Human rights activist dies in prison following hunger strike

Iran Press News: According to news from the student committee of human rights reporters, Sheerkou Jahani, Kurdish human rights activist who had been arrested a while back by intelligence agents and imprisoned, may have died on Monday, December 11th, in detention, following his hunger strike.

Sheerkou Jahani who was a career journalist and a member of Kurdistan’s organization for the defense of human rights was arrested on November 27th after speaking out about the case of the young Kurdish activist, Shuana Ghadri who was viciously murdered by the regime’s agents in July of 2005. Following Ghadri’s murder there were major riots and demonstrations all across Iranian Kurdistan.

On November 30th, in protest to his illegal detention Jahani went on hunger and silence strike. On December 6th however Jahani was taken from the prison where he was originally kept and was transferred to an unknown location. Despite continued efforts by the Jahani family and members of the Kurdistan organization for the defense of human rights, no information about Jahani’s location was given to them; various news reports indicated that he was being detained by agents of the ministry of intelligence and security.

Two weeks ago the Kurdistan’s organization for the defense of human rights released a statement regarding the acute physical condition of Sheerkou Jahani.

Other news sources have said, that due to acute physical conditions Jahani was transferred to the hospital on Monday night where he went into a coma and that it is absolutely possible that he would have passed away, however, typically, until now, the regime’s authorities have not actually issued an official statement admitting to this activists’ death.