Kurdish political prisoner Alireza Rasouli held in Mehabad prison has gone on hunger strike since 30 May and refused both water and food since June 11 in his solitary confinement cell, where his worrisome health could get even worse given that the authorities keep ignoring his demands.
His family members had delivered a blanket and few other items for Alireza in the prison on 9 June, a source said, adding that the prison warden officers had told his family members that as long as he is on hunger strike he would be deprived of all the rights a “normal prisoner” usually has inside the prison.
On the same day Alireza was summoned to the warden office and threatened for almost two hours by a group of Etelaat intelligence interrogators, the source said.
He had been transferred to solitary confinement by the direct order of Etelaat officers and they suspended his rights to see or contact his family members and relatives.
“His health condition is really critical as a result of previous health issues such as infection in lungs and tumour in heap. His condition is just getting worse on a daily basis because he is on a hunger strike,” the source said, adding that “his blood pressure fell to 8 and he suffers from severe headache.”
Doctors at the prison clinic earlier reported that Alireza was “unable to serve his sentences while in a such a health condition and he must be immediately transferred to hospital.”
However, prison officers had refused to issue him a medical leave and claimed that he would not be transferred to any hospital as long he is on hunger strike.
Rasouli and a group of Kurdish activists were arrested in February 2013 in the city of Mehabad.
He was arrested for accusations of distributing assertions on the international mother language day and attending protests in support of Şînawê (Shinabad) children.
Rasouli was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison by Mehabad’s Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of “acting against national security.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Court of the town of Serdeşt also sentenced him to 91 days of suspended imprisonment for a separate case that found him guilty of “illegal border crossing.”
His first went on hunger strike while held in Ûrmiye central prison in the beginning of this year.
He ended his first hunger strike after 49 days after prison officials promised to issue him with a medical leave, which they never did.
He and Khezer Rasoul were both transferred from Ûrmiye to Mehabad prison in March 2015.
Kurdistan Human Rights Network