Kamal Jafari Yazdi, a political prisoner in Iran, announced a drug strike
Kamal Jafari Yazdi, a political prisoner imprisoned in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, announced a drug strike starting Thursday, October 1.
Pouran Nazemi, a civil activist, told VOA about the situation of this political prisoner, who is one of the signatories of the statement calling for Khamenei's resignation. He has announced that he will not take his medication starting today in protest of the severe pressure on political prisoners.
On Wednesday, during a cabinet meeting, Kamal Jafari's associates showed him a handwritten note in which he wrote, "Despite the vital need for medicines, he will refrain from taking and using medicines from the first of October."
According to Ms. Nazemi, Kamal Jafari Yazdi should undergo surgery "immediately" according to the diagnosis of the prison doctor, the forensic physician, and the head of Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad. However, for the past six months, in addition to refusing to send him to the hospital and grant him medical leave, Vakilabad Prison authorities have also prohibited him from visiting and disconnected his phone.
Pouran Nazemi also told the Voice of America Persian Service that Kamal Jafari Yazdi "has received death threats many times and is going through very difficult conditions," and that the political prisoner's relatives are concerned that his life is in danger.
At least two prisoners have died in Iranian prisons in recent days. Amnesty International issued a statement on September 14, saying that the Islamic Republic has refused to account for the deaths of at least 72 detainees over the past eleven years.
In this statement, Amnesty International points out, for example, the lack of any accountability regarding the death of Yasser Manguri, which was announced to his family on September 7, 1402 by Ministry of Intelligence officials in Urmia.
On Thursday, two days after the news of the death of Shahin Naseri, who witnessed Navid Afkari's torture in solitary confinement in Greater Tehran Prison, was published, the Tehran Provincial Prisons Directorate issued a statement confirming the news.
