A 70-year-old rights activist in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison has been hospitalized following a heart attack, according to Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.
Mohammadi wrote on Instagram on January 25 that Raheleh Rahemi (aka Rahemipur) is one of four prisoners over 70 in Evin’s women’s ward.
“She is suffering from several ailments, including treatment for a brain tumor, but is in prison,” said Mohammadi, who is also being held at the Evin prison.
The news came as female prisoners prepared to go on hunger strike in protest against recent executions in Iran.
Mohammadi said Rahemi had been imprisoned for “the crime of seeking justice” after her brother was executed in the 1980s.
The Nobel laureate accused the Islamic republic of being a “criminal” establishment and described it as “a regime that massacres and executes and imprisons and tortures survivors and those who seek justice.”
In 2017, Amnesty International criticized Iran for imprisoning Rahemi and demanded her “immediate and unconditional release.”
The rights group said Rahemi had sought justice for her brother and his infant child, both of whom it said had “disappeared while in prison” in the 1980s.
Amnesty International said an Iranian court had deemed her interviews about the disappearance of her brother and nephew as grounds to charge her with “propaganda against the establishment.”
Iranian prisons have for decades been accused of ignoring prisoners’ conditions.
Mohammadi has been a vocal critic of prison conditions, publishing numerous letters highlighting the state of prisons as well as violence against female inmates and those detained during nationwide protests.
Last year, in a letter addressed to Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mohammadi described "assault on women during arrest and in detention centers" as part of the Islamic republic's "suppression program" against dissenting women.