Tag: Farhad Meysami

Civil Rights Activist Farhad Meysami Set Free from Rajai Shahr Prison

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News, Prisoners
Ali Khamenei, Farhad Meysami, HRANA, pardon decree

On February 10, 2023, imprisoned civil rights activist Doctor Farhad Meysami was set free from Rajai Shahr Prison.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, civil rights activist Farhad Meysami was released from Rajai Shahr Prison in the fourth year of his sentence.

Details on his release are still unknown. He was likely, however, released under a recent pardon decree for some prisoners.

According to the sources close to Meysami, he had not requested any pardon, and during his entire incarceration, he did not have one day of furlough.
For several months, he has been severely restricting his food intake to demand the release of several prisoners, which has led to a lot of weight loss and endangered his health condition.

In recent days, dozens of prisoners, including political prisoners and those arrested at recent protests, were released. The exact number of released prisoners is still unknown. Earlier, the head of the Judiciary proposed the issuance of a pardon decree for some prisoners, including those arrested at recent protests, which was approved by Ali Khamenei under some conditions which the legal case should meet.

Imprisoned Civil Activist Farhad Meysami Faces New Charges

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News, Prisoners
Farhad Meysami, propaganda against the regime, Rajai Shahr Prison

On February 17, civil activist Farhad Meysami, who is spending the fourth year of his sentence in Rajai Shahr Prison, was indicted on the charge of “propaganda against the regime” in a new legal case opened by Branch 1 of Karaj’s Revolutionary Court.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, Meysami is serving his fourth year in prison without a day of furlough. Yesterday, Karaj’s Revolutionary Court summoned and indicted him with a new charge of “propaganda against the regime”. These charges are pressed due to notes on social media and the internet that have been attributed to him.

On July 31, 2018, security forces arrested him, and thereafter Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced him to five years in prison on the charge of “assembly and collusion to act against national security” and one year on the charge of “propaganda against the regime”. Moreover, he was deprived of any political activities and membership in political parties and groups on social media, as well as press both inside the country and abroad for two years.

Grounded in Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the sentence of five years as the severest punishment is enforceable, which is related to his first charge.

On November 9, 2019, he was transferred suddenly from Evin to Rajai Shahr Prison.

A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for February 2, 2019

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Adib Haqpajouh, azerbaijani turkic ethnic minority rights activist, Baha'i, Dehloran, Farhad Meysami, Farhad Sarafraz, Hakimeh Ahmadi, Hamid Askari, Hossein Rezaei, Iran Khodro, Jafar Azimzadeh, Karim Mohebbi, Kerman Motor, landmine, Maryam Ghaffarmanesh, Reza Khandan, Saeed Abedi, Saeed Malekpour, Shahram Mansour, Vahid Dana

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on February 2nd, 2019 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) Karim Mohebbi was executed in the central prison of Tabriz on the charge of murder and another prisoner was sentenced to public hanging in Gilan.

(2) More than four protests were organized across the country. Educators in the cities of Karun and Bavi, the customers of two Iranian automakers, Iran Khodro (IKCO) and Kerman Motor, the students of Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch in Tehran, and the investors of the project of Shahid Keshvari in Isfahan have held separate protests to request their demands.

(3) A landmine explosion severely injured a citizen in the city of Dehloran. More than 42 thousand square kilometers of the lands in the Iran‘s western provinces contain landmines left from the Iran-Iraq war. Dehloran is in the Ilam province.

(4) Five Baha’i residents of Shiraz have been sentenced to six months imprisonment, each, on the charge of “propaganda against the state”. They were identified as the following: Farhad Sarafraz, Shahram Mansour, Vahid Dana, Saeed Abedi, and Adib Haqpajouh.

(5) An Azerbaijani Turkic minority rights activist, Hakimeh Ahmadi, is in prison since October 18, 2018. According to Hrana, she underwent hospital treatment for rib cage and finger injuries which have been occurred in the Intelligence detention in Marand County. Security forces entered Ahmadi’s home on October 18th, threatening both her and her spouse with a weapon. She was arrested and transferred without explanation to an undisclosed location. In a video which was published on October 30th, Ahmadi’s husband, Gholamreza Ghorbani, related news of her hospital transfer, explaining that authorities had refused to disclose where she had been admitted, forbade him from visiting, and advised him that pending treatments would be at his and Ahmadi’s expense.

