Imprisoned Blogger’s Mother on Hunger Strike to Protest Prison Treatment

The mother of Hossein Ronaghi Maleki embarked on a hunger strike on Tuesday, August 20, to protest the situation of her son inside Evin Prison. “Hossein is not well in prison. He has been on hunger strike for 14 days. He has lost weight and has stomach and kidney bleeding. The Prosecutor said that he has agreed to [Hossein’s] medical furlough, but I don’t know why he can’t leave the prison. I had no other solution but to go on a hunger strike. What can I do? I thought maybe the officials would hear us this way,” Zoleikha Mousavi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Zoleikha Mousavi told the Campaign that she is on a wet hunger strike. “I just can’t bear for my son to suffer more damage anymore. If Hossein is to die, I prefer to die, too,” she told the Campaign.

Regarding her requests of the Iranian judicial authorities, she said, “My requests are the same as before. I want the Head of the Judiciary and the Tehran Prosecutor to either give my son medical furlough or to release him. I even ask [UN Special Rapporteur] Ahmed Shaheed and all human rights activists. Each time [Hossein] goes to the hospital and returns to prison, his health deteriorates again. My son is sick and a sick person cannot remain in prison.”

Mousavi added, “I told Hossein at my visit with him that if he continued his hunger strike like this, I would not be able to stand it anymore and I would go on hunger strike. I am a hardheaded mother, and I have done this in defense of my son before.”

Prisoner of conscience Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has been on hunger strike since August 9, in protest of the authorities’ lack of attention to his health conditions. Ronaghi’s kidneys were severely damaged during his interrogations and to date he has undergone several surgeries and emergency care. The prisoner’s mother previously told the Campaign that a prison authority had told her son, “Go on a hunger strike! What could happen? It will take a few days, and then you will die, and the whole thing will be over in a few days later.”

Following the 2009 presidential elections, Ronaghi was arrested on December 13, 2009, and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for “membership in the Iran Proxy Internet group,” “propagating against the regime,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “insulting the President.”