More Prisoners in Iran Join Hunger Strike

Political prisoners on Ward 8 at Evin Prison entered a seventh day of hunger strike on August 17, calling for authorities to release all political prisoners, and drawing attention to the very poor conditions in which they are being held. 

Among those protesting are prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Behnam Mahjoubi and Atbin Jafarian. 

On the same day, prison authorities imposed further restrictions on political prisoners and prisoners of conscience on the ward in order to isolate them and stop them from communicating with one another and taking collective action.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) website reported that prisoners held at Greater Tehran Prison, also known as Fashafuyeh, had issued a public letter stating they had gone on strike too. The prisoners were all serving time for taking part in protests in November 2019. Later that same day, HRANA reported that the prisoners were forced to abandon their hunger strike after extreme pressure from prison guards. 

Soheila Hijab, a political prisoner in Gharchak Prison, is also marking a second day on hunger strike. 

Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan met with her lawyer on August 16. He spoke to IranWire about conditions in the prison and guards’ increased pressure on political prisoners. 

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News of increased pressure surfaced on the morning of August 16, 2020, six days after five political prisoners began their hunger strike in support of Nasrin Sotoudeh and demanded the release of prisoners jailed for political activism or alleged crimes against national security. The health of three of the prisoners deteriorated and they ended their strike after pleas from fellow inmates. Behnam Mahjoubi, Atbin Jafarian and Sotoudeh remain on hunger strike. Mahjoubi suffers from neurological disease and requires medication, which he has been illegally denied.

Another inmate on Ward 8 who has been put in charge of liaising between ward authorities and the prisoners, and who is thought to be an individual jailed for financial crimes, collaborated with prison guards and threatened the prisoners. At the same time, the inmate, a man known only as Mr Bagheri, agreed to further restrictions being imposed on prisoners, including reducing the amount of time they were allowed out of their cells and were able to communicate with fellow inmates. Prior to that, the corridor between the halls was open and inmates were able to move freely. Families of the prisoners told IranWire they were worried their rights to make telephone calls might be withdrawn too.

Bagheri also told the prisoners on hunger strike that they would not be granted temporary leave they were entitled to if they did not end their strike.

Some of the prisoners have been transferred to the medical clinic in recent days, and there has been no news of their condition. 

Speaking to her husband on the phone on Saturday, August 15, Nasrin Sotoudeh said if prison guards followed through on threats to move prisoners to separate them from fellow inmates she would start a dry hunger strike — in other words, refuse to drink any water or liquids. 

The couple met on August 16, but were forced to speak to one another through glass panels using prison telephones. They have been denied face-to-face meetings for six months. Reza Khandan told IranWire that he didn’t expect such a meeting for the next year. Sotoudeh has also not been able to be in the same room as her children.

In his interview with IranWire, Reza Khandan said that the situation for his wife and other political prisoners was not an isolated event, and that the entire country was being shaken up by the economic and political crisis, and that the government, led by the judiciary, was responding to the situation by cracking down on society as a whole.  

Nasrin Sotoudeh, 57, has gone on hunger strike several times during her years of imprisonment. Her husband says her health has fluctuated, but on August 13, two days after going on her most recent strike, it deteriorated. She began having seizures, but she did not go to the hospital because of the spread of coronavirus. At the moment, prisoners on her ward are allowed to speak on the telephone three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, so her family is able to get an update on those days. 

However, the prisoners are only allowed to speak on the phone for just under two minutes, and the calls are regularly interrupted by a recorded voice reminding the callers they are on a prison line. So frequent are the interruptions that it is often difficult for families to get a full sense of how their loved one is. Many have described how the voice rings in their ears long after the conversation is over. 

Granting One Person Rights Means Another Prisoner is More Harshly Treated

Although Reza Khandan has expressed his concern about his wife, he admits that she is better off than some prisoners. "Currently, one of the methods of psychological pressure on prisoners is repeated summonses, and suggestions that if they cooperate, spy, confess, or sign a letter of remorse they might be freed, either temporarily or for good,” he said. If a prisoner complies, he said, often authorities appear to “forget” their promises. 

