Abbas Lesani Transferred to Solitary Confinement Following Hunger Strike
Abbas Lesani, an activist who went on a hunger strike in prison in protest of being denied access to a summary of his case file, has been transferred to solitary confinement.
According to a report by the Campaign to Defend Political and Civil Prisoners, Abbas Lesani, a Turkic activist, was transferred to solitary confinement on Tuesday, June 7, one day after he began his hunger strike in protest of being denied access to a summary of his case file by the authorities of Ardabil Central Prison.
A source stated: Prison officials want to cut off Mr. Lesani’s contact with the outside world so that news of the hunger strike does not reach the media, which is why they transferred him to solitary confinement.
Abbas Lesani was arrested on December 15, 2018, to serve a ten-month prison sentence and was transferred to Tabriz Prison, but following a written protest against the legal proceedings and the acceptance of his protest by Branch Two of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, he was temporarily released on Monday, December 17, after posting bail of 100 million tomans.
Mr. Lesani was re-arrested on December 25, 2018, after a court hearing.
According to the campaign’s report, on Saturday, May 25, Mr. Lesani informed his relatives in a phone call that “if prison officials do not provide him with a summary of his case file, which his lawyer prepared for him to prepare for his upcoming court defense and delivered to the office of Ardabil Central Prison, he would begin a hunger strike starting Monday, May 27, 2019.”
Based on available information, Abbas Lesani was previously sentenced to ten months in prison by Branch Two of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court on the charge of “propaganda activities against the system in favor of opposition groups.” This verdict was affirmed in Branch 26 of the East Azerbaijan Province Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Michael Khubiarpur.
According to a report by Amnesty International in 2018, more than seven thousand people, including protest participants, 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.
