Sun, 06/12/2011
There are grave concerns today for the health of Iranian political prisoner Abdollah Momeni, who is suffering cardiac complications and back problems, the Jaras opposition website reports.
Momeni, a spokesman for the student organization Advar-e Takim-e Vahdat, was hospitalized twice in the past month for health complications, Jaras reports.
The report adds that Momeni is in critical condition, made worse by the lack of facilities at Ward 350 in Evin Prison, where he is being held with no chance of furlough.
Momeni was arrested in June 2009 in the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, which led to widespread protests and a violent government retaliation.
Last September, Momeni wrote a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, claiming he had undergone “severe torture” and had been forced to sign a false confession for presentation at a “show trial.”
He was also part of a group of 25 political prisoners who wrote a letter describing their harsh torture at the hands of prison authorities. The Revolutionary Guards and the Prosecutor’s office put great pressure on the prisoners to recant their statements in the letter.
Iranian authorities have not responded to allegations of torture in Iranian prisons.
Abdollah Momeni was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison following the presidential elections. He was arrested on June 20, 2009 in the building of the Headquarters of Free Citizens, a group supporting Mehdi Karroubi, a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opponent in the elections, who is now under house arrest as one of the two chief opposition leaders.