Campaign to support 17 prisoners on hunger strike intensifies

GVF -- Following a hunger strike by prisoner in Evin prison, many supporters of the Green Movement have joined an international campaign to express their solidarity with the seventeen political prisoners.

To show their support for the prisoners in Evin prison, Green Movement supporters will be on a one-day hunger strike on Monday 2 August 2010 in many important cities across the world such as Cologne and Rome.

In addition, many have chosen to support the prisoners in solitary confinement by uploading the following photo on their weblogs and Facebook profiles. The picture contains images of the inmates currently on hunger strike in ward 350 of the notorious Evin prison. A Facebook event has also been created for those who wish to join the online campaign in support of the Green prisoners. 

Until now, five of the prisoners have been hospitalised due to a deterioration in their health since the start of the strike last Monday. 

The hunger strike in began in protest against the transfer of seventeen prisoners to solitary confinement. Prison officials took the measure in after inmates in ward 350 complained about prisoner-abuse and the inappropriate prison conditions.

Bahman Ahmadi Amooei (journalist), Hossein Nourinejad (journalist and member of Islamic Iran Participation Front), Abdollah Momeni (student activist and spokesperson for the Office for Fostering Unity), Ali Parviz (student activist), Hamidreza Mohammadi (political activist), Jafar Aghdami (civil activist), Babak Bordbar (photojournalist), Ebrahim (Nader) Babaei (civil activist and wounded veteran of the Iran-Iraq war), Kouhyar Goudarzi (human rights activist and weblog writer), Keyvan Samimi (journalist) and Mohammad Hossein Sohrabi Rad are among the prisoners currently on hunger strike in solitary confinement in ward 350 of Evin prison.