Guard Attacks Jailed Journalist Ehsan Mazandarani

A guard has attacked jailed journalist Ehsan Mazandarani, who is serving time for allegedly being part of an infiltration network.

Mazandarani is already frail due to successive hunger strikes and after suffering a heart attack earlier this year. His current hunger strike began on September 22, after he wrote an open letter calling for an investigation into his case and the cases of three journalists and the brother of a journalist. 

On September 29, a guard at Evin Prison attacked Mazandarani, pushing him to the ground. The motive for the attack is not known.

Since the journalist's arrest in November 2015, he has been outspoken on his case, repeatedly denying the charges against him and writing to the supreme leader to protest against his treatment in prison.

Earlier this week, there were reports that Afarin Chitsaz, who was also arrested for alleged "infiltration" offences, was making a slow recovery from a knee operation. Her health has also suffered while she has been in prison. 

“The main reason given for their arrest is that they were sending news and information to news agencies and media outside Iran,” Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, Mazandarani's lawyer for the original charges, told IranWire in May. Tabatabai also represented journalist Isa Saharkhiz and Davoud Asadi, who is not a journalist but whose brother Hooshang Asadi worked in journalism before leaving Iran to live in France.

But Iran’s judiciary prohibited Tabatabaei from representing his client in the appeals court case, insisting that Mazandarani was represented by a lawyer who had been "approved" by the judiciary.