Khalid Pirzadeh, political prisoner, has been deprived of contact with his family for over 80 days due to creating a sign for the bereaved families

Khalid Pirzadeh, a political prisoner in Evin, has been deprived of his right to contact his family for over 80 days due to creating a sign for bereaved families. According to the media organization of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, Hrana, prison officials have barred Khalid (Koushan) Pirzadeh from contacting his family since April 19 for making a wooden sign for a group of bereaved families. The sign reads: 'If there is no Iran, let my body not exist.' A source close to Pirzadeh's family told Hrana that this political prisoner's deprivation of contact with his relatives comes at a time when he is suffering from heart disease, raising concerns among his loved ones. Khalid (Koushan) Pirzadeh was last arrested in September 2023 by agents of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence in Ahvaz. He was transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence, on October 15 of last year, and in January, the 26th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Eman Afshari, sentenced Khalid Pirzadeh to five years and eight months in prison. In February 2024, while on a hunger strike, he was transferred from Evin Prison to a hospital due to a heart condition and returned to prison less than a day after undergoing angiography. Khalid Pirzadeh, a former bodybuilding champion of Iran, was first arrested by government forces in June 2019. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in February of that year on charges of 'gathering and collusion' and 'insulting the leadership' and during his imprisonment, he suffered from multiple illnesses, losing his mobility and even control over his bodily functions. Although this political prisoner was released in February 2023, he was arrested again in September of this year while traveling to Turkey and has been in prison since then. Along with several political activists in Iran, he stated in a message before Nowruz 2024 that the 'current dire situation' of Iranians is the 'result of thoughts, methods, and goals' that emerged 'with the 1979 revolution and the deviation of constitutionalism,' 'in the battle between constitutionalists and traditionalists.'