Issa Saharkhiz, an Iranian political prisoner currently hospitalized for heart complications, received a surprise visit on Monday from a group of government plainclothes officers, which caused the activist’s medical condition to deteriorate.
RAHANA, Human Rights House of Iran reports that a group of plainclothes security officers swarmed Saharkhiz’s room at Shariati Hospital and began insulting the persecuted journalist and his wife as well as harassing his visitors.
The attack has reportedly worsened Saharkhiz’s condition and landed him in the Critical Care Unit.
Saharkhiz is suffering from blood-pressure and kidney conditions as well as sciatica and problems with his back and neck.
He was arrested in July of 2009 in the post-election crackdown on protesters who believed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election through vote fraud.
Saharkhiz is a prominent journalist who has worked with the state news agency IRNA and served as head of domestic media at the Ministry of Culture during the reformist administration of Mohammad Khatami. In 2010, he was sentenced to three years in jail and a five-year ban from political and media activities.