On the 37th day of his hunger strike Dr. latif Hasani, the leader of the New Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement was moved to the Tabriz prison’s hospital. He is currently in the clinic’s Intensive Care Unit and has refused to cease his strike.
His spouse, Mrs. Azam Piri in her most recent statement revealed that her husband’s life is in imminent danger. Dr. Hasani had suffered a stroke and undergone an open heart surgery last year which has made his situation worse. According to Mrs. Piri, her spouse has lost 20 Kgs of his weight . His blood pressure has dropped to a life threatening level and he is black outs every other minute and unable to move independently.
According to Mrs. Piri, the director of Tabriz Prison visited Dr. Hasani yesterday and told him that he needed to pack up and prepare to relocate to Rajaishahr Prison. Nevertheless, a day after the very same director contradicted himself and asked the prisoner to file another transfer request. Mrs. Piri calls the directors’ actions brutal and sadistic since Dr. Hasani has already filled 6 transfer requests all of which are disregarded as of yet.
The leader of Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement has been on hunger strike rightfully demanding his transfer to a political compartment of any penitentiary centre closer to his family’s place of residence. The NEW SANAM leader’s family currently reside in Karaj, and Dr. Hasani is demanding to get transferred to either the Evin Prison of Tehran or the Rejaishahr Prison of Karaj.
His spouse has told the media that since she has undergone a back surgery, she is unable to travel 10 hours from Tehran to Tabriz for merely a 15 minutes of no-contact- glass- wall “Visit”.
Dr. Hasani with his spouse Mrs. Azam
Dr. Hasani a professor in International Law was arrested last year, along with other four leading members of SANAM, for establishing an “illegal” political organization and struggling to secure right of self-determination for people of south Azerbaijan which is perceived as “separatism” by the regime in Tehran. They were sentenced to 9 years in Prison by Tabriz Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal.
Dr Hasani is being held in the notorious “Labour Therapy” Compartment of Tabriz Prison where he is forced to up to 12 hours of forced harsh labour on a daily basis along with dangerous criminals.
Under Iran’s criminal justice law, prisoners have a right to be held at the closest facility of their place of origin or residence. However, the Iran’s notorious spy agency, Ettelaat is opposing the South Azerbaijani prisoners’ transfer requests to ensure greater suffering of the political prisoners and their families .
Ayat (yurush) Mehralibegli, the other leading member of SANAM who has recently been relocated to Julfa Prison had to secure his simple right of transference by a lengthy hunger strike as well.
