Mohammad Hossein Sohrabirad, an Iranian political prisoner, says he is protesting the lack of adequate medical care in prison by going on a drug strike and refusing his medication.

The Jaras opposition website reports that Sohrabirad fell victim to heart complications during his interrogation and it is likely that “refraining from taking his medicine may make his heart problems more critical.”

Sohrabirad is serving a four-year sentence, after being arrested during the widespread protests that sprang up after the contested re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

According to Jaras, the political prisoner’s mother has written to the Tehran Prosecutor to express her grave concern for her son’s health.

She writes: “My son has suffered severe heart complications, and the facilities at the prison infirmary are not sufficient for his treatment. They have asked for your permission to transfer him to a hospital, and to my surprise, I hear that you have refused.

“How can a responsible individual remain indifferent to a 25-year-old’s struggle for life?” she asks. “Is it really not important for you if my son dies like Hoda Saber?”

Reza Hoda Saber, another Iranian political prisoner, died from a heart attack on Sunday after a 10-day hunger strike. His family maintains that the authorities are responsible for his death because they delayed his transfer to hospital after the onset of his attack.

Sohrabirad’s mother warns the prosecutor that the true “anti-Revolutionary and anti-Islam” forces are not the political prisoners but rather those “officials that create protesters by their actions.” She says her son has not been allowed one day of furlough since two years ago.

Jaras reports that Evin Prison physicians have told the prosecutor’s office that Mohammad Sohrabirad is too ill to serve out his sentence, but the office has refused to grant him sick leave or even a transfer to hospital.

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Ten reformist MPs have called on the Minister of Justice to investigate the death of Reza Hoda Saber, the jailed journalist who died Sunday after a 10-day hunger strike.

Parleman News, the news outlet for Parliament’s reformist faction, reports that the 10 MPs have told Minister Morteza Bakhtiari that there are several ambiguities regarding Hoda Saber’s death, which a judicial probe must clarify.

Hoda Saber started a hunger strike on June 2 to protest the death of his fellow Nationalist-Religious activist Haleh Sahabi, after security forces swarmed her father’s funeral, but then he himself died from a heart attack 10 days into his strike.

His family claims prison officials are responsible for his death because they delayed his transfer to hospital.

Yesterday, Tehran Prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi confirmed that officials had been slow to inform his office about the situation. Abbas Jafri Dowlatabadi said: “Hoda Saber says he is not feeling well on Friday and is taken to the infirmary, and later when his situation worsens, the head of the prison court transfers him to hospital, but he suffers a heart attack there.”

He adds: “We said that the prisoner’s condition should have been reported to us earlier, because in such situations the family of the prisoner is informed to see if they have a preference in which medical facility he is being transferred to. But it was too late to choose the hospital in this case.”

Farideh Jamshidi, Hoda Saber’s wife, has publicly announced that her husband was healthy before his arrest, and his sudden death after 10 days of hunger strike is highly suspicious.

She said: “My husband goes to the infirmary after feeling severe pain, and instead of receiving care there, he was beaten, and that is the cause of his death.” She added that she will soon reveal the name of the assailant.

On Tuesday, 64 of Hoda Saber’s inmates published a statement declaring that he was beaten by prison authorities on the eighth day of his hunger strike.

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