Abbas Lisani and Yusef Kari, imprisoned activists of the Azerbaijani National Movement, informed their families and close relatives during a phone call today, June 29, 2026 (8 Tir 1405), that they have been on a hunger strike since June 28 (7 Tir).
The two activists stated that they will continue their hunger strike until their legal demands are met, namely that prison authorities refrain from transferring them to separate wards, uphold the principle of separating prisoners according to the nature of their alleged offenses, and implement the prison regulations as required.
Yesterday morning, after Evin Prison officials attempted to transfer them to separate units within Ward 7, Lisani and Kari warned that if prison authorities failed to respect the principle of classification of prisoners and insisted on separating them in what they viewed as an additional form of pressure and harassment, they would begin a hunger strike.
Previously, despite pressure from Evin Prison authorities, Abbas Lisani and Yusef Kari refused to appear before Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court after receiving summonses to attend court hearings.
The two activists have publicly stated that they will not participate in what they describe as “staged, closed-door trials that fail to meet the standards of a fair trial,” and that they are unwilling to legitimize judicial proceedings they consider incompatible with the principles of due process.
According to published reports, since their arrest, Lisani and Kari have repeatedly declared that, because they consider both their detention and the judicial proceedings against them unlawful, they will not participate in any stage of the investigation or trial.
On May 30, 2026 (9 Khordad 1405), a hearing was held before Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court for the cases of four Azerbaijani National Movement activists: Abbas Lisani, Ali Kheyrjou, Yusef Kari, and Behzad Dashti. At that hearing, Lisani, Kari, and Kheyrjou also refused to attend. In separate calls with their families, Lisani and Kari stated that they would not participate in what they described as a “pre-planned and unlawful spectacle.”
The four civil activists were arrested on November 11, 2025 (20 Aban 1404) outside Evin Prison. Hours after their arrest, they were transferred to Branch 6 of the Evin Prosecutor’s Office, where they were charged with offenses including “forming or membership in an illegal group,” “assembly and collusion against national security,” and “disrupting public order.”
In the days following their arrest, the detainees reported that they had been beaten by security and law enforcement officers during their arrest and requested to be examined by the Forensic Medicine Organization to document their injuries. In letters addressed to the Tehran Prosecutor and the head of Evin Prison, they also requested that the injuries they sustained be officially recorded and documented.
After spending several weeks in solitary confinement in the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility, Abbas Lisani and Yusef Kari were transferred to the quarantine section of Ward 7 at Evin Prison, where they have remained ever since.