(6) Expulsion of Sepehr Shahidi Ghamsari, a Baha’i civil engineering student from Sina Higher Education Institute in Kashan due to his faith. Baha’i students in Iran routinely experience either denial of entrance to university or removal from student lists during their studies. Numerous reports are published annually regarding the barring of Baha’i citizens from education.

(7) Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami filed an appeal against their conviction. They have been sentenced to six years in prison each, and were banned for two years form traveling, membership in any social or political group, and internet activism.

(8) The second court session of eight environmentalists on the espionage-related charges was in session in Tehran. Moreover, five of the detained environmental activists were charged with “corruption on earth”.

(9) A detained Baha’i citizen, Maryam Ghafarmanesh , was arrested on September 16th, 2019. Her family did not receive any answer to why, and for how long, she will be held in prison. She was one of the eight Baha’i citizen who were arrested and transferred to Evin prison between September 16th and October 17th. They were identified as Parvan Manavi, Elham Salmanzadeh, Hooman Khoshnam, Payam Shabani, Peyman Manavi, Maryam Ghaffarmanesh, Jamileh Pakrou (Mohammad Hossein) and Kianoush Salmanzadeh.

(10) Jafar Azimzadeh, the leading member of the Free Union of Workers in Iran, was transferred to Evin prison to serve his six-year prison term. Moreover, Azimzadeh and Shapour Ehsanirad have been acquitted of charges of “acting against national security” in June 2018. In 2016 he was sentenced to 17 years in prison over charges of “propaganda against the state” and “assembly and collusion against national security through organizing an illegal group’.

(11) Hossein Rezaei, a teacher and the secretary of the teachers’ union in Bushehr, who was arrested on January 26, was released on bail. He had been summoned twice to the intelligence office and was interrogated in January.

(12) The workers of Saman Tile Manufacturing Company in Borujerd, have more than four years of unpaid wages. The workers of IranPetroTech have also unpaid wages and 12 workers of this company have been laid off last month.

(13) A labor activist, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, has been detained for one month and a half, although his family provided his bail bond which has been set for 200 million Toman [approximately 20 thousand USD]. He had been released from prison last year after finishing his seven years sentence.

(14) The special needs students’ transportation vehicle crashed, leaving eight injured in Sharafkhaneh in Shabestar County in the East Azerbaijan Province.

(15) Iran has six thousand disabled veteran women of Iran-Iraq War and more than six thousand women had been killed in this war. These women and their families have been treated unequally by the government and the society in comparison with men veterans.

(16) Saeed Malekpour’s mother wrote an open letter to Tehran’s Prosecutor General to request her son’s release after serving ten years in prison. A Canadian resident and alumna of Sharif University was arrested in 2008, during a trip to Iran on blasphemy-related charges. According to Hrana, the Cyber Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), accusing Malekpour of managing Persian-language pornographic websites, arrested him during a trip to Iran to visit his family and sentenced him to death plus seven and a half years in prison, on counts of “propaganda against the regime,” “blasphemy,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” “insulting the president,” “contacting opposition groups” and “corruption on earth.” Malekpour’s death penalty sentence was eventually reduced to a life sentence. Throughout his legal proceedings, Malekpour has insisted that case analysis by a computer and internet expert would absolve him of the charges.

(17) Hamid Askari, a singer, was banned from working and the rest of his concerts have been canceled because of featuring a female vocalist and guitar player, Negin Parsa, in his concert. Women are prohibited from singing or playing musical instruments solo in Iran.

