Sunni Prisoner deprived of medical treatment

HRANA News Agency – A Sunni prisoner was prevented from getting medical treatment after he could not afford the medical fees, with officers refusing to let him contact his family to ask them for money.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Arash Sharifi, a Sunni prisoner awaiting execution in Iran, was sent to hospital on Monday, after months of being deprived of adequate medical treatment for a degenerative eye disorder.

He was denied medical treatment after he could not afford to pay 450,000 Iranian Rials (roughly £10) for photographs to be taken of his eyes. Officers also prevented him from contacting his family to ask them to pay the medical fees.

A source told the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), “[Arash] has been suffering from vision problems for a number of years, and lately it causes him difficulty even in his daily routine,”

“When he was sent to the hospital for treatment, officers did not allow him to contact his family and ask them to bring money for him,” he said.

The HRANA said, “this is the fundamental problem [faced by] prisoners of conscience in Rajai Shahr prison; they face insults, persecution and abuse from the officers and soldiers, and this is clearly [evident] when they are sent to medical centers and the courts. The Sunni prisoners have complained several times to the head of the prison, however, so far, there has not been a response to any of these issues.”

Arash Sharifi, a Sunni prisoner of conscience awaiting execution in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, had been suffering from a degenerative eye disorder, with doctors declaring an almost total loss of vision in his left eye, with the vision in his right eye also deteriorating.

Prison doctors had said that he urgently needs corneal transplants, and requires treatment in properly equipped medical centers outside the prison. Officials had refused to provide him with adequate medical care and, until recently, refused to send him to hospital outside the prison.