After Two Months Hunger Strike, Arzhang Davoudi’s Life at Risk
Published by Ali on July 23, 2019
After Two Months Hunger Strike, Arzhang Davoudi’s Life at Risk
Arzhang Davoudi, writer and civil activist, has been on a hunger strike since 21 May, 2019 in Zabol Prison, south-east province of Sistan and Baluchestan, demanding to be returned to the political prisoners ward.
In violation of Iran’s regulations on separation of prisoners, Arzhang Davoudi, 66, has been locked up held in a ward with inmates convicted of violent crimes.
It worth mentioning that, he also has been deprived visits and phone calls.
Davoudi is being held in a dark and dirty room in the prison’s quarantine ward.
According to the latest news Arzhang Davoudi is currently suffering from deteriorating physical conditions.
He has announced that he will continue his hunger strike until his demands are met.
According to the law, prisons are required to divide prisoners based on the nature of their convictions.
Article 69 of the prisons organization’s regulations states that: “All convicts, upon being admitted to walled prisons or rehabilitation centres, will be separated based on the type and duration of their sentence, prior record, character, morals and behaviour, in accordance with decisions made by the Prisoners Classification Council.”
But political prisoners continue to be transferred to and held in prisons and wards with inmates convicted of violent crimes or with substance abuse issues.
Arzhang Davoudi was arrested on the street on 4 November 2003, and has since been in prison for the crimes of writing the ‘Secular Manifesto’, forming the Iranian Freedom Movement, blasphemy, and insulting the leader and government officials.
He was transferred to Zabol prison in January 2016. Since then, prison authorities have kept him in the prison’s quarantine and kept him under constant, severe torture.
This is not the first time that Arzhang Davoudi goes on hunger strike to fight for his rights.
In a March 2018 letter titled “hunger strike for a bit of air and sunlight” he described the brutal conditions of his incarceration and had called on international human rights authorities to inspect Iran’s prisons.
“I am expecting Mr. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hossein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, to dispatch observers to inspect these medieval era prisons,” he wrote.
