Narges Mohammadi and Nazanin Zaghari's letter to the Tehran Prosecutor requesting medical services
Narges Mohammadi and Nazanin Zaghari have stated in a letter to Jafari Dolatabadi, the prosecutor of Tehran, that they will take protest measures if their requests for access to medical services continue to be ignored.
According to the website of the Human Rights Defenders Association, Narges Mohammadi, vice president and spokesperson of the Human Rights Defenders Association of Iran, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, have written to the Tehran prosecutor in a letter that they will take protest measures if their requests are not addressed. They have emphasized that they have been deprived of receiving medicine for months because they have not visited a doctor.
Ms. Mohammadi and Ms. Zaghari mentioned in their letter that they had been on a three-day hunger strike. They were protesting the lack of access to medical and pharmaceutical services. Some officials claimed that they had adequate medical facilities.
Ms. Mohammadi and Ms. Zaghari, who have been in prison for many years now, wrote in their letter from Evin Prison to the Tehran prosecutor:
"About two months ago, we went on a hunger strike for three days to protest the lack of medical care and access to our doctors and medicines, and we were hopeful that our treatments would resume with the favorable promises of some officials. This was while the statement by some responsible officials that we had access to medical facilities and services, at least in recent months, was incorrect."
They have complained that after more than two months of their hunger strike and “despite numerous letters and visits to the authorities, unfortunately, medical dispatches are still not being made and we are deprived of medical care. This is while our frequent visits to our treating doctors in medical centers during the years we have been in prison have been a common occurrence, but for unknown reasons, they are not being made.”
Two prisoners need specialized treatment
Narges Mohammadi has suffered from various illnesses, including pulmonary embolism, during her years in prison. Mahmoud Behzadi-Rad, Narges Mohammadi’s lawyer, told IRNA last month that a specialist doctor had diagnosed Narges Mohammadi a year ago that her uterus needed to be removed due to bleeding. Ms. Mohammadi’s lawyer also said that her efforts to send Narges Mohammadi to the hospital had been unsuccessful.
Ms. Zaghari has suffered from chest discomfort and other ailments in prison and requires specialized treatment. She was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 on charges of espionage. Nazanin Zaghari has denied the charges. But her husband has told the media that Iranian security services pressured her to spy for them in exchange for her release from prison in Britain.
In their letter, Narges Mohammadi and Nazanin Zaghari have requested the relevant authorities to agree to send them to a doctor and provide them with treatment and medication. They have warned the Tehran prosecutor that the authorities responsible for any incident or exacerbation of their illness will be held responsible for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
