ICC Note: Iranian Christian prisoner, Amin Afshar Naderi, has fallen seriously ill after going on a hunger strike with fellow Christian inmate. The two were initially detained last August along with three other who were arrested on a picnic raid. No charges have been brought against the men though they have lived behind bars for months. The hunger strike undertaken was in response to the lack of medical assistance needed.

02/14/2017 Iran (WWM): An Iranian convert to Christianity imprisoned since August has reportedly fallen seriously ill after going on hunger strike.

Amin Afshar Naderi went on hunger strike with his fellow detainee Hadi Asgari, who is also said to have suffered recent ill health and been refused medical treatment.

They are the two remaining detainees from an initial group of five Christians arrested while picnicking in the Alborz Mountains north-east of Tehran last summer.

The other three – Amir Saman Dashti, Ramil Bet-Tamraz and Mohammad Dehnavi – were released late last year, after posting bail equivalent to US$33,000 each. Advocacy organisation Middle East Concern reported that Naderi and Asgari were unable to raise sufficient funds.

No charges have been brought against the five men, despite months of interrogation and imprisonment. Middle East Concern said their arrests were likely to be a result either of their Christian faith or their connection to Victor Bet-Tamraz, Ramil’s father.

Victor Bet-Tamraz led the Tehran Pentecostal Assyrian Church before it was shut down by Iran’s Ministry of Interior in March 2009. He and Naderi were arrested alongside another convert on Boxing Day 2014. All three were charged with conducting illegal evangelism and kept mostly in solitary confinement in Evin prison, before being released on bail in February and March 2015. Victor Bet-Tamraz is still expecting a summons to court.

Naderi and Asgari are not the first Christians to go on hunger strike in an Iranian prison. Last year, World Watch Monitor reported on the case of Maryam Naghash Zargaran, an Iranian Christian woman who has spent more than three years in prison and last year had her sentence extended by six weeks to make up for the time she has spent outside prison on medical leave.

Zargaran had previously undertaken two hunger strikes to protest against being denied access to the medical treatment she requires for long-standing health issues. She was eventually allowed to temporarily leave prison to receive treatment, but each time forced to return before it could be completed.

…

[Full Story]