Iranian political prisoner Mehdi Salehi, 36, died in Homayunshahr Prison, Isfahan, on April 14 under suspicious circumstances.
Security forces shot Salehi with pellet guns at the time of his arrest
Salehi was arrested in Isfahan’s Yazdanshahr, his hometown, during the January 2018 anti-regime protests while assisting a protester who had been shot by security forces. According to reports, security forces shot Salehi with pellet guns at the time of his arrest.
Salehi and four other protesters were sentenced to death in February 2020 by the Second Branch of Isfahan’s Revolutionary Court under charges of Moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” a bogus charge that the regime uses against dissidents.
In December 2021, Salehi was taken to the prison clinic due to heart problems. He was injected with a medicine that worsened his condition. Prison authorities delayed his transfer to a hospital outside the prison. As a result, he suffered from a brain stroke on his way to the hospital and later entered a state of comma. Prison authorities prevented his family from visiting him after the incident.
After Salehi’s death on April 14, his family told human rights websites that prison authorities had continued to deny him medical care. Regime authorities also avoided providing the family with a clear explanation of the circumstances of his death. Salehi was buried on April 15 under heavy restrictions and the presence of security forces.
In a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) called on the United Nations to “form an international inquiry mission to investigate the death of political prisoner Mehdi Salehi and other prisoners tortured to death or suspiciously murdered by the clerical regime.”
Salehi is not the first political prisoner to die of deprivation of medical care in Iran’s prisons. In January, renowned dissident poet and political prisoner Baktash Abtin died in Tehran’s Evin Prison after being denied medical care.
In February 2021, Behnam Mahjoubi, an Iranian Dervish who had been in Evin prison, died from lack of medical care. Mahjoubi was arrested in 2018 during protests by Gonabadi Dervishes in Tehran and sentenced to two years in prison and two years prohibition of taking part in political parties and associations on charges of “association and conspiracy against national security by taking part in an illegal rally.”
According to a study by Amnesty International, since 2010, nearly a hundred prisoners have died in Iran’s prisons because of intentional deprivation of medical care.
“Iranian prison officials are committing shocking violations of the right to life by deliberately denying ailing prisoners lifesaving healthcare and refusing to investigate and ensure accountability for unlawful deaths in custody,” Amnesty International warned
بی توجهی مرگبار به زندانیان بیمار در سراسر ایران
مقامات ایران باید به نقض حیات زندانیان و محروم کردن آنان از خدمات درمانی خاتمه دهند.
ویدئو زیر را ببینید
گزارش عفو بینالملل را بخوانید
https://t.co/TiWWVgU562 pic.twitter.com/GOmoMApXrt— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) April 12, 2022
Former political prisoners also warned on their social media accounts that Salehi’s case is no accident and has the hallmark of the intentional killings that the regime carries out in its prisons.
In a video message to the mother of Mehdi Salehi, the mother of Behnam Mahjoubi said, “Like my Behnam, only death released your Mehdi from prison. These sentences are very familiar: medical poisoning, wrong medication, or wrong injection. There was no mistake. These are all premeditated murders. This is a scenario to kill our innocent children in prison. [The authorities] must be held accountable, and we will seek justice for the unjust killing of our children.”
Other reports indicate that the regime continues to use such tactics against political prisoners. A recent example is a political prisoner Fatehmeh Mosanna, who was given furlough from Evin prison for treatment of severe ulcerative colitis and liver problems. She was forced to return to prison before she received medical care. Doctors say that her condition will worsen if she is not treated, and it can threaten her health and life.
