Iran political prisoner on hunger strike over abuse

Iran Focus

Tehran, 16 Sep - Iranian political prisoner Ramezan Kamal Ahmad, 34, detained in Gohardasht Prison, Karaj, west of Tehran, has been on hunger strike since Saturday, 12 September, protesting his poor physical condition and severe pain in the arms and legs resulting from being beaten, and also being shot while arrested.

 Kamal Ahmad was arrested in the spring of 2012 by Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) after being shot and wounded.

He was beaten by IRGC troops, and the “repressive forces even pulled him on the ground with their vehicle for some distance”, according to the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (PMOI, or MEK).

Kamal Ahmad has spent time in various prisons, including Maku, Qazvin, Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and Gohardasht Prison in Karaj.

He has been denied visits by his family or to make phone calls to them, the MEK said on its website. His health has deteriorated during his detention because of the bullet wound that left him half-paralyzed. Prior to this his wounds were severely infected while he was held in the IRGC intelligence detention centre in the city of Orumieh in northwestern Iran.