Jailed activist refuses food to protest lack of medical care

Iranian political prisoner Saeed Razavi Faqih is refusing food and drink as of Saturday September 12 to protest the failure of prison authorities to provide him with adequate medical care for his heart and lung complications.

In a letter to the head of Rejai Shahr Prison, Razavi Faqih decries the inadequate treatment he has received from physicians and the “heavy financial burden of the prescribed drugs”.

Razavi Faqih was sentenced to one year in prison on security charges for giving a speech to a gathering in Hamadan in 2009 as an executive member of Tahkim Vahdat university alumni activists. He was outside the country when the sentence was issued.

Upon returning to Iran in 2012, he was taken to Rejaishahr prison to serve his sentence. Even though he has already served that one-year sentence, he is being held in prison pending another trial in connection with his speech in Hamadan.

Razavi Faqih has had open heart surgery, and the lack of adequate care has caused further complications for him in prison. He was transferred to hospital last week but was returned to jail before his treatments were completed.

zamaneh