The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran has expressed concerns about the critical health situation of several prisoners of conscience in the country who are on prolonged hunger strikes.
In her January 9 statement, Asma Jahangir said that at least eight prisoners of conscience have been on life-threatening hunger strikes in Iran in recent weeks to contest the legality of their detention.
One of the prisoners, human rights defender Arash Sadeghi, ended a hunger strike in early January that had started on 24 October 2016.
He did so after his wife, human rights activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, was released from prison on bail.
Jahangir urged the Iranian government to "immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arbitrarily arrested, detained, and prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and for peacefully promoting human rights observance" in Iran.