1850 People Call for End to Arash Sadeghi's Hunger Strike

More than 1850 individuals have issued a statement supporting the demands of Arash Sadeghi, a political prisoner, and calling for the end of his hunger strike. Arash Sadeghi has been on hunger strike in Evin Prison for about 50 days. Previously, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, he described the arrest, trial process, and the six-year prison sentence issued for his wife as 'illegal.' Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, Sadeghi's wife, has been accused of 'insulting sacred values' due to an unpublished story in her private notes, which has resulted in a six-year prison sentence for her. She is being held in the women's section of Evin Prison. The signatories of the statement, including Mehrangiz Kar, Mahnaz Parkand, Mansoureh Shojaei, Mansour Osanlou, Kazem Alamdari, Mohammad Oliaei-Fard, and Morteza Ismailpour, have expressed concern over Arash Sadeghi's 'dangerous physical condition' resulting from the 'prolonged hunger strike.' Previously, a relative of Arash Sadeghi told Radio Farda that this political prisoner is 'on the verge of death' and is unwilling to end his hunger strike until his wife's release. The campaign supporting this political prisoner also reported that he was transferred to the prison infirmary on the evening of December 8 due to 'shortness of breath and severe heart palpitations.' The signatories of the statement wrote: 'Arash Sadeghi and his wife, like other political and ideological prisoners in Iran, are victims of the repressive apparatus and the influence of political wills in the judiciary.' They emphasized that it is the right of political and ideological prisoners to 'freely publish their views and writings without interference from the powerful, based on the freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.' According to the signatories, insisting on the continued punishment of these prisoners, 'keeping them in prison and ignoring their demands will add to the negative record of the judiciary and exacerbate the crisis of legitimacy and injustice in this institution.' Arash Sadeghi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by Judge Salavati in the Revolutionary Court of Tehran on charges such as 'collusion and conspiracy against the regime, insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic, propaganda against the regime, and forming an illegal group.' Sadeghi is an expelled student from Allameh Tabatabai University who was arrested by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in September 2014. This former student activist has been arrested several times in recent years and has spent several months in solitary confinement. Arash Sadeghi's mother also suffered a heart attack during a raid by security forces on their home to arrest her son in 2010 and passed away after several days in the hospital. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported that Saeed Shirzad, a political prisoner who has been sentenced to five years in prison for his political and civil activities and is currently in the special political prisoners' section of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, has declared a hunger strike by sewing his lips together in protest against what he calls the 'silent death of prisoners by the prison chief,' citing multiple instances of human rights violations since December 8. According to the report, Shirzad was first arrested in September 2012 while helping earthquake victims in the city of Ahar in East Azerbaijan Province and was released on bail after 19 days, but the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced him to one year of suspended imprisonment for 'traveling in a group and without coordination to earthquake-affected areas.' This civil-political activist was arrested again in June 2014 by Ministry of Intelligence agents and spent more than two months in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Shirzad's 2014 arrest was due to his activities in defending working children and his connections with the families of political prisoners. In September 2015, Shirzad was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of 'collusion and conspiracy to act against national security,' but an informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that 'more than a year after the issuance of the primary court's verdict and Shirzad's appeal, the final verdict has still not been communicated to him.' In his hunger strike declaration letter, which was made available to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran on December 19, 2016, Shirzad cited issues such as 'lack of proper medical care for prisoners, beatings, mistreatment, and insulting treatment of prisoners and their families during visits, preventing prisoners from being sent to the hospital, and forcibly sending prisoners to court while being beaten' as reasons for his hunger strike. This political prisoner also demanded 'the right to use the telephone for political prisoners like other prisoners, immediate follow-up on the status of sick prisoners, separating cancer-causing and signal-jamming devices used to disrupt mobile phone reception, and removing steel cages behind cell windows that hinder proper ventilation.' According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj mainly houses prisoners with violent crimes, but one of its halls (Hall 4, Ward 12) is dedicated to ideological, political, and security prisoners. The report indicates: 'More than 60 prisoners in this hall, who are mainly imprisoned for political activities or simply for their beliefs, are in a dire situation regarding hygiene and food facilities and, unlike other prisoners, are deprived of the right to make phone calls.'