5 Jailed Gonabadi Dervishes in Evin's Ward 350 Begin Indefinite Hunger Strike

Majzooban Noor - Five imprisoned Dervishes in ward 350 of Evin prison have launched hunger strike in order to expressing opposition to return of their two brothers in faith from hospital to prison and denial of their transfer to medical centers. Hamid-Reza Moradi and Mostafa Daneshjou were sent back to prison while were getting ready to have heart surgery and treatment in Tehran Heart Center.

Since yesterday morning on Sunday 11 Esfand 1392 ( Mar,3 2014), Farshid Yadollahi, Reza Entesari, Amir Eslami, Mostafa Abdi and Omid Behroozi have begun a hunger strike in jail to protest the authorities' refusal to address the demands of jailed Dervishes and also to protest the continued neglect of their medical needs.

The prisoners also protest against preventing Afshin Karampour from being transferred to medical centers who is suffering from lumbar spine pain.

Concurrently with their hunger strike, another jailed Iranian blogger and Dervish rights activist Kasra Nouri has also begun a hunger strike in Nezam prison.

Hamid-Reza Moradi, Mostafa Daneshjou and Afshin Karampour in protest action against the authorities' denial of adequate medical care to imprisoned Dervishes are refusing to accept medication despite the poor state of their health. Now their conditions reportedly have been seriously deteriorated.

Hamid Moradi, in addition to serving a 10-and-a-half year penal term, has suffered a serious infection of the foot, which may require amputation, after torture by Iranian officials. He is also afflicted by illnesses including arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, as well as lumbar disc damage.

Mostafa Daneshjou, jailed Dervish lawyers in ward 350 of Evin prison, was handed a 7-and-a-half year prison sentence, and is a pulmonary patient. He is recently suffering from cardiac arrhythmia due to the lack of attention to proper healthcare treatment while in custody.

Afshin Karampour has been suffering from low back pain for a long time and despite physicians' recommendations for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of his lumbar spine, he has been prevented from receiving treatment outside of prison since one year ago. He suffers an injury at the second and third vertebrae in the spinal column and all of his toenails have become bruised which its cause is still unknown. As his pain has intensified he can not perform his normal daily functions right now.

In this regard, Kaleme reported that, 20 political prisoners held in ward 350 of Evin prison, in a letter addressed to Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani warned over the physical condition of ill prisoners. According to Kaleme website, reports indicated that this kind of violations and illegal interferences in medical treatment of sick prisoners by judge Salavati has created many problems for them. The signatories of this letter, asked Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani to deal with offenders, do not oppress the innocent families of detainees and urgent appeal for resolve the most serious health problems of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners.