Amnesty International Reports Failing Health of Kurdish Hunger Strikers

TORONTO, Canada – Four Kurdish prisoners on hunger strike since November at Iran’s Qezel Hezar prison in Karaj are in critical condition, Amnesty International reports.

Jamshid Dehghani, his younger brother Jahangir Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee have been only drinking water since November 4. They have repeatedly lost consciousness since December 30, and have been given intravenous fluids at the prison clinic every time, only to refuse medical intervention after regaining consciousness.

The prisoners have been protesting against their death sentences and prison conditions.

Doctors report that a hunger striker who continues to drink water with no other nutritional intake will usually begin to feel seriously ill after around 40 days.

Loss of hearing, unsteadiness, deteriorating vision and nausea are among the symptoms. Depending on their physical constitution, hunger strikers reach the critical phase after between 55 and 75 days, at which point hunger strikes are generally fatal. Taking minerals, vitamins or calories, could delay the symptoms, but the risk of permanent damage is not reduced. However, none of the four Kurds is believed to be taking vitamins.

On November 14, 2010 the four were sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran. They are charged with “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “corruption on earth" (ifsad fil-arz) and were denied legal representation during their trials.

Another six men who were arrested with them -- Bahram Ahmadi, Asghar Rahimi, Behnam Rahimi, Mohammad Zaher Bahmani, Keyvan Zand Karimi and Hooshyar Mohammadi -- were all executed over a year ago, on December 27, 2012.

All four hunger strikers say they were arrested for peaceful religious activities, including Islamic classes for children and discussions at their local mosque.

They were accused in the September 2009 assassination of a senior Sunni cleric who was close to the authorities.  The men deny the charge, noting they were in custody when the murder happened.

Amnesty International reports that the prisoners “were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in pre-trial detention, that they were threatened with arrest of family members and that they were forced to sign papers without being allowed to read them.”

It called for public support to urge Iranian authorities not to execute the four Kurds on death row.