Political Prisoner Farhad Ariai on Hunger Strike

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Farhad Ariai Sahrapeyma, a political prisoner in the labor ward of the central prison of Urmia, who has served six years of a seven-year sentence, began a hunger strike on Wednesday, August 15, 2018.

Mr Ariai, who is eligible for early release, began his hunger strike in protest to the court’s refusal to grant him early release and its lack of enforcement of Article 134 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code. Article 134 holds that people convicted of crimes should serve only the term of their most serious sentence instead of the sum total of all of their sentences.

According to an informed source, Mr Ariai was immediately transferred to solitary confinement after beginning his hunger strike. Mr Ariai has previously gone on hunger strike. Last year, he began a hunger strike to protest his deprivation of furlough, after which guards forcefully handcuffed and transferred him to the labor ward in prison, where he has been held since.

Farhad Ariai Shahrapeyma was arrested in December 2012 and charged with “Cooperation with opposition groups” and “Propaganda against the regime”. He was sentenced to a seven-year prison term.

In January 2016, HRANA had published a list of 27 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who were held in the regular prison wards of Urmia central prison.

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