A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for January 22, 2019

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Amir Reza Alipour Hashtali Amoli, Andimeshk, Arsham Rezaei, Baha'i, Baktash Abtin, Behzad Shahsavar, Borujerd, Caspian Institution, Farhad Meysami, Ghoflkar Company, Keyvan Bazhan, Lowshan, Majid Hosseini, Marivan, Mohammad Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad Najafi, Reza Khandan, Reza Khandan (Mahabadi), Sari, Siamand Shahsavar

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on January 22nd, 2019 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) More than nine protests were organized across the country. Retired educators and other retired government employees, Ghoflkar Company workers in Alborz, the municipality workers in Lowshan, Marivan, Borujerd, and Andimeshk, the workers of Assaluyeh Pars Petrochemical Company, the shareholders of Caspian financial institution in Rasht, and the contractors of Tehran municipality have held separate protests to request their demands.

(2) Placed 1st in the Iranian University Master Studies Entrance Exam, Amir Reza Alipour Hashtali Amoli, was sentenced to six months in prison on the charge of “insulting the Supreme Leader”.

(3) In the last nine months, 56 workers died and 112 have been injured in the work-related incidents in East Azerbaijan province, which is a four percent increase over a year. Iran ranked 102 in the workplace safety among other countries.

(4) 72 people have been arrested in a “mix gender party” in Sari. The detainees were transferred to the court. They may be able to get out of jail by posting bail, otherwise they would be imprisoned.

(5) Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a professor of journalism, was summoned to the Evin’s prosecutor’s office. He was an editor of several newspapers, including Kian, Toos, Jame’eh, Neshat, and Asr-e Azadegan.

(6) A Human rights lawyer, Mohammad Najafi, was sentenced to 19 years imprisonments. He is serving his three years sentence in prison and faced 74 lashes and 16 more years imprisonment for his new charge of “spreading lies and disturbing public opinion”.

(7) Behzad Shahsavar and Siamand Shahsavar, prisoners of the Intelligence detention center in Urmia, have been transferred to Naqadeh prison. They were accused of “corporation with a Kurdish opposition group”.

(8) 23-year-old, Amin Pishdad, was transferred to Vakil Abad prison in Mashhad. He had been arrested last year on blasphemy and espionage related charges and was sentenced to ten years in prison which was reduced in the appeals court to eight months.

(9) A Baha’i citizen, Soheil Haghdoost, was sentenced to four months imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the state” for announcing and following up regarding his business’s forced closure. Also, he has been sentenced to a year in prison in March 2018.

(10) Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami have been sentenced to six years in prison each, and were banned for two years form traveling, membership in any social or political group, and internet activism.

(11) The workers of Assaluyeh Pars Petrochemical Company, who were protesting their layoffs, have been arrested.

(12) Five students in Kashan were transferred to a hospital for gas poisoning because of negligence in the oversight of safety conditions in heater installation in the school.

(13) Three thousand villages in Sistan and Baluchestan do not have water distribution network. 46 percent of population in this province have access to the water sources.

(14) Members of the Iranian Writers Association, Baktash Abtin, Reza Khandan Mahabadi, and Keyvan Bazhan have been arrested. They were summoned to the court on the “encouraging immorality or prostitution” and security-related charges, were imprisoned because they could not post a bail.

(15) 180 workers of Ahvaz inter-city rail have 18 months of unpaid wages. Kayson Project Management Company paid one months of their unpaid wages but there are still concerns that the remaining will be left unpaid.

(16) A prisoner accused of murdering his friend was spared from hanging on gallows by consent of next of kin in Tehran. He was spending 6 years in prison.

(17) Mohammad Hosseinzadeh, civil rights activist, was released on bail. He was arrested with Arsham Rezaei and Majid Hosseini on the charges of “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “collusion against the state”. The two others’ whereabouts is still unknown.

