A prominent Iranian dissident arrested in September as protests broke out in the country is “deteriorating” after he went on a hunger strike, his brother said yesterday.
Hussein Ronaji, a prominent free speech activist, has been transferred to a medical facility at Evin Prison, according to a tweet from his brother Hassan.
Ronaji has been held at Yuen Prison since his arrest on 24 September.
His family says he is at risk of death due to health problems, especially kidney problems, and confirms that he has a broken leg.
Ronaji went on a hunger strike and decided to stop drinking water on Saturday to protest the authorities’ refusal to allow him to leave prison for medical treatment, according to what his brother had previously announced.
Hassan Ronaji accused prosecutors of preventing his brother’s transfer “under false pretenses” and seeking to “kill Hussein.”
Prominent Iranian directors Jaafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, who are being held with Ronaji in Evin prison, expressed concern for his life, warning that he could have a heart attack at any moment.
“According to the prison doctors, the risk of him having a heart attack has become very high,” they said in a statement posted on the Iran Wire news site. They pointed to the “risks of a repeat of the catastrophe” of the death of a political prisoner in custody.
Ronaji is one of dozens of human rights activists, journalists and lawyers arrested during the crackdown on protests that erupted amid the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the “vice police” for not following the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
In addition, Iran condemned yesterday a meeting held by French President Emmanuel Macron with female opposition activists and called his statements after the meeting “a cause for regret and shame.”
On Friday, on the sidelines of a peace forum in Paris, Macron received four Iranian activists and praised the “revolution they are leading” in their country.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that Macron’s encounter with Iranian activities constituted “a violation of France’s international obligations in the fight against terrorism and acts of violence and the promotion of these sinister phenomena.”
“Macron’s statements of support for the so-called revolution in Iran led by such figures are regrettable and shameful,” Kanaani said, according to what the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted.
