Rajai Shahr Political Prisoners Continue Hunger Strike

Persian2English – The Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners group reported on May 4th that political prisoners in Rajai Shar ‘Gohardasht’ prison have entered their fourth week of hunger strike. The prisoners have announced that their protest will continue [because of the] “systematic human rights violations committed by the [Iranian] government.”

The protesters have said that they want the UN Human Rights Council to intervene and visit the prisons in Iran.

In the second week of the hunger strike, Daneshjoo News reported that the Rajai Shahr political prisoners were protesting the Iranian regime’s authoritarian rule and the dire prison conditions. The prisoners also announced then that they plan to continue with their peaceful, “no to dictatorship” protest.

Two weeks ago, the hunger striking prisoners wrote an open letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. They called upon the UN Secretary General to send a Special Rapporteur to Iran to address prisoner conditions and to investigate the human rights violations.

An excerpt from the open letter written by Rajai Shahr hunger striking prisoners to the UN Secretary General:

“Following [our] hunger strike experience on April 10th, we, a number of political prisoners and civil and political activists, will fast for one day on April 17th. In the second week, we will fast for two days on April 24th and April 25th. In the third week, in honour of International Workers’ Day, Teachers’ Day, and World Press Freedom Day, we will fast for three days on May 1st, May 2nd, and May 3rd. We announce our solidarity with workers, teachers, and journalists and protest the oppression and the great pressures exerted on them.”

The political prisoners at Rajai Shahr prison, held under dire conditions and deprived of all telephone contact, also stated, “In the event that the current regime does not cease its authoritarian rule and continues to deny the implementation of the nation’s legal provisions based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this protest movement will resume in the form of an unlimited hunger strike on May 22nd and will continue until we have achieved our demands.”

Lead trade union activist Mansour Osanloo, member of the Iranian Teacher’s Association Rasoul Bedaghi, student activist Majid Tavakoli, journalist Isa Saharkhiz, and political activists Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, Keyvan Samimi, and Seyed Mehdi Mahmoudian are among the signatories of the letter to the UN Secretary General.
(English Translation of Daneshjoo News report by Banooye Sabz)

The hunger strikers initially launched their protest in solidarity with Fakhrolsadat Mohtashamipour, a member of the Iran Islamic Participation Front who was on hunger strike at that time before being transferred to a hospital a few days later.

List of political prisoners on hunger strike in Rajai Shahr prison:

1. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi
2. Mansour Osanloo (On May 6th news news was published that Mansour Osanloo was transferred to a hospital)
3. Isa Saharkhiz
4. Khaled Hardani
5. Seyed Mehdi Mahmoudian
6. Keyvan Samimi
7. Rasoul Bedaghi
8. Majid Tavakoli
9. Behrouz Javid Tehrani
10. Reza Sharifi Boukani
11. Hassan Taffah
12. Ali Ajami
13. Jafar Aghdami