A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for January 6, 2019

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Abbad Tarmalapour, Abdolkarim Abdolpour, Abdolrazagh Ghorbani, Ahmad Pasdar, Alireza Panahpour, Amin Sajadian, Ardalan Zeinalzadeh, Azadeh Javid, Bahram Rezaei, Beniamin Golshanzadeh, Elyas Tajoldini, Farhad Meysami, Hamidreza Janghorban, Hamzeh Sisakhtinejad, Heibatollah Alavikhah, Jafar Goharkani, Mehdi Tayari, Meisam Naraki, Mohammad Hossein Najmzadeh, Mohammad Javad Khosravi, Mohammad Kazem Ahmadzadeh, Naser Mohammadinejad, Nematollah Tajoldini, Shapour Heibatieh, Soheil Azarpour

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on January 6th, 2019 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) More than 32 Baha’i have been summoned and interrogated at Karaj Intelligence Office in the last two weeks. Their names are as the following: Saeed Vojdani, Tahereh Pashaei, Radman Foroughi, Sheida Motlagh, Taraneh Badiee, Sepehr Forouhari, Masoud Zakerian, Badiollah Tashakor, Parvin Tashakor, Farinaz Khosh Fetrat, Taranom Hashemi, Kambiz Safaei, Sarmad Sadeghian, Nahid Farhangi, Hasti Mandegari, Nasim Zabihi, Rohieh Anvari, Shole Emamverdi, Shirin Khales, Foroutan Baiani, Armin Rohani, Aydin Rohani, Nazanin Sharifi, Nima Sharifi, Ramtin Monzavi, Parnian Badiee, Mahsa Mokhtari, Arman Pourmoradian, Mahmoud Fashami, Samieh Ehsani, Pouya Eslami, and Delkash Behbahani.

(2) Two Kulbars (Kurdish back carriers), Nahv Ebadi and Ahmad Azizi, were injured by border patrol shots in the cities of Urmia and Sardasht. Another Kulbar, Yousef Mohammadi-asl died from hypothermia in Piranshahr.

(3) Issa Feizi, Hadi Kamangar, Amanj Ghorbani, Rashed Montazeri, and Hossein Kamangar have been arrested in the city of Kamyaran in Kurdistan Province. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

(4) Mohammad Rahmanian, a playwright and theater director, was arrested because of singing of a female solo singer in his play “Paykan Javanan”. He was released on bail on the same day.

(5) More than nine protests were organized all around the country on January 6, 2019. Farmers of Isfahan, retired personnel of Haft Tappeh Sugar Mill, butchers in Saqqez, contractors of municipality, the employees of Vahdat financial institute in Khorasan province, disabled and disability-rights activist in Tehran, and Keshavarzi insurance employees held separate protests nationwide.

(6) The sister of Sam Rajabi, one of the detained Iranian environmentalists, wrote an open letter to Javid Rehman, a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran. She requested his intervention in her brother’s case. The environmentalists who were arrested last year are Houman Jokar, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi, Taher Ghadirian, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Morad Tahbaz, Hasan Zareh, Aref Zareh, Morteza Aryanejad, Alireza Farhadzadeh, and Kavous Seyed Emami. Seyed Emami, an environmentalist and professor, was arrested as part of this crackdown and reportedly died in detention under unknown circumstances two weeks after his arrest.

(7) After one month of forced closure of 10 Baha’i-owned businesses in Omidiyeh, the closure order has been lifted. Baha’i citizens are having difficulty running their businesses in Iran.

(8) Narges Shahsavari and Ali Lorestani were arrested by the Intelligence Office agents in Kermanshah last month, but their lawyer has not been approved by the judiciary system. According to the so-called Article 48, only 20 lawyers can defend citizens accused by the country’s secretive and political charges.

(9) Siamand Shahsavar and Behzad Shahsavar who had been arrested last month, were transferred to the Intelligence Office in Urmia. They are charged with ‘cooperation with a Kurdish opposition group’.

(10) Four Baha’i citizens, Sohrab Naghipour, Mohsen Mehregani, Manouchehr Rahmani, and Farzad Homayouni, were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment combined in the Isfahan appeal court.

(11) Esmaeil Arbabi was publicly flogged until he fainted and was transferred to a hospital in Iranshahr for the second time. He was charged with armed robbery.

(12) Ali Karouni, a singer, was summoned to the Ahvaz court for a complaint by the Khuzestan Culture and Islamic Guidance office. He is charged with ‘spreading lies and disturbing public opinion’.

