Grave Health Conditions Reported By Wife of Political Prisoner On Hunger Strike
Nazanin Davoodi, the wife of prisoner of conscience Arzhang Davoodi, spoke with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about the deteriorating health of her husband. “Last year, his phone calls were discontinued and he was not allowed to have contact with anyone. He complained about the unreasonable loss of phone privileges to the head of the prison in a letter dated 11 February 2010. But, instead of responding to his complaint, he was moved to solitary confinement, and subsequently went on hunger strike beginning on 14 July 2010. ”
Arzhang Davoodi was arrested on the street on 4 November 2003, and has since been in prison for the crimes of writing the ‘Secular Manifesto’, forming the Iranian Freedom Movement, blasphemy, and insulting the leader and government officials. Davoodi, a teacher, poet and writer is a prisoner after his arrest and exile to Bandar Abbas, where he was sentenced to prison.
“I am so worried about him that I hope this problem would be resolved within the next hour or two; meaning his health has deteriorated so much that I don’t want to say next day or two. With more than 60 days of hunger strike, his physical condition is very critical. So much so that when they called me from the prison to go visit him, his health was so bad that he was brought in on a wheelchair” she added.
The political prisoner’s visits with his family have been cut off and the mentioned meeting with his family was due to Arzhang Davoodi’s severe health situation. Mrs. Davoodi found out about her husband’s deteriorating health through family members of other prisoners, and she is extremely concerned about this situation.
“During the years he has been in prison, eventually a second case file was made against him. After three years in prison, a court was convened for him and his case was supposedly reviewed, but we were told that Tehran’s Branch 15 Court did not have jurisdiction to investigate and issue a ruling for this case, and that the case should be referred to the Bandar Abbas Courts,” she added.
