Issuance of: change:
Paris (AFP) – The health of a prominent dissident, who was arrested during protests across Iran in September and is now on hunger strike, is “deteriorating,” his brother said on Sunday.
Hossein Lonagi, an outspoken free speech activist, has been transferred to a medical facility inside Tehran’s Evin prison, his brother Hassan wrote on Twitter.
Ronaghi has been held in Evin’s custody since his September 24 arrest. His family says he was at risk of dying from kidney disease and broke both his legs in prison.
He was on a hunger strike and planned to start denying him water on Saturday to protest the authorities’ denial of him medical leave.
“Hossein’s condition has deteriorated and he has been transferred to Evin Prison Infirmary,” Hassan Lonagi wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
He accused prosecutors of obstructing his release “on false pretenses” and seeking to “kill Hossein” instead.
Renowned Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, who are imprisoned alongside Ronagi in Evin, have already expressed concern for his life and warned he could have a heart attack at any moment. Was.
“The risk of cardiac arrest is now very high, according to prison doctors,” they said in a letter published by the Iran Wire news site.
“There is always the possibility of heartbreaking repeats” of the deaths of political prisoners in custody, they added.
Ronagi is one of dozens of prominent rights activists, journalists and lawyers arrested in the crackdown on protests that erupted after the death of Masa Amini, who was arrested by the Moral Police.
For years, the Wall Street Journal contributor, 37-year-old Ronagi, was one of the most fearless critics of the Islamic Republic still living in the country.
Security forces attempted to arrest him on September 22 while he was conducting a live interview with London-based Iran International Television, but he managed to escape from his apartment.
He went into hiding two days later, but was soon arrested along with his lawyer.
Afterwards, shocking arrest images emerged showing Ronagi being strangled and taken away as he appeared at the public prosecutor’s office.
© 2022 AFP