(13) Seven citizens were sentenced to 590 lashes combined. Overall, 24 people who have been charged with financial crimes, were sentenced to imprisonment and lashes on January 6, 2019; Meisam Naraki and Alireza Panahpour were sentenced to five years and 74 lashes each, Nematollah and Elyas Tajoldini were sentenced to 74 lashes, Jafar Goharkani and Hamzeh Sisakhtinejad were sentenced to 110 lashes, Hamidreza Janghorban was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fines, Azadeh Javid was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, Shapour Heibatieh was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment, Amin Sajadian faced 10 years imprisonment, Mohammad Javad Khosravi was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and fines, Mohammad Kazem Ahmadzadeh faced 10 years imprisonment, Heibatollah Alavikhah and Bahram Rezaei were sentenced to three years imprisonment, Mohammad Hossein Najmzadeh was sentenced to seven years in prison. Ahmad Pasdar was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and fines, Mehdi Tayari was sentenced to four years and fines. Naser Mohammadinejad, Abbad Tarmalapour, Beniamin Golshanzadeh, Abdolrazagh Ghorbani, Soheil Azarpour, and Abdolkarim Abdolpour were sentenced to two years imprisonment and fines. Moreover, Ardalan Zeinalzadeh who was the mayor of Gachsaran city was sentenced to five years imprisonment and 74 lashes.

(14) Farhad Meysami, a detained civil rights activist, wrote an open letter to protest judicial system’s performance. He was arrested in July and went on a hunger strike to protest ‘unjustified accusations, the illegal procedure following his detention, and denial of his right to access an independent lawyer’. He was forced to end his strike.

(15) Nine businesses and factories that have polluted the environment have been shut down in Tabriz and Hamadan provinces.

(16) The United Nations has published the report of Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur about human rights defenders. Based on this report, the oppression imposed on Human Rights defenders in Iran has been intensified in 2018.

(17) The mayor of the district 16 of Tehran municipality has confirmed that a city services worker was killed, and two others were poisoned by natural gas due to non-standard installation of a gas-burning heater.

(18) Two prisoners, Changiz Irani and Pejman Piri, who have earlier been sentenced to death, were saved at the gallows by the consent of the next of kin in the Urmia prison. Also, five other prisoners in Bushehr were saved from execution.

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Open Letter: Reza Khandan Echoes Public Support of an Ailing Farhad Meysami

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Prisoners
Farhad Meysami, Hunger Strike, hunger strike prisoner, imprisoned human rights activist, open letter, prisoner hunger strike, Reza Khandan

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- Imprisoned civil rights activist Reza Khandan has published a letter calling attention to fellow activist Farhad Meysami’s mistreatment by prison authorities, who are reportedly unmoved by the steep decline of Meysami’s health since he declared hunger strike on August 1st.

Since forcibly taking Meysami to the prison clinic on September 26th, prison authorities have kept him in quarantine-like conditions, restricting all of his contacts with the outside. In protest of his arrest, as well as authorities’ refusal to appoint the lawyer of his choice, Meysami has already been on hunger strike for more than 75 days.

Medical doctors, publishers, bookshop owners, and university graduates numbering 1400 in all have published an open letter raising their own concerns over Meysami’s condition and pleading for his immediate release. The voices of two teachers incarcerated at Evin also got behind what has become a burgeoning public campaign for, at the very least, Meysami’s transfer to an outside medical facility.

The full text of Khandan’s letter, translated into English by HRANA, is below:

Dear Compatriots,

Fellow human rights activists,

It has been 75 days since Dr. Farhad Mesyami started his difficult and worrisome hunger strike. Three weeks ago, he was forcibly transferred to the prison clinic from the general ward. Reportedly on orders from the prosecutor’s office, and with the cooperation of the clinic’s director, prison officials have repurposed the clinic into a security detention unit where patient spaces can be used as solitary confinement cells.

Currently, Farhad Meysami is being held in one of those rooms under tight security controls. In his frail state he has reportedly been subjected to inhumane treatment whereby, against his will and without the presence of family or a lawyer, he was strapped to a bed and given injections.

