Prisoners End Hunger Strike — “We Insist On Our Demands”

Fifteen political prisoners have ended their 16-day hunger strike. They published a statement saying that they ended their hunger strike in response to messages from political and civil activists who expressed concern for their health.

In recent days, some families of prisoners told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that they had been threatened by security forces who contacted them, saying that they would be arrested if they talked to the media. During the hunger strike, a family member of a prisoner was briefly arrested.

Kaleme Website has published the letter, which according to the site, was written by prisoners on hunger strike and sent out from Evin Prison. “We continue to insist on our rightful demands which are the basic human rights of a prisoner. We promise we will continue our fight for the complete realization of the legal rights of all prisoners, which represent a part of our nation’s rights. We end our hunger strike now out of respect for the great supporter of the Green Movement, Mir Hossein Moussavi, and other prominent individuals…,” the letter states.

“We hope that the Tehran Prosecutor and other authorities deliver on their promises pertaining to our five demands. We take the release of Babak Bordbar as the Tehran Prosecutor’s commitment to helping realize our other legal and rightful demands. We hope that as representatives of the Prosecutor told us, the offending [prison] officers who insulted political prisoners are reprimanded, and that the rights reflected in the Prisons Organization’s Procedures are implemented as soon as possible,” the prisoners added.

The prisoners also thanked the people and media who supported them inside and outside the country and who made their “voices” heard in Iran and around the world.

The prisoners in solitary confinement who went on a two-week hunger strike were Ali Malihi, student activist and member of Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat; Bahman Ahmadi Amouie, journalist; Hossein Nouraninejad, journalist and member of the Participation Front Party; Abdollah Momeni, student activist and spokesman for Tahkim-e Vahdat Alumni Organization; Ali Parviz, student activist; Haid Reza Mohammadi, civil activist; Jafar Eghdami, civil activist; Zia Nabavi, dismissed student; Ebrahim (Nader) Babaee, civil activist and Iran-Iraq War veteran; Kouhyar Goudarzi, human rights activist and blogger; Majid Dorri, student activist; Majid Tavakkoli, student activist; Kayvan Samimi, journalist; Gholamhossein Arshi, Mohammad Hossein Sohrabi Rad, and Payman Karimi Azad, all three of whom were arrested during the Ashura Day protests (27 December 2009).

Kaleme Website wrote that Kayvan Samimi is yet to break his hunger strike, pending transfer of the 15 political prisoners from their solitary cells to the General Ward. “Kayvan Samimi has promised that as soon as prison authorities transfer the 15 prisoners to General Ward 350, he would break his hunger strike. Samimi has switched from a dry hunger strike to a wet hunger strike,” wrote Kaleme.