September 01, 2017
Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi has described hunger strikes undertaken by prisoners as “threats” that the judicial system will not “surrender to.”Dolatabadi made the comments as more than a dozen political prisoners entered the third week of a mass hunger strike at Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj.
“To those prisoners who resort to hunger strikes and other actions, we say these methods have been defeated,” Dolatabadi told a conference on reducing Iran’s prison population last Wednesday. “The judicial system will not surrender to their threats.”
“Prisoners must endure their punishment to the fullest,” he said. “We will not be influenced by the prisoners’ actions, such as hunger strikes.”
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said it has learned from interviews with relatives of Rajai Shahr hunger strikers that their number has grown to at least 18 since the protest began July 30. That day more than 50 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience were suddenly transferred from Ward 12 to Ward 10.
CHRI said Ward 10 has been equipped with enhanced security gear such as closed-circuit cameras, microphones and jamming devices to block smuggled mobile phones.
Amnesty International said the windows of the new ward are covered with sheet metal.
The hunger strikers have been demanding the return of personal effects, including clothes, medications and electronic equipment that they weren’t allowed to take with them when they were transferred. They are also protesting the ward’s poor ventilation and enhanced security.
Many have been on what is called a wet hunger strike, ingesting only salt water and other liquids such as milk, CHRI was told.
“During family visitation at the prison today [August 23], we found out that other than returning only some of the prisoners’ medications, nothing much has been done,” one source told CHRI. “The authorities say they will only return things like television sets, refrigerators, kitchen equipment and rugs to the prisoners’ families, but it seems like there’s a general looting going on.”
“There’s still the problem of ventilation, made worse under the summer heat and the existence of all the closed-circuit cameras and listening devices,” the source said.
The source also told CHRI that some of the prisoners’ relatives attempted to deliver a letter to the authorities at Rajai Shahr Prison, but were turned away: “We tried to deliver a letter but the head of security insulted us and pushed one of the mothers down the stairs.”