IRAN: HANDS OFF CAIN ASKS THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT TO LISTEN TO THE REASONS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ON A HUNGER STRIKE FOR THE INHUMANE CONDITIONS OF DETENTION IN KARAJ PRISON

August 27, 2017:

Hands off Cain joins international mobilization in support of the reasons of the political prisoners of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, a hunger strike of 27 days, and asks the Italian Government to act to ensure that their human rights are respected.
The non-violent action that has taken place since July 30 by political prisoners in Rajai Shahr maximum security prison has also joined prisoners of other prisons such as those of Ardebil who on August 24 announced a hunger strike of a week.
On July 30, around 53 political prisoners were forcibly transferred to Section 10 of Rajai Shahr Prison. Beaten and unable to take personal belongings, including drugs, clothes, notebooks, photos, and letters, they found themselves in a section whose conditions are described as claustrophobic, with windows of the cells obscured by steel sheets, and sealed doors. They are in humid environments with no air circulation, without drinking water and insufficient beds for everyone, and also deprived of family visits and the possibility of telephone contact with them. Closed-circuit cameras and listening devices are everywhere, even in showers and bathrooms.
Tehran Attorney General Jafari-Dolatabadi, a person in the "Blacklist" of the European Union for the serious human rights violations he has been responsible for, has publicly threatened detainees by declaring that "their actions will fail", and that "the judicial system can not be conditioned by prisoners' actions such as the hunger strike."
The detainees who are carrying out the hunger strike in Rajai Shahr prison are at least 21, and among them are prisoners of conscience, such as human rights activists, trade unionists, journalists, students, political dissidents, and members of the Baha'i community persecuted in Iran. With their nonviolent action, they ask to be able to return to the sections of origin and to regain their property, and compensation for what has been lost.
"We can not remain indifferent to the inhuman and degrading conditions in which these people, who should not even be in jail for how their crimes have been prosecuted and the charges of indictment, are forced to live - said Sergio d'Elia, Secretary of Hands off Cain, and Elisabetta Zamparutti, treasurer. That is why we consider urgent a visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran to the Rajai Shahr prison, as well as an intervention by the Italian Government, both bilaterally and multilaterally, for the political prisoners' requests be granted, and assure their human rights are respected."
Rajai Shahr is also known as Gohardasht Prison