Imprisoned Iranian rights activist Arsham Rezaei, has been on a hunger strike and refused to take medication since February 7, to protest being deprived of access to medical care and sick leave.
In a recent audio message released from prison, Mr. Rezaei announced that in Iranian prisons, “pain is diagnosed and relieved with expired drugs.”
He said in the audio file that he was taken to Rajai Hospital in Karaj on February 2, and after endoscopy, he was diagnosed with hiatal hernia, stomach infection and duodenal ulcer.
Iranian rights activist Arsham Rezaei has been deprived of adequate medical care so far, despite his digestive problems. The political prisoner also suffered from a left knee injury due to being beaten with a taser during his arrest.
Rezaei, a 28-year-old construction worker, was initially sentenced to an eight-and-a-half-year prison term on February 27, 2019, on charges of spreading propaganda against the Iranian regime, conspiracy to act against national security, insulting the nation’s leadership and alcohol possession.
The Revolutionary Court judge who issued the verdict was Mohammad Moghisseh, whom the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in December for overseeing what it said was “countless unfair trials, during which charges went unsubstantiated and evidence was disregarded.”
The activist’s mother, Keshvar Rezaei, has said that her son, was arrested for participating in peaceful anti-regime protests, informing the Iranian public about the living conditions of political prisoners and meeting with their families.
Arsham Rezaei has said that the charge of spreading propaganda against the state related to a picture in which he is seen holding up a sign saying “No to Execution” during a 2018 protest against a death sentence handed to Iranian Kurdish activist Ramin Hossein Panahi.
Security forces found the picture in his mobile phone, which they had confiscated during his arrest.