In these instances, we must hold accountable not only judiciary authorities but also the Ministry of Health and the President himself, who has sworn to protect the rights of the people.

Moreover, we must advocate that medical professionals be held accountable, those who have in an unprofessional and unprincipled manner taken action against the will of the patient, heeding any and all orders [from authorities], however unethical they may be.

Farhad Meysami’s health and life is at risk now more than ever, and it is urgent he is transferred to a hospital outside the prison for medical care.

Reza Khandan, October 14, 2018, Ward 4 of Evin Prison

****

Reza Khandan Khandan was arrested in his home by security forces on September 4, 2018, before being charged in Branch 7 of the Evin Prosecutor’s Interrogation office. He was summoned to Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court on October 5th but refused to attend as an act of protest against the unlawfully late subpoena.

Open Letter: Hundreds of Doctors and Publishers Plead for the Release of Farhad Meysami

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Cultural, Prisoners
Farhad Meysami, Hunger Strike, open letter, prisoner hunger strike, prisoner hunger strike iran

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Hundreds of medical doctors, publishers, bookshop owners, and university graduates wrote an open letter September 28th to raise their concerns about Farhad Meysami, a civil rights activist detained in Evin Prison who is in dire medical condition on this 57th day of his hunger strike. The letter pleads for Meysami’s release.

Meysami started his hunger strike one day after his July 31st arrest, in protest to authorities’ refusal to appoint the attorney of his choice.

He was taken to the prison clinic by violent force on September 26th, raising suspicions with close sources that authorities are deliberately isolating him from contacts with the outside.

Previously, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi and Esmaeil Abdi, two teachers imprisoned in Evin, asked for Meysami’s transfer to a hospital in their own open letter to judicial authorities.

The most recent open letter, representing the will of 1,400 doctors, publishers, bookshop owners, and university graduates, reflects the same concern for Meysami’s well-being.

“We know Dr. Farhmad Meysami’s character, disposition, and reputation of accountability, and we believe that he doesn’t belong in prison,” the letter says.

Meysami is noted in the letter as founder and manager of Andisheh Sazan, a publishing house in Iran.

“Meysami raised his criticisms in peaceful and non-violent ways,” the letter goes on. “Some of us don’t necessarily agree with him, but we don’t think this is a way to treat any dissident in this country, let alone a doctor and a publisher.”

The letter specifically implores the support of Culture Minister Abbas Salehi, Health Minister Hassan Ghazizade Hashemi, Parliamentary Health Committee Head Hosseinali Shahriari and Parliamentary Culture Committee Head Ahmad Mazani.

Their letter concludes with a verse from the Qur’an: “He who gives life to anyone has given life to all.”

Two Teachers Imprisoned at Evin Pen Statement of Support for Farhad Meysami

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Prisoners
Esmail Abdi, Farhad Meysami, Hunger Strike, hunger strike prisoner, letter from prison, letter of political prisoner, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi, prisoner hunger strike iran

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi and Esmail Abdi, two teachers imprisoned at Evin, have demanded in a letter to Judicial authorities that their ward mate Farhad Meysami–who is now in the 54th day of his hunger strike–be transferred to an outside treatment facility to avert an impending health crisis.

Meysami has dropped 30 pounds since he started starving himself on August 1st to protest both his detention and authorities’ refusal to appoint the lawyer of his choosing. In addition to his 18-year history of ulcerative colitis, Meysami experienced a steep drop in blood pressure on Saturday, September 8th, prompting the prison doctor to recommend more aggressive treatment. Notwithstanding the doctor’s orders, prison authorities refuse to clear his transfer to a different facility for treatment.

In a letter, Langroudi and Abdi, two imprisoned teachers held with Meysami in Ward 8 of Evin Prison, urge authorities to approve Meysami’s transfer to a medical treatment facility, to “prevent a possible calamity from occurring.”

