people, including participants in demonstrations, students, journalists, women's rights activists, environmental activists, labor activists, and ethnic and religious minority rights activists, were arrested in Iran, and hundreds were sentenced to prison.
The US State Department has repeatedly condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters and opponents of the regime under various pretexts, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime in that country.
Source: Voice of America
