Iran Judiciary Threatens Narges Mohammadi After Her Hunger Strike Gets International Attention
A Judicial official has threatened Narges Mohammadi, a leading human rights defender who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for her peaceful activism, in an attempt to force her to end her hunger strike, an informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
“Narges Mohammadi’s physical condition has dangerously deteriorated and [in response] the judicial representative [stationed at Evin Prison] Mr. [Abbas] Hajiloo had a threatening conversation with her and told her she must stop the hunger strike because enemy media outlets are taking advantage of it,” said the source, adding: “The same official made it clear that if Ms. Mohammadi continues to press her demand she will not be allowed to talk to her children on the phone.”
Mohammadi has been on hunger strike since June 27, 2016 to protest the authorities’ refusal to allow her to have phone contact with her young son and daughter who live in Paris with their father, Taghi Rahmani.
On the thirteenth day of her hunger strike she was transferred from Evin Prison in handcuffs to the clinic of neurologist Dr. Ahmad Ali Noorbala Tafti for urgent treatment on July 9, 2016. “Ms. Mohammadi is suffering from heart palpitations and the hunger strike has caused a severe drop in her blood pressure,” said the source. “The doctors at Evin Prison’s clinic have explicitly stated that continuing the hunger strike is poison for her body.”
“The medications given to Narges Mohammadi by the prison clinic have interfered with those she has been taking [for issues with her nervous system] and as a result she has developed severe skin rashes,” the source told the Campaign. “She has vowed to never go to the prison clinic again.”
“The doctors said that the medications she has been taking, combined with the lack of physical activity and the hunger strike, have increased the risk of her developing blood clots,” added the source.
Political prisoners held in the Women’s Ward at Evin Prison are routinely denied proper medical care and hospitalization, face restricted or denied visitation rights even with their young children, are deprived of regular telephone contact with their families, and are not provided adequate nutrition, a recent report by Campaign has revealed.
Mohammadi, winner of the 2011 Per Anger Prize for her human rights activism, was sentenced in May 2016 during a closed-door trial to serve ten years of a 16-year prison term for “membership in the [now banned] Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty” organization, “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state.”
The Campaign has called on the Islamic Republic to immediately release Mohammadi.
