ABC blog

Rasul Razavi and Morteza Moradpour, two Azeri political prisoners on hunger strike in Karaj Penitentiary, are in critical condition.

Oyan News reports the pair were transferred to special cells in the Karaj facility on November 6. Their families describe their states as “concerning.” Razavi and Moradpour have told family members that prison officials have denied them even salt and sugar, which are considered vital nutrients for those abstaining from food. Karaj Penitentiary’s superintendent judge has announced that the prisoners will remain in the facility’s special cells until the end of their hunger strike.

Statements made by Moradpour indicate that the two were slated to be transferred to Rejaishahr Prison but were taken to Karaj owing to an error in communication between prison officials. The warden of Tabriz Central Prison where the two were previously held had also informed the families that they’d been transferred to Rejaishahr.

The two took up their hunger strikes in protest of violations of their rights. Razavi has abstained from food since October 3 in defiance of “sentences handed down by the Revolutionary Court and pressure from security forces,” as well as their involvement in his legal proceedings. Moradpour began his hunger strike on October 25 in protest of “failures to follow Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code and impediments to his freedom.”

Razavi is serving a one-year sentence and Moradpour a sentence of three years. Both were tried and found guilty on subversion charges.

Read the Persian original at Oyan News: http://ow.ly/ofRr306bYYU