Prisoner of conscience Yousef Mehrad began a hunger strike on Thursday, February 10.
Mr. Mehrad is a prisoner confined in Arak Prison. His hunger strike is in protest over prison officials’ failure to let him exercise his right to make or receive phone calls while in prison.
Previously, Mr. Mehrad’s defense attorney, Mohammad Arman, announced that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence for this prisoner. Moreover, the Revolutionary Court of Arak handed down an 8-year prison sentence for a different part of Yousef Mehrad’s case.
Yousef Mehrad’s public defender, noting that his client should be acquitted, described the ruling and its confirmation by the Supreme Court as “unjust.” Yousef Mehrad is in prison on the charge of “blasphemy.”
Another defendant in this case, Seyed Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, was sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Markazi Province Criminal Court on charges of ” blasphemy.”
The sentences for these prisoners were announced on April 22, 2021, at Arak Prison. Moreover, Mr. Mehrad’s attorney reported the outcome of a trial regarding a different part of Yousef Mehrad’s case. Mr. Mehrad is charged with propaganda against the regime, forming a group, and insulting Khomeini and Khamenei. On May 24, 2021, the attorney announced that Mr. Mehrad had been sentenced by Branch 1 of the General and Revolutionary Court of Arak to 8 years in prison.
Yousef Mehrad was arrested by security forces at his home in Ardebil on May 24, 2020, and eventually transferred to Arak Prison. He is the father of three young children.
Two other citizens were arrested and held in solitary confinement for 2 months. They were also denied the right to visits with and phone calls to their families for 8 months.
According to Iran’s Islamic penal code, blasphemy means insulting the sanctity of Islam and is punishable by death.