The full text of their letter, translated into English by HRANA, is below:

“In the name of the God of wisdom and life,

Fifty days have passed since Dr. Farhad Meysami, civil activist and political prisoner, declared his hunger strike. His strike was a response to unjust legal proceedings, and authorities’ hindrance of his effective defense by refusing him the right to choose an attorney. He is now in a critically weakened condition. It is said that the doctors at Evin Prison insisted he be hospitalized, yet judicial authorities refuse to issue the order to have him transferred to a prison more materially equipped to treat him.

Because this civil activist suffers from ulcerative colitis and has lost 30 pounds over the course of his hunger strike, his blood pressure, pulse, and other vital signs have dipped into gravely abnormal ranges. As of last week he stopped accepting intravenous treatment, leaving us more concerned than ever that a calamitous outcome might be imminent.

We, the undersigned, thus put on guard the relevant judicial authorities, that they express their agreement to transfer Dr. Meysami to a proper hospital without delay, to prevent a possible calamity from occurring.

His ward-mates, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi and Esmail Abdi”

53 Days into Solidarity Hunger Strike, Ailing Civil Rights Activist Farhad Meysami Stands His Ground

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Freedom of Expression, Prisoners
Farhad Meysami, Hunger Strike, hunger strike prisoner, Reza Khandan

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- In protest of the imprisonment of his comrade Reza Khandan, civil Rights Activist Farhad Meysami has now been starving himself for 53 consecutive days.

In a visit to the Evin Prison clinic September 22nd, according to a close source, doctors noted Meysami’s 42-pound weight loss and steep drop in blood pressure and urged him to be admitted to the clinic. Meysami refused, persistent in his requests to be transferred to an outside hospital.

Shortly thereafter, prison authorities, including the prison director, came to visit Meysami, who reiterated to them the sole condition in which he will end his hunger strike: the dropping of all charges against Reza Khandan.

Farhad Meysami was arrested in his personal study on July 31st. He was originally charged with “gathering and collusion aimed at disrupting national security,”; “propaganda against the regime”; and “insulting hijab, a necessary and sacred element of Islam.”

On September 3rd, however, Branch 7 of the Evin prosecutor’s interrogation department claimed that charges have since changed, with the last one replaced with “spreading corruption and prostitution.”

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both asked for Meysami’s release.

Imprisoned Civil Rights Activist Farhad Meysami Reaches 50th day on Hunger Strike

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Freedom of Expression, Other, Prisoners
Farhad Meysami, hunger strike prisoner, iran human rights, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Political Prisoner, prisoner of conscience, Reza Khandan

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Farhad Meysami has not had a single meal, or any food at all, for 50 days and counting, as his health condition continues to deteriorate.

A civil rights activist imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison, Meysami announced his hunger strike August 1st, one day after his arrest by Iranian authorities, in protest of their refusal of the attorney of his choosing. Despite the decline of his health during the hunger strike, authorities have yet to send him to a hospital.

HRANA reported on Meysami’s weight loss and poor physical state on September 8th.

Mohammad Moghimi–lawyer of fellow Evin prisoner Reza Khandan, and incidentally, the attorney Meysami would have appointed if given the choice–said his client called him from Evin to report that Meysami’s strike had put him in mortal danger, and that he needed a transfer to the hospital right away.

Moghimi said that authorities’ denial of Meysami’s attorney of choice puts them in conflict with Iranian law. Once initial interrogations are over, each prisoner has a right to a lawyer of his or her choosing, according to Moghimi’s reading of Article 48 of Iranian penal code.

Meysami was arrested in his personal study on July 31st. He was originally charged with “gathering and collusion aimed at disrupting national security,”; “propaganda against the regime”; and “insulting hijab, a necessary and sacred element of Islam.”

On September 3rd, however, Branch 7 of the Evin prosecutor’s interrogation department claimed that charges have since changed, with the last one replaced with “spreading corruption and prostitution.”

Meysami, who suffers from ulcerative colitis, has said that during his hunger strike he will take only the medication that treats this condition, as he has taken for the past 18 years. Meysami has previously said that he would break his hunger strike only if his friend and fellow inmate Reza Khandan, who was arrested after Meysami’s hunger strike began, is released unconditionally.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both asked for Meysami’s release.