Kurdish prisoner of conscience Arkan Palani Jaff, who has been on a dry hunger strike since 10 June in the Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj, northern Iran, was taken to the prison infirmary on 25 June after losing consciousness.
Jaff has been on strike to protest against prison authorities’ refusal to release him on parole, send him on temporary leave, and provide medical treatment.
Reportedly, the prisoner has experienced a 10kg weight loss during this period and his blood pressure has dropped below nine.
The prisoner was returned to solitary confinement after several hours of hospitalisation and serum injections.
Jaff, who went on strike by sewing his lips, was beaten by prison officials on the twelfth day of the strike.
Security forces arrested Jaff in Tehran on 2 May 2017. He was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison after about three months of interrogation in Meydan-e Naft detention centre in Kermanshah, western Iran, and 209 Evin detention centre in Tehran.
Jaff is a Sunni civilian from Sarpol-e Sahab in Kermanshah province.
Later, Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran – presided over by Judge Moghiseh – sentenced the civilian to seven years and six months in prison. It charged him with “acting against national security” by collaborating with the Islamic State (IS) group.
Recently, after the court had agreed to Jaff’s request for release in his fifth year of imprisonment, his family prepared several title deeds and applied to the Tehran court. However, each time the court refused to issue the documents required to evaluate the bail.
