Exclusive: A Political Prisoner Attempts Suicide After Rejecting IRGC's 'Cooperation Offer'; Zahra Sarv: I Will Stand Against Them with My Life

On the twentieth day of Zahra Sarv's hunger strike, a political prisoner held in the women's ward of Evin Prison, a source informed Voice of America that she attempted suicide by taking several pills after rejecting a 'cooperation offer' from the IRGC and subsequently being 'threatened' by IRGC officials. This reliable source reported on Wednesday, December 13, that on Tuesday, December 12, at 4 PM, officials from the IRGC in the prison's protection office offered Zahra Sarv a 'cooperation' deal, and after she refused, they threatened her that they would reopen all cases that had been dismissed. According to the source, Zahra Sarv, who was under psychological pressure from these statements, took 30 alprazolam pills at 6 PM. Following this act, prison officials transferred Zahra Sarv to 'Luqman Hospital' on Tuesday evening, where medical staff performed a 'stomach wash' on her. Based on the statements from the informed source, Zahra Sarv, who had been in the hospital until about two hours prior, 'has continued her hunger strike and stated: This time I will stand against them with my life to claim my rights.' According to the source, prison officials returned Zahra Sarv to the women's ward of Evin Prison, and this political prisoner stated that she would do this again. The indifference of judicial and prison authorities to the situation of this political prisoner comes as human rights organizations have repeatedly reported on the deaths of some prisoners in Iran due to deprivation of medical care or following hunger strikes. Amnesty International reported last year, publishing the details of 96 prisoners who died due to lack of access to medical facilities, stating that 20 of them, including Hadi Saber, Afshin Asanlu, Shahrokh Zamani, Payam Khaledi, Vahid Seyyadi Nasiri, Behnam Mohajoubi, and Bakhtash Abtin, were political prisoners. Voice of America reported on Tuesday, December 12, in an exclusive report that Zahra Sarv had been transferred to the hospital twice due to her deteriorating condition on the eighteenth and nineteenth days of her hunger strike and was returned to prison after a few hours. Zahra Sarv's suicide attempt and her decision to continue her hunger strike come as, according to the informed source, a doctor warned on Tuesday that 'if she continues her hunger strike, her internal organs will suffer serious damage, and there is a risk of coma.' Zahra Sarv, a constitutionalist political prisoner, has been on hunger strike since December 2 in the women's ward of Evin Prison in protest against 'the continuation of case fabrication, prevention of conditional release or leave, and deprivation of the right to medical treatment.' According to the doctor's assessment, Zahra Sarv has a 'torn ACL and meniscus in her right leg' and requires surgery. This political prisoner was 'released for 45 days' after spending two and a half years in Qarchak Prison in Varamin in 2021, but was re-arrested and has been in Evin Prison for almost three years. According to the source, 'after the fire in Evin in 2022, the authorities took Zahra Sarv out of prison under the pretext of transferring her to the hospital for treatment and exiled her to Qarchak Prison for nearly five months.' Many human rights activists view hunger strikes as a last resort for a prisoner to demand rights and to make their voice heard by the public.