Mousavi urges prisoners to end hunger strike

GVF -- In a statement published on the Kaleme website, the 2009 Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has praised the resistance of seventeen political prisoners currently on hunger strike in Evin prison. At the same time, Mousavi has also called on the prisoners currently in solitary confinement to put an end to their strike.

“All seekers of freedom and righteousness have heard your message and have witnessed your resistance for your humanitarian and legitimate demands.”

The statement added, “Now that that your message and your families’ struggle has spread across the globe and within the country, the nation is concerned about your health as green assets for the country. We urge you to end your hunger strike and call on prison officials to respect the rights of all prisoners based on the flawed rule and regulations that exist and not to allow for the country’s reputation to be further tarnished in the eyes of the world’s nations.”

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 Nouraninejad (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.