Iranian political prisoner brutally tortured, denied medical treatment

Iranian political prisoner brutally tortured, denied medical treatment

Iranian political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz

Reporting by PMOI/MEK

Iran, September 17, 2019—According to reports from inside Iran, regime authorities severely tortured Iranian political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz in Karaj Central Prison. Prison guards transferred Farahi Shandiz to the prison’s medical center after he lost consciousness under torture.

The Iranian regime’s repressive forces tortured Mehdi Farahi Shandiz while he was on hunger strike.

After transferring the political prisoner to the medical center, the prison guards did not allow him to receive full treatment and immediately returned him to solitary confinement after he received minimum care.

Farahi Shandiz suffered from a heart attack in July and was transferred to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with diabetes and heart failure.

It is worth reminding that earlier this month, Iranian political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz had staged a protest and chanted slogans after prison authorities ignored the demands of prisoners. During the event, prison authorities attacked him and forced him into solitary confinement.

On September 7, Iranian political prisoners in Karaj Central Prison protested to the poor living conditions inside the facility. Many of the political prisoners in the facility are kept in harsh conditions. In one of the prison’s halls, more than 200 prisoners don’t even have beds or a cell. They’re forced to stay in the open, under the sun and rain, and they sleep in hallways.

In this regard, the political prisoners of Karaj Central Prison wrote a letter to prison authorities on September 7. But the authorities refused to pay attention to the protests and warnings of the prisoners. The continued silence and inaction of prison authorities spurred Farahi Shandiz to be more vocal in his protests to the harsh and inhuman conditions of the prison.

Iranian political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz is an electrical engineering graduate and a high school math and physics teacher from Tehran. In 2011, Iranian security forces arrested Farahi Shandiz on charges of acting against national security and insulting Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the regime. The Iranian regime usually uses vague national security allegations to impose heavy sentences on political prisoners.

The regime’s judiciary sentenced Farahi Shandiz to three years in prison, but extended his sentence to 12 years after accusing him of other vague charges. In the past eight years, Farahi Shandiz has suffered from impairment to his sight and hearing and fractured ribs under torture.

In 2013, Farahi Shandiz suffered from dark spots in his eyesight after being severely tortured in Evin prison. In 2017, the head of the Karaj Penitentiary severely beat Farahi Shandiz, fracturing his ribs and causing severe damage to his hearing.

Before transferring him to solitary confinement, Karaj Penitentiary’s authorities kept Farahi Shandiz in the ward of dangerous prisoners in breach of the principle of separation of crimes.