Suicide of a Protester After Release on Bail; Hunger Strike of a Political Prisoner in Protest Against Fabricated Charges

Human rights sources reported that Farhad Beigi Ghorosi, a detained protester in a joint case with Reza Rasayi, committed suicide and died after being released on bail. At the same time, reports indicate that Mazaher Heydari, a political prisoner, has gone on hunger strike in protest against the 'fabrication of charges' against him. According to the legal advisors group Dadban on Tuesday, June 11, Farhad Beigi Ghorosi, a protester detained in the city of Shahin Dezh in Kermanshah province in a joint case with Reza Rasayi, a political prisoner sentenced to death, committed suicide after being released on bail after a year of detention. Farhad Beigi Ghorosi was among those arrested during the nationwide protests in Shahin Dezh related to the killing of Nader Birami, the head of the intelligence department of the city on November 18, 2022; a case in which Reza Rasayi was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions from the accused against each other. Some social media users have shared images of his obituary. Some news sources have also reported that Farhad Beigi Ghorosi's body was found 'hanging'. Suicides in prisons or after release from the prisons of the Islamic Republic have been reported multiple times by human rights sources. Previously, several detainees from the nationwide protests of 2021, including Yelda Aghafazli, Maryam Arvin, and others, suspiciously died shortly after temporary release. Additionally, it has been reported that Mazaher Heydari, a Gonabadi dervish who was arrested on Saturday, June 8, by agents of an intelligence agency in Shahrekord, has been on hunger strike since his detention in protest against the 'fabrication of charges against him and his illegal detention'. According to Dadban's report on Tuesday, this political prisoner's hunger strike continues, and according to an informed source, 'a judicial authority initially cited a two-year-old case of Mazaher Heydari as the reason for his arrest', but 'after his protest', this political prisoner, who had previously been detained during the nationwide protests of 2021, 'a new case was immediately opened against him.' Mazaher Heydari was previously arrested during the Islamic Republic's crackdown on Gonabadi dervishes in 2017 during the events known as 'Golestan Haftom' in Tehran and spent a year in prison.