Detained Iranian reformist in grave health condition

Davoud Soleymani

Iranian political prisoner Davoud Soleymani was reportedly transferred to the hospital for heart complications but immediately returned to prison against hospital recommendations.

The opposition website Jaras reports Soleymani, a former Member of Parliament, is in dire health condition and his family is seriously concerned for his well-being in prison.

Jaras adds that despite the advice of the physicians and hospital staff to allow Davoudi to remain under medical supervision at the hospital, prison officials returned him to Rejai Shahr Prison in Karaj.

Davoud Soleymani, an executive member of the reformist party, Islamic Iran Participation Front, served as deputy campaign manager for MirHosein Mousavi in Tehran the 2009 presidential elections.

He was arrested four days after the controversial re-election of Mahmoud AHamdienjad which was widely challenged for vote fraud. Soleymani was charged with “publishing falsehoods and disturbing public minds, collusion and assembly and propaganda against the regime.”

He was sentenced to six years in prison last March and banned from political and journalistic activities for ten years. In an appellate court in July, his six-year sentence was reduced to three years.

It is said that in addition to his heart condition, he is also suffering from brain complications as a result of the beatings he has taken to his head during interrogations.

Soleymani wrote a letter addressed to Ayatollah Khamenei in June condemning the interrogation procedures in prisons and urging the leader to take action against it.

He wrote: “Prior to my arrest and imprisonment, I had heard certain information about the things going on in the prisons but did not believe it. Unfortunately, my experience in prison has led me to experience these things first hand.”

He writes that “the constitution and citizen rights” are all violated in Iranian prisons and states that during interrogations he has been subjected to “severe physical and mental pressure including beatings and insults.”

Davoud Soleymani’s daughter reports that his father is suffering from brain complications caused by beatings he had taken to the head during his interrogation at Evin Prison.

However, Iranian judiciary has refused to grant Soleymani leave in order to receive proper medical treatment.