Political prisoner Afshin Baymani has been denied medical treatment despite experiencing heart complications.
Vaziri, the Prosecutor’s special assistant for political prisoners’ affairs has refused to authorize his transfer to a hospital against doctors’ advice.
On Saturday, March 20, 2021, the political prisoner who is serving a life sentence in Raja’i Shahr Prison of Karaj, was transferred to the prison’s infirmary due to severe pain in the heart and hypotension.
Prison doctors recommended that he be transferred to Tehran Heart Center, where he underwent surgery. But by direct order of Amin Vaziri, he was prevented from being sent to the hospital. Prison doctors treated his serious condition only with sublingual tablets and took an ECG.
Afshin Baymani had previously been transferred to prison’s infirmary with severe heart pain on March 11, but Amin Vaziri refused to authorize him hospital transfer.
Mr. Baymani suffers from kidney stones and diabetes. He has also suffered from coronary heart disease since July 2017 due to years of being in poor prison conditions.
Afshin Bayemani was sentenced to life in prison in 2000 on the charge of “waging war on God” for cooperating with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The ruling was upheld at the time by the Appeals Court but was commuted to life in prison in 2006.
International and Iranian law require prison authorities to provide adequate medical care. Iran’s state prison organization regulations state that, if necessary, detainees must be transferred to a hospital outside the prison facility. The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners require authorities to transfer all those held needing specialist medical treatment to specialized institutions, including civilian hospitals.
However, Iranian authorities routinly exert pressure upon prisoners, especially prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, through denying them medical treatment.
Many prisoners have either become critically ill or suffer from longstanding and serious medical conditions that have been left untreated in Iran’s prisons.
In an episode that highlights Iranian authorities’ denial of crucial medical care to prisoners of conscience, prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi died on February 21, 2021, after untreated serious neurological issues.
