An Iranian-American journalist imprisoned in Iran began a hunger strike on Saturday to protest authorities’ refusal to return his identification documents.
Reza Valizadeh started the hunger strike after security officials refused to hand over his personal belongings, including his birth certificate, despite a final court ruling.
Valizadeh, who worked for more than a decade at Radio Farda, needs the identification documents urgently to appoint a lawyer and handle banking and legal matters abroad.
Sources close to the journalist told Radio Farda that the obstruction has created serious disruptions to his legal and banking affairs in the Czech Republic.
Repeated bank warnings in Prague have significantly increased the possibility of seizure and sale of his house.
Valizadeh resigned from Radio Farda in November 2022 and returned to Iran in March 2023 to visit his family after living abroad. He was arrested in October 2023.
His family said some security forces had promised, before his return, that he would not face problems in Iran.
After his arrest, two compressed court sessions presided over by Judge Iman Afshari sentenced him to 10 years in prison, prohibition from residing in Tehran and neighboring provinces, a travel ban, and two years of deprivation from membership in political and social parties and groups.
He was charged with “cooperation with the hostile government of America.”
He is currently held in Ward 8 of Evin Prison, which sources say has poor sanitary and environmental conditions and pest infestations, including bedbugs.
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