The hunger strike appeared to unite the opposition and give it a needed injection of activity after months with little action. The hunger strike began with 12 prisoners in Tehran’s Evin prison. They ended their strike Sunday. Another six in Karaj’s Rajai Shahr prison later joined. As of press deadline, there was no word on whether they were still striking.
Haleh Sahabi, on temporary release from prison to attend her father’s funeral, died in May when she clashed with security forces that had infiltrated the funeral procession. Upon learning of his colleague’s death, the imprisoned journalist and human rights activist Hoda Saber began a hunger strike June 2.
He died of a heart attack 10 days later, but Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), says Saber’s death was a result of prison officials’ six-hour delay in providing treatment.
Two weeks later, 64 of Saber’s fellow inmates released a statement saying he was beaten June 10, which likely led to his death two days later. Twelve Evin prison inmates commenced an “indefinite” hunger strike on June 18 to protest the Saber and Sahabi deaths, which they attributed to the authorities.
The statement, published by the opposition website Kaleme, included the signatures of Feizollah Arabsorkhi, Abdollah Momeni, Bahman Ahmadi Amooei, Emad Bahavar and Emadoddin Baghi.
A few days later, six political prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj began a hunger strike in solidarity with the 12 in Evin. Keyvan Samimi, Issa Saharkhiz, Masud Bastani, Ali Ajami, Jafar Eghdami and Heshmatollah Tabarzadi all vowed not to end their strike only when the 12 Evin prisoners did so.
In considering the circumstances around Hoda Saber’s death, several individuals and groups asked the prisoners to end their strike. Former President Mohammad Khatami wrote Feizollah Arabsorkhi, a member of the reformist Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, “For many days now, you and several other of our loved ones in prison have been on a hunger strike, and this has made everyone concerned about your health, and some reports strengthen our concerns.” Khatami urged that the strike be ended.
The Islamic Association of Iranian Physicians also said in a statement, “Your determination to go on hunger strike in protest is commendable, in view of what happened to your peer and martyred inmate, Hoda Saber; however, we cannot keep silent regarding the threat to your lives, and your families and the people are gravely concerned for your health.”
Instead of the hunger strike, the association urged the prisoners to eat Monday night and join a political fast on Tuesday, June 21. The prisoners continued their hunger strike, however, despite additional appeals from dissident Ayatollahs Bayat Zanjani and Ali Mohammad Dastgheib and multiple attorneys.
Others around the world have taken a different approach to showing their support for the strikers. Demonstrations and solidarity events were held this past weekend in about two dozen cities urging the United Nations to take action to remedy the plight of the hunger strikers and other Iranian prisoners.
More than a hundred gathered, for example, in Toronto’s Dundas Square protesting the “systematic violence against political prisoners.” At the end of the Toronto demonstration, International Center for Human Rights (ICHR) Director Hassan Zarezadeh-Ardeshir announced a solidarity hunger strike to continue until Canadian officials “support the 18 political prisoners on hunger strike in Iran before it is too late.”
Khatami urged Iranian officials to “hold talks with protestors at least once in order to resolve the problems.” The Kalame website cites staff at Evin prison reporting officials have threatened the strikers with longer sentences if they do not eat.
Barbara Lochbihler, chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iran, said, “I am deeply concerned by the situation of the prisoners of conscience,” adding their lives “are at severe risk.”
“I want to call once more on the government in Tehran to improve prison conditions, to stop any form of torture and ill-treatment, to refrain from any new imprisonment of political or human rights activists, and to immediately release all those human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience who are still imprisoned,” said Lochbihler.
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said the situation has highlighted the abuses going on in Iranian prisons, such as delaying medical attention for prisoners.
“There is a culture of rampant impunity for prisoner abuse in Iran that must end before more innocent lives are lost,” Ghaemi said.
Since 2004, at least 18 political prisoners have died while in custody, with seven of those deaths occurring after the 2009 election. The current hunger strike is now raising concerns that those numbers will quickly grow. On the fifth day, Abdollah Momeni, 65, and Abolfaz Ghadiani were sent to the infirmary because of concerns for their health. By June 25, five of the 12 strikers in Evin were in the prison’s clinic according to Kaleme. “The prisoners’ families do not trust this infirmary in view of Hoda Saber’s fate,” and are holding Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi responsible for their health, reported Kaleme.
Dolatabadi confirmed his office received the news regarding Saber’s failing condition late. “Hoda Saber says he is not feeling well on Friday and is taken to the infirmary, and later when his situation worsens, the head of the prison court transfers him to a hospital, but he suffers a heart attack there,” said Dolatabadi. “We said that the prisoner’s conditions should have been reported to us earlier, because in such situations the family of the prisoner is informed to see if they have a preference as to which medical facility he is transferred to. But it was too late to choose the hospital in this case.”
Emadeddin Baqi, one of the original 12 strikers, was released June 20 after serving two concurrent one-year sentences for “propaganda against the state.” His additional five-year prison sentence was overturned by an Appeals Court. Baqi was actually released from prison 19 days late, says Amnesty International, leading to speculation he was freed as a result of the hunger strike to get him out of the way.
“We are of course delighted that Emadeddin Baqi has been released, but he should never have been in prison in the first place as he was a prisoner of conscience, held solely for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association in his human rights work and journalism,” said Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director Malcolm Smart.
Baghi, founder of the Association to Defend Prisoner’s Rights and Iran’s main campaigner against the death penalty, was released on third day of the hunger strike. Inmate Mahdi Eghbal took his place among the strikers.
While attention has focused largely on the hunger strike, the regime has not slowed it crackdown on dissidents.
This month, bloggers Sakhi Riggi and Hossain Derakhshan, received stunningly long sentences of 19 1/2 to 20 years. Sports photojournalist Maryam Majd, 24, was arrested June 16, the day before she was to go to Germany to prepare for the women’s soccer World Cup.
Mashreq News website reported the number of national-religious activists leaving Iran on the rise. Active members Reza Alijan and Morteza Kazemiyan left illegally with their families earlier this month and have sought asylum in France.