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Iran Hunger Strike Journalist 'Close to Death'

Iran Hunger Strike Journalist 'Close to Death'
Submitted by editor3 on August 3, 2005 - 2:00pm.
By Julia Day
Source: Media Guardian

Iran's most prominent investigative journalist is reported to be close to death after spending 53 days on hunger strike in protest at his imprisonment.

Akbar Ganji was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 for linking senior Iranian regime officials to a series of murders of writers and intellectuals.

He began his hunger strike in prison on June 10 and was rushed to Milad hospital on July 17.

The press freedom body, Reporters Sans Frontieres, believes Ganji is in a critical condition, weighing just 52kg and unconscious most of the time.

"[The Iranian government] must release him for humanitarian reasons. He has been unjustly detained for more than five years but he is a determined man," RSF said.

RSF added that Ganji's wife was allowed to visit him in hospital last Thursday and reported that her husband was extremely weak and only regains consciousness fleetingly.

He was in poor health before going on hunger strike and needs an operation but, according to RSF, doctors believe he is not strong enough to come through a general anaesthetic.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, considers Ganji to be a prisoner of conscience and believes no independent investigation was made into allegations that he had been kicked and beaten by prison guards.

Amnesty is now concerned enough about Ganji's situation to have activated its "urgent action network", which is used to try to prevent "some of the most life-threatening human rights violations against individuals".

Calls for his release have been made by US President George Bush, the European Union and international human rights organisations, but these have failed.

Ganji's defence lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, was also arrested on Saturday.



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posted by Annamarie at 3:16 PM