Iranian political prisoners launch hunger strike after assault
Political prisoners at Iran's Ghezel Hesar prison have launched a hunger strike in response to a violent raid by guards and their transfer to solitary confinement, a source told Iran International on Wednesday.
On July 26, security forces raided Unit 4 of Ghezel Hesar prison in the town of Karaj, which houses political prisoners, to suppress detainees involved in a campaign against the death penalty.
Since the raid, families of about 20 prisoners have raised concerns about their whereabouts and filed petitions and requests for information.
A source familiar with the situation who declined to be named for security reasons told Iran International that the prisoners were beaten before being placed in solitary confinement. In protest, they launched a collective hunger strike.
The raid targeted approximately 25 prisoners who had participated in a campaign known as “No to Execution Tuesdays.”
The campaign began on January last year, when political prisoners in the women’s ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison started holding weekly hunger strikes every Tuesday to protest the rising number of executions.
Two men accused of belonging to the outlawed Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition group were executed on July 26.
The executions of Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamlou and Mehdi Hassani were carried out in Evin Prison, where they had been held since their arrest. Both were convicted in September 2024 by a Tehran revolutionary court on a range of national security charges.
