Political Prisoner Dies After Long Hunger Strike

Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri, a political prisoner at Qom Prison, died in hospital on December 12 after a 60-day hunger strike. His death was not officially announced.

His mother, Zahra Sadeghi, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that she received a call from prison authorities on December 12, telling her that her son had died at the Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Qom.

“My son did not have many demands,” she said in an interview with the journalist Shahed Alavi. “He only wanted to be transferred to Tehran, to the ward for political prisoners. Then they called from the hospital. First they told me that he was feeling bad but then they told his brothers that he had died.”

Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri's sister Elaheh Sayadi Nasiri told Radio Farda that the authorities contacted the family on that day, instructing them to go to the Behesht-Masoumeh Cemetery in Qom to collect his body. "Protesting against the situation of prisoners in Qom, my brother had gone on hunger strike, and demanded to be returned to the political ward in Tehran's Evin prison," she said.

The fact that officials did not make the news of Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri’s death public exposes the very important role of families, civil activists and independent media when it comes to providing information about prisoners of conscience in Iran. Following on from this, social media sites including Twitter were brimming with expressions of sorrow about Nasiri’s death and with memories of him.

 

Not Famous 

“Working for human rights is what I do,” tweeted Shahin Sadeghzadeh Milani, a director at the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “But I knew nothing about Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri. Perhaps I had heard his name among so many others but I did not remember it. Now it appears that he has died in Qom Prison due to a hunger strike. I am really sorry about this and I do not know what to do.”

“I have known Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri since 2016,” tweeted civil rights activist Shima Babaee. “That year he and seven others had gone on hunger strike. Today it was reported that he lost his life in Qom Prison after 60 days of hunger strike in a news blackout! There are no words to express such an injustice and such pain. What did he want that he had to die in pain after 60 days of a hunger strike?”

“Today Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri lost his life at the hospital after 60 days of hunger strike,” tweeted Maryam Karimbaigi, the sister of Mostafa Karimbaigi, who was killed in the protests following the disputed 2009 presidential election. “Why? Because nobody supported him, because he was not famous, because you and I fell short. Sleep in peace, Vahid, now that your pains are over.”

Vahid Sayadi Nasiri was initially arrested in September 2015 and sentenced to eight years behind bars on charges of “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “propaganda against the regime.” The charges were based on Nasiri’s posts on Facebook. According to people close to him, all charges against him were purely based on his activities on social networks.

After a year and a half, the court of appeals reviewed his case and, with a pardon on the occasion of the Iranian new year, eventually his sentence was reduced to 30 months. After serving his full sentence of two and a half years, Nasiri was released on March 16, 2018.

During his detention at Rajaei Shahr and Evin prisons, Sayadi Nasiri was repeatedly harassed by operatives linked to the Iranian regime. He was attacked on May 7, 2017, by a fanatic Shia prisoner who threatened Nasiri with death. He was also severely beaten on February 14, 2017 by two individuals.

New Sentence for the Same Old Charges

Nasiri was arrested again on July 23, 2018 by agents from Qom’s Intelligence Bureau. On September 13, he was told that his trial would be held on September 22. But on the morning of September 15, without any warning, he was taken to Branch 1 of Qom’s Revolutionary Court and in a trial without the presence of his lawyer that lasted only a few minutes, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on the same charges he had faced before: “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “propaganda against the regime.” He was then transferred to the ward for dangerous criminals at Qom’s Saheli Prison. Authorities regularly use this tactic of placing political prisoners on wards for dangerous criminals as a further punishment and means of intimidation.

Nasiri had served his previous sentence at Evin and Rajaei Shahr prisons. On October 13 he went on hunger strike in protest against being incarcerated with dangerous criminals, being deprived access to due process of law and against the prison officials’ disregard of his request to be transferred to Evin Prison. According to reports, on the 40th day of his hunger strike, he suffered a stomach hemorrhage and was transferred to the hospital. However, he was transferred back to the prison before the treatment was complete.

Vahid Sayyadi Nasiri had been defended by the lawyer Mohammad Najafi, who now is also in prison, having been sentenced to a total of 13 years for “conveying information to a hostile country” after he gave interviews to foreign media, for “insulting the Supreme Leader” and for working on publicity in support of opposition groups. Najafi was jailed in January 2018 after he voiced support for people detained during the nationwide anti-government protests that took place that same month. The demonstrations lasted for days and resulted in the deaths of dozens and the arrest of hundreds more. Najafi had told the media about the suspicious death of Vahid Heydari, one of the arrested protesters and whom he had also represented, while in custody.

Many of those who have gone on hunger strike in prison believe that it is the last resort for Iranian prisoners to press for their demands. They put their lives on the line, often for the most basic demands.

 

Related Coverage:

Expired and Counterfeit Medicine for Prisoners, November 23, 2018

The Murderous Neglect of a Sick Political Prisoner, September 20, 2018

Friends Fear for Activist 50 Days after he Started Hunger Strike, September 18, 2018

Suicide and Despair Plague Iran’s Prisons, January 11, 2018

Iran’s Judiciary is Slowly Murdering Prisoners of Conscience, November 10, 2017

Hunger Striker Tells His Family Goodbye, September 29, 2017

Protester Starves in Jail While Criminals go Free, January 6, 2017

Wave of Hunger Strikes Among Iranian Political Prisoners, December 31, 2016

Do Hunger Strikes Work in Iranian Prisons?, July 5, 2016

Whatever you do, don’t get sick in prison, March 2, 2016