Imprisoned Activist Farhad Meysami “Kept Alive” With IV Drip
Farhad Meysami, an imprisoned civil rights activist, has lost “40 pounds” since beginning a wet hunger strike in Evin Prison on August 1, 2018, the day after he was arrested for peacefully advocating for women’s rights in Iran.
Meysami was 165 pounds (75 kilograms) two months ago before he was imprisoned and is now 125 pounds (57 kilograms), a source with detailed knowledge of the case told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). The source requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“When I went to meet Farhard Meysami in Evin Prison two weeks ago to get his signature to retain his case, he had lost a lot of weight and didn’t look good,” his attorney Mohammad Moghimi told CHRI on October 16, 2018.
“He told me that he had been violently taken against his will from Ward 4 to the clinic and forcefully hooked up to a serum [IV],” added Moghimi. “Farhad said he was being held in a room adjacent to the clinic and kept alive with serum injections and liquids.”
Meysami’s family has since been struggling to get more information about his condition.
A 48-year-old physician, Meysami has had limited access to his lawyer since being taken to Evin Prison and was only allowed to retain one more than a month after he was arrested. Previously, he was told that he would have to choose his lawyer from a list hand-picked by the head of Iran’s judiciary.
Meysami is demanding unrestricted access to his lawyer, a fair trial and the release of Khandan, who has been in detention since September 4, 2018, for publicly condemning the arrest of his wife, prominent human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been detained since June 2018.
Meysami was detained by agents of the Intelligence Ministry on July 31, 2018, for allegedly having badges in his home that said, “I am against compulsory hijab.”
He has been charged with “assembly and collusion against national security with the intention to incite women to appear in public with bare heads,” “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the hijab as an indispensable Islamic principle” and is awaiting trial.
*This article was corrected on October 24, 2018, to reflect that Meysami was receiving an IV drip, not serum injections.
