Iran President's 2nd Term Begins With Abuses, Hunger Strike by Political Prisoners

By Patrick Goodenough | August 29, 2017 | 4:18 AM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – Concerns are deepening for the well-being of more than 20 Iranian political prisoners on hunger strike, who reportedly are being denied medical care by authorities who triggered their protest in the first place by forcibly transferring them to accommodation where conditions are described as “unbearable.”

The incident comes in the early weeks of the second term of Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, whose ostensibly “moderate” presidency has been characterized by ongoing repression at

home, include a 20-year high in executions.

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Some of those affected at the Gohardasht prison west of Tehran have been on hunger strike for a month now, and political prisoners at other jails have begun to voice support and in some cases have joined the protest action.

According to rights advocates the newly “renovated” section of the Gohardasht facility to which more than 50 prisoners were moved late last month lacks beds and clean drinking water, and the windows are covered by metal limiting air circulation and making it difficult to breathe freely.

The transfer – which was accompanied by guards’ assaults on prisoners unwilling to move – also reportedly deprived the inmates of privately-purchased prescribed medications and personal belongings they were unable to take with them, including personal photographs and letters.

In a penal system where inmates often have to buy food from canteens to supplement the inadequate meals provided, the political prisoners also lost food supplies, kitchenware and a refrigerator.

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“They are held in cells with windows covered by metal sheets, and deprived of access to clean drinking water, food and sufficient beds,” Amnesty International reported. “They are also barred from having in-person family visits and denied access to telephones, which are usually available in other parts of the prison.”

Some of the prisoners concerned were identified by Amnesty International as human rights defender Jafar Eghdami, journalist and blogger Saeed Pour Heydar, postgraduate student Hamid Babaei, and Baha’i prisoners Adel Naimi, Farhad Dahandaj and Peyman Koushak Baghi.

Iran: Call to Save 7 Prisoners on the Verge of Execution

One of the prisoners

was 17 when he committed the alleged "crime"

Seven prisoners sentenced to death in Gohar Dasht (Rajaieh Shahr) Prison in Karaj, have been transferred to solitary confinement. These victims are faced with an imminent death threat. Mehdi Bohlouli, who is now on the verge of execution after serving 15 years of imprisonment, was only 17 when arrested and this is the fourth time he has been transferred to solitary confinement for implementation of the death sentence.

Taking prisoners to the gallows to witness the shocking scene of the execution of other prisoners is a common practice of torture in the prisons of Iranian regime.

Transferring the young prisoner, Mehdi Bohlouli for execution is taking place while the execution of Alireza Tajiki, a young prisoner who was 15 years old at the time of his arrest, sparked a wave of hatred inside and outside of Iran, and international human rights organizations called it shameful and shocking. Alireza Tajiki was hanged on August 10 after serving six years in prison under torture for compulsory confessions, and while his family's repeated requests for a retrial was ignored.

The execution and torture machine of the regime, which is a world record holder, on the number of executions per capita and one of the few juvenile executioners, has accelerated after the sham presidential election. Only in July 2017 there has been a rare record of 101 recorded hangings. The actual number of executions is likely to be higher, since it does not include the number of secret executions.

The Iranian resistance calls for urgent intervention and action of the international bodies and human rights organizations to stop the death sentences of these seven victims and the abolition of their death sentences, as well as the protest and condemnation of governments to the new wave of executions in Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran