Khashayar Sefidi, a political prisoner and incarcerated student, has gone on a hunger strike to protest the transfer of two political prisoners sentenced to death, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, to Qezel-Hesar Prison. This hunger strike began on Sunday, January 26, 2025, as a response to the inhumane conditions and the sudden transfer of these two prisoners to the secure ward of Qezel-Hesar Prison, designated for inmates awaiting imminent execution.
Simultaneously, political prisoners in Ward 4 of Evin Prison have protested by chanting anti-government slogans and staging a sit-in outside the ward’s guard station. These prisoners have demanded the return of Behrouz Ehsani to their ward.
Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, both sentenced to death, were convicted in late September 2024 by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari. Their death sentences were confirmed in January 2025 by the Supreme Court without undergoing an appeals process, and their cases were forwarded for execution. On the morning of January 26, the two prisoners were suddenly transferred from Evin Prison to Qezel-Hesar Prison and are currently being held in the secure ward of that facility.
Khashayar Sefidi, an expelled student from Tehran University of Art, had previously faced legal action for his activism. In November 2024, he was sent to Evin Prison to serve a one-year sentence. His conviction stemmed from a sit-in and hunger strike at the Iranian House of Music, protesting the issuance of a death sentence for another political prisoner, Toomaj Salehi.
The actions of Khashayar Sefidi and the political prisoners of Ward 4 in Evin Prison have once again brought attention to the dire situation of political prisoners and death row inmates in Iran. These protests highlight the inhumane pressures faced by political detainees and demand the immediate halt of executions and fair judicial reviews of their cases.
