Three Kurdish Political Prisoners Still on Hunger Strike: Day 24

HRANA News Agency – On Sunday, June 26, 2011, three Kurdish political prisoners entered their 24th day of hunger strike in Rajai-Shahr Prison.However, prison officials refuse to pay any attention to these prisoners’ demands and have failed to take the necessary steps to meet their needs to end this hunger strike.

According to a report by Kaleme News, three Kurdish political prisoner, Anvar Khezri, Kamran Shakhi and Seyed Ebrahim Seyedi, in protest to being locked up amongst ordinary criminals such as rapists, murderers and drug traffickers have been on hunger strike for 24 days.Meanwhile, prison officials remain indifferent towards these Kurdish activists and refuse to transfer them to the political prisoners’ cell block.
Anvar Khezri, Kamran Shakhi and Seyed Ebrahim Seyedi have been illegally transferred from Ward 350 of Evin Prison to Rajai-Shahr Prison in violation of their basic rights.While ordinary prisoners only spend one day in the quarantine ward of Rajai-Shahr Prison in order to determine whether they are addicted to narcotics or not, these three political prisoners spent 50 days in the same ward which lacks basic health and sanitary conditions.After this time, they were transferred to Ward 6 of Rajai-Shahr Prison instead of the political prisoners’ cell block.
Ramzan Ahmadkamal, Davood Abdullahi and Ramzan Saeedi are three other Kurdish political prisoners that are currently locked up amongst inmates convicted of violent crimes and also prisoners with dangerous communicable diseases.According to the principles governing the separation of prisoners based on their crimes, these three individuals must also be kept in the cell block allocated to inmates arrested for political reasons.
Anvar Khezri, Kamran Shakhi and Seyed Ebrahim Seyedi have demanded to be transferred to the political prisoners’ ward in Rajai-Shahr Prison.Otherwise, they will continue their hunger strike indefinitely.