KARAJ, Iran, — The Committee for the Defence of Political Prisoners said that 59 political prisoners in Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison released a statement announcing that they have launched an infinite hunger strike since Tuesday 1st of March, AFN reported.
The hunger strike is to protest the suppression of the Iranian people’s righteous resistance and against the limitations imposed inside the prison.
According to The Student Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners (SCDPP), the message of the political prisoners was delivered to the organization with great difficulty.
In the message, the prisoners cited the following reasons for launching the indefinite hunger strike: the widespread crackdowns on political prisoners; the great limitations inside the prison; the severance of all contacts between prisoners and their families; the mistreatment, insults and disrespectful behaviour toward the prisoners; the brutal repression of the Iranian people’s resistance; and the arrest of the [opposition] political leaders.
Some of these restrictions on the prisoners include beatings and physical assault, limitations on in-person visits, complete severance of phone contacts, threats of secret executions, threats of transfer to solitary confinement, refusal to provide adequate and proper medical attention, and threats of rape.
According to the report, the prison officials, particularly Nabiollah Farajinejad, the deputy security head of the prison, are applying these restrictions in complete coordination with judicial and security officials.
Nabiollah Faraji is a former interrogator and torturer at Evin prison. He is supported by Ali Haj-Kazem, the director of Rajai Shahr prison, as well as judicial and security authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He is assigned the responsibility of putting pressure on political prisoners held in the special security section. Additionally, he has several unresolved case files in connection to the torture of prisoners.