For example, Khandan spoke of a prisoner named Rezvaneh Khanbeigi, a civil society activist who has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges of "conspiracy to commit a crime against national security" and "propaganda against the regime.” Khanbeigi suffers from epilepsy and her husband brings her medication to the prison. A month ago, Khanbeigi, the situation for her was so bad her fellow inmates feared for her life. Bail had been arranged for her in June, and the Revolutionary Guards had approved it. But then Amin Vaziri, the prosecutor's representative and assistant prosecutor in charge of political prisoners in Evin, blocked her release.

According to Khandan, as soon as Nasrin Sotoudeh went on a hunger strike, Rezvaneh Khanebeigi's husband was informed to apply for her bail. "The same thing happened before. A woman named Behshid, one of Mr. Taheri's pupils, was in prison with them and they planned a hunger strike with Nasrin on New Year's Eve. Two hours after the start of the hunger strike, she was granted leave. Someone must be on the brink of death or be killed so that another prisoner can enjoy his or her rights."

In interviews with IranWire, lawyers and jurists both inside and outside Iran have stated with the 2019 appointment of Ebrahim Raeesi as the head of the judiciary, violations of the rights of both lawyers dealing with national security or political prisoners’ cases and their clients have been on the rise. At the same time, they say, even if Raeesi wasn’t in charge, the situation would likely be the same since it is the Supreme Leader who really controls what happens to these prisoners.

People Choose to be Violent

Fear is driving the situation, Khandan says. "The general mood of the government and its precarious situation has led these authorities to be fearful so they turn that fear on the people,” Khandan told IranWire. “If the government was calm, and if Iran was not experiencing such serious economic problems, there would be less potential for unrest.”

“Every single element of this system, from the doorman to judicial officials, the prison organization and ordinary prison staff, go hand in hand and serve the tyranny in exchange for just a few crumbs. Whether it’s a king, leader, or dictator, he can’t do it on his own. He needs individuals at all levels to be involved. However, when they are questioned, they say, ‘We didn’t do this. We were following orders.’ But this is not true. They have a choice.”  

He points to the lawyer for the prison ward, or the head of a detention center and their attitudes toward prisoners on hunger strikes. "The head of the ward is an employee of the head of the prisons. He is not important. He may have two or three subordinates. Even the guards are not under his supervision. This person, Bagheri, makes a decision to threaten the inmates. Later, in another situation and after a period of time, when he is challenged by a journalist or even tried, he will say that he was an agent of the system and so can be excused. But I do not accept this. Everyone makes a choice where they stand. A person hired by the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence unit cannot be indifferent to his decision, choice, and individual responsibility."

Reza Khandan also pointed to the attitude of prison employees. "A prison staff member may be asked a question to which he does not know the answer. When he doubts the answer, he does not decide in favor of the accused, but chooses an answer so he will not be questioned from authorities above. Some of them are enthusiastic about being harsh, but others have good human nature and take strict measures only to avoid being held accountable. Why else do they sit and watch someone confessing in front of a camera? Why does an agent film mourners at a memorial service as they did with the service for the Forouhars [a famous couple killed during the 1980s Chain Murders], which Nasrin attended? When I protested to the man who did it, he said, ‘I have to!’” People, he said, had a choice of what they did for a living. They didn’t have to work for security agencies and take part in crackdowns against the people.  

"What crime justifies these large lists of charges and convictions? Is prison such a joke that they can hand down sentences such as five, six, or fifteen years in prison? It is as if these numbers do not mean anything. In Europe, what is the longest time you can serve for even the most serious of these crimes? Those prisons also meet international humanitarian standards in terms of conditions."

On August 17, dozens of protesters held in Fashafuyeh prison for taking part in November 2019 protests have also went on hunger strike, which they announced in a public letter.  "The strike is in protest of the violation of the rights of political prisoners and the insistence on locking up justice-seeking people in these deplorable health conditions and in this remote prison, which lacks the necessary standards for human detention. None of us are guilty and we have the right to protest.”

"By striking, we prefer to die rather than being infected by a virus that resembles an oppressive and corrupt system," their letter concluded.