No official announcement for prisoner cause of death

There has still been no official announcement made of political prisoner Hossein Domekhchi’s cause of death, twelve days after his body was transferred to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Domekhchi’s wife, Maryam Alangi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that she has no plans for pursuing the matter further. “No authority or organization has officially replied about [the reasons for] my husband’s death,” said Alangi. “If something caused my husband’s death, he is buried now and nothing can be proven. I will not pursue the matter, either. What is it I am supposed to pursue, anyway? What else is left [to pursue]? My questions will only get myself and my only son into trouble, adding a problem to my existing problems. My new inquiry would mean a threat to my and my son’s life,” she continued.

Mohsen Domekhchi died while in the hospital on the night of 28 March. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Though his physicians said months ago that he needed special treatment and chemotherapy, he was only transferred to a hospital during the last week of his life. According to his cellmates and his wife, during the last months of his life he was no longer able to sit in his bed and in his final days could only be sustained through intravenous feeding. Domekhchi was arrested during in September 2009 and sentenced to 10 years in prison by Judge Salavati in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court. He was to serve his sentence at Rajaee Shahr Prison on charges of “supporting the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization” and “financial support of families of political prisoners.”

Maryam Alangi saw her husband at the hospital for the last time a few hours before his death. “He wasn’t feeling well. I stayed with him for half an hour and took care of some of his personal needs. He was in a lot of pain, as usual, and because he couldn’t eat, he was being fed intravenously. But his condition wasn’t such that he might have died quickly. This is why I was shocked when I heard the news,” she said.

“Nobody, the soldiers nor the doctor, told me what happened to my husband and how he died. I still don’t know what happened. Maybe I’m not supposed to know anything. When I was under pressure for wanting to hold a funeral for my husband, they threatened me not to hold a memorial service. I was detained for several hours. They even said they would get detention orders for me. I decided not to do anything, in order to preserve the life of my young son and myself, and let it go,” Alangi added.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran