The family of Iranian activist and civil rights leader Hossein Ronaghi says his health is deteriorating after going on a hunger strike while incarcerated at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
Ronaghi’s sister, Sakineh Ronaghi, says that Hossein told her on the phone on November 10 that his kidneys had developed hydronephrosis due to the hunger strike and that he could not walk because of the torture he has suffered at the hands of interrogators.
Ronaghi was arrested during recent protests that are rocking the country over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was taken into custody by morality police for the alleged improper wearing of a head scarf, or hijab.
Ronaghi had his leg broken by prison officers, according to journalist Masoud Kazemi, while Ronaghi’s mother has said her son told her he had been injured by guards.
Last month, in an interview with RFERL’s Radio Farda, Ronagi’s father said that prison officials threatened to kill his son if he gave an interview to foreign media.
Security agents stormed Ronaghi’s house and arrested him on September 22 as he was giving an interview to the London-based Iran International TV. He’s been on a hunger strike since being detained.
Meanwhile, the wife of political prisoner Majid Tavakoli said in a tweet that her husband is missing in prison and that she does not know where he is.
In a tweet she published on November 10, Tavakli wrote that after going to Evin prison to deliver personal belongings to her husband, she was informed that he had been transferred to the Great Tehran Penitentiary. But prison authorities there told her that he is not at their facility.
“That was the hardest day in the past 49 days,” she said, referring to the search for her husband.
Majid Tavakoli has said he was beaten by Evin prison guards on November 7 and transferred to solitary confinement.
Many high-profile activists, rights advocates, and intellectuals have also been arrested in recent days for the protests, including Fatemeh Sepehri and Arash Sadeghi.
At least 40 journalists are among those arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
They include Yalda Moayeri, Fatemeh Rajabi, and Niloufar Hamedi, who reported from a Tehran hospital where Amini died on September 16.
