Civil activist Soheil Arabi has been taken to the dispensary of Fashafouyeh Prison (a.k.a the Greater Tehran’s Penitentiary) after his health critically deteriorated since Saturday, June 15, 2019, when he went on hunger strike.
This is the third time Soheil Arabi is going on hunger strike, this time to protest poor prison conditions, violent mistreatment of prisoners by prison guards and officials, and various deprivations in prison.
Soheil Arabi went on hunger strike on Saturday, June 15, 2019, because his repeated requests to provide for his needs have gone unheeded by prison authorities. He was transferred to the dispensary on Thursday, June 20, 2019.
Last April, Soheil Arabi was seriously hurt when he defended a few ordinary prisoners against mistreatment and beating by guards. He urgently needs to have a surgery.
In October 2018, Soheil Arabi was beaten by other inmates incited by prison authorities. He suffered a series of injuries, including a broken nose. The political prisoner is being kept in a ward with non-political prisoners, including potentially violent offenders, in violation of Article 69 of Iran’s State Prisons Organization’s regulations.
Soheil Arabi, photographer, blogger and civil activist, was arrested in December 2013 by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet and other sanctities.
Soheil Arabi was kept two months isolated in solitary confinement and subjected to relentless interrogations in Ward 2A, where is under the control of the IRGC.
In July 2015, his death sentence was commuted to 7.5 years in prison. But then again, in October 2018, he was sentenced to another 3 years in prison and exile to Borazjan, in southern Iran.
Soheil Arabi’s wife was forced to divorce him. He has a young daughter.
