The Italian Federation for Human Rights received worrying information about the serious health condition of the political prisoner Abolhassan Montazer in Iran.
Abolhassan Montazer, 62 years old, is suffering from type 1 diabetes and its complications; he needs insulin injection every 12 hour. He has clogged arteries in his legs and arms and is constantly experiencing burning and cold in his bones. As his illness has progressed under the harsh prison conditions, dangerous bruises and acne have appeared on his legs. He has also had an open-heart surgery a while ago.
On November 20, 2021, being in an emergency condition Montazer has been taken to Rajai-Shahr Hospital in Karaj, but he was shackled in feet while in transfer and at the hospital to the bed in the emergency section. This political prisoner should have been subjected to the law about “intolerance of punishment” and released due to his serious physical condition, but instead he was only sent to the hospital – what did not help.
Abolhassan Montazer is currently in a worse condition than before his deployment to the hospital, in Rajai Shahr Prison (Gohardasht). He is not able and does not have the power to even move slightly. As his stiches from his operations have opened and he is also suffering from the displacement of his ribs, he cannot even rest.
Having all these in mind, we point out the fact that due to his very serious and dangerous health condition this political prisoner is not capable of tolerating the prison conditions and cannot serve his sentence.
Seyyed Abolhassan Montazer, born in 1959, was detained in 2018 on charge of having connections with PMOI/MEK and went under interrogation at Evin Prison. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on charge of “propaganda against the state” and “having connections with PMOI”. He was released on a heavy bail but was arrested again in mid-fall of 2020 and transferred to ward 8 of Evin Prison to serve his sentence.
He was transferred to Rajai-Shahr Prison a while ago and is currently confined there. The Italian Federation for Human Rights calls on the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Ms. Michelle Bachelet and on the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Javaid Rehman, to intervene and demand the immediate release of the political prisoner Abolhassan Montazer.