#Ahwazna – Turkish Activist From South Azerbaijan Faints During Iran Prison Hunger Strike

Ahwazna

On July 31st, imprisoned Turkish South Azerbaijan activist Habib Sasanian was transferred to a hospital and subjected to intravenous forced feeding after his condition deteriorated due to a 50 days hunger strike.

Suffering from high blood pressure and eye pain, Sasanian passed out several times in prison, but was rescued by his cellmates each time. Sasanian’s wife last saw him on July 17th and said she could barely recognize him due to severe weight loss.

It should be noted that after more than year imprisoned, Sasanian has yet to be arraigned in court.

Activist Habib Sasanian was arrested along with Mehdi Javadzadeh, Hamid Saghafi, Babak Avand, Esmaeil Afkhami and Younes Rahimi. The head of the judiciary of East Azerbaijan province accused them all of belonging to the espionage group of "GAMO". After being detained for more than one year on these unsubstantiated charges, Habib Sasanian began a hunger strike on June 13, 2017, according to his wife.

“Once they tried to hold a trial suddenly without notice, but Habib refused. Another time he didn’t appear in court because he wanted to protest the disappearance of some of his case documents. They then demanded a billion tomans ($308,000 USD) to bail him out, which, obviously, our family can’t afford,” Sasanian’s wife stated.

She added that “judicial and intelligence officials are refusing to answer any questions about the case and had warned her not to speak to the press. “The Tabriz Prison officials and Intelligence Ministry agents have been completely unhelpful,” she said. “They threatened to put his case on hold until he ends his hunger strike.”

The South Azarbaijan national resistance organization calls on the human rights organizations to urge the Iranian oppressive regime to abide and adhere to the local laws and the international conventions in regard to the basic rights of prisoners including the rights of prisoners in receiving medical care.

Contributed by Babek Chalabiyanli