Political Prisoner in Critical Condition After 18-Day Hunger Strike
Abdulaziz Azimi Ghadim, a political prisoner, is in critical condition after 19 days on hunger strike
Abdulaziz Azimi Ghadim, a political prisoner, is in critical condition after 19 days on hunger strike.
His family said he began the hunger strike on March 2 and has lost consciousness once, requiring other inmates to take him to Evin Prison’s medical facility.
Prison officials have summoned Azimi to the director’s office, cut off his phone privileges, and threatened him with solitary confinement if he continues his protest.
His family cannot visit him due to the 600-kilometer distance and prison restrictions.
Azimi is protesting the sentences against himself and other Azeri prisoners, which he claims are based on fabricated charges.
In a previously recorded call from prison, he demanded a meeting with the judiciary chief to question why Judge Abolqasem Salavati - whose verdicts are frequently overturned by the Supreme Court - remains in power.
He also questioned why activists arrested in cities like Tabriz, Ardabil, and Bonab are transferred to Tehran for trial, and why he, as a cleric, was not tried in the Special Court for Clergy.
Security forces arrested Azimi in February 2024. After months of interrogation, he was sentenced in October 2024 by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to six years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “assembly and collusion.”
He had no access to legal counsel during the proceedings.