No information is available on the health conditions of Arzhang Davoudi, 68, who has been detained in the high security ward of Rajaishahr Prison (Gohardasht) in Karaj, isolated from other inmates since May 27, 2021.
Political prisoner Arzhang Davoudi was transferred to Rajaishahr Prison after long years of exile in remote prisons in Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas, and Zabol. Prisons authorities and Intelligence Ministry agents held him incommunicado and subjected him to torture and harassment in a bid to break him.
The Greater Tehran Penitentiary did not accept Mr. Davoudi, fearing that his contact with young prisoners arrested and detained during the November 2019 protests would boost their morale and resistance in prison.
The authorities of Rajaishahr Prison have also refrained from admitting him to the ward of political prisoners. They have held him in solitary confinement in the high security ward.
Arzhang Davoudi is a graduate of mechanical engineering and industrial management from the University of Texas. He was arrested in 2003 for “insulting Khamenei.”
He was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison and a five-year denial of rights and deportation to prisons in southern Iran. He was later sentenced to an additional five years in prison on charges of supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
The Iranian regime wants to torture this resistant prisoner to death. For the past 18 years, they have detained him in the most appalling conditions without a single day of prison leave. He has been on hunger strike many times.
In 2018, the deputy warden of Zahedan Prison in Zabol pushed Mr. Davoudi down the stairs from the second floor while he was handcuffed. As a result of this atrocious treatment, Mr. Davoudi suffered a dislocated shoulder. Both his legs were broken and his lumbar vertebrae were severely hurt. He can no longer walk and has to use a walker for the rest of his life.
Iran HRM urges the UN Special Rapporteur to take urgent action to find information on the health conditions of Arzhang Davoudi, and save his life after 18 years of cruel and inhuman treatment in the Iranian regime’s jails.
