Jailed human rights activist Behnam Behnam Musivand has been on hunger strike since April 19.
He is protesting beatings by officials after he refused shackles as a condition for receiving needed medical care outside prison.
He was transferred from the quarantine ward of Evin Prison to a hospital on the eighth day of his hunger strike due to poor physical condition.
He was taken from Raja’i Shahr Prison to Evin Prison on Monday.
An informed source said: “On the sixth day of his hunger strike, his blood sugar was 50, his heart rate was 85, and his blood pressure was 9. Behnam Musivand does not take sugar and salt during his hunger strike, he only drinks water. He will continue his hunger strike until his rights are met.”
Human rights defender Behnam Musivand was arrested in February 2018 and taken to ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison controlled by the Intelligence Ministry. He was later released on bail.
Musivand was sentenced to five years in prison in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in September 2019 on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and to one year in prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the state.”
Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.
He is currently serving a five-year sentence in Raja’i Shahr Prison.
Under article 134 of Iran’s penal code, which went into force in 2014, each defendant will only serve the harshest sentence among all, but the sentencing pattern suggests a significant increase in the criminalization of free speech and peaceful assembly.
Behnam Musivand suffers from prostate problems which have also affected his kidneys. He was banned from receiving medical treatment and was sent to the hospital in January 2021 for refusing to wear a handcuff.
In an audio file released from prison on April 20, Behnam Musivand said: “This strike is not to demand release or leave, or the right to medical treatment, or anything like that, but to adhere to what we have said so far, to show in practice that resistance is life, to revolt against the conditions in which there is no justice for us … In this way, I have no means of resistance except with my body, like my brothers and sisters who rose up in November 2019, the ones who bravely rebelled without expecting any support and did not tolerate silence and despair, the ones who are still not safe…”
