Iranian election detainees suffer severe ill health

Emadeddin Baghi

Reformist websites report that Iranian post-election detainees Emdeddin Baghi and Mehdi Mahmoodian are suffering form severe health complications in prison.

Emadeddin Baghi, journalist and human rights activist, was arrested last December following the Ashura Day protests and according to his wife, due to the “exacerbation of his respiratory disease,” he spent Iranian News Year's Eve in hospital.

She added that prison authorities are well aware of his medical history and ill health, but take no consideration of it.

She also maintained that interrogation branches of the Revolutionary Court have been transferred to Evin Prison which has made it “impossible” for the defense attorneys to access their clients’ files.

Mehdi Mahmoodian, another detained journalist who was arrested last August, is also said to be in dire health conditions. He has contracted lung infection in prison and lack of medical attention has made it impossible for him to recover from his ailment, he has reported in a phone conversation.

On a higher note, Maryam Zia, children’s rights activist was finally released last night from Evin Prison. She had gone on a hunger strike in protest to “illegality” of her arrest. Her release was finalized upon deterioration of her health due to the hunger strike, according to her family.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran had reported that the family had posted a thirty-thousand-dollar bail for her release but the officials had delayed her release by transferring her file to different branches of the Revolutionary Court.

Another human rights activist, Sama Bahmani, was sentenced to one year in prison by Mahabad Revolutionary Court.

For the charge of “membership in Human Rights Activists of Iran”, she was handed six months in prison and for “propaganda activities against the regime”, another six months. She was arrested in February by Mahabad Security Forces.