Imprisoned Iranian civil rights activist Zartosht Ahmadi Ragheb has reportedly begun a new hunger strike to protest what he describes as the authorities' "fabricating" new charges against him.
Ragheb, a former employee of the fire department, is one of the 14 civil and political activists who in June 2018 called for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Criticism of Khamenei, who has the final say on almost every important decision in Iran, is considered a red line by the regime and his critics often land in prison, where political prisoners are routinely held in solitary confinement and subjected to various forms of torture.
The new accusations against Ragheb, as filed by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Karaj, charge him with "propaganda against the system."
Following the new charges, Ragheb announced a hunger strike in a letter to the investigator handling his latest case, according to sources close to RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
He also released an audio message from prison, which prompted him being moved to the security ward of Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, where he has been cut off from any contact with his family.
Ragheb, who has been repeatedly arrested and jailed for his activism, has also called for a new political system within the framework of a new constitution that would secure equal rights for women and for the abolition of the death penalty.
In February 2022, Ragheb was sentenced to one year in prison for "propaganda against the state," prompting him to declare his first hunger strike.
He was released from prison in February following the completion of the sentence but was rearrested in March during a protest against poisoning attacks on schools.
Ragheb was sentenced again in May to five years and eight months in prison for charges of "assembly and collusion against national security" and for "propaganda against the state."