Political prisoner Akbar Bagheri has been suffering from hemorrhage for three weeks and has become seriously weak. He is detained in ward 5 of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary where coronavirus suspected patients are held and is in danger of becoming infected.
Currently, May 2020, Akbar Bagheri has been transferred to the quarantine ward in prison where patients with coronavirus are detained. He has no coronavirus symptoms and should not be in the quarantine ward, especially as he is high risk of dying from coronavirus if he is exposed to it, due to other health implications such as severe hemorrhoid, liver and kidney complications.
Mr Bagheri health has deteriorated to the point that he needs a blood transfusion, but the prison authorities are refusing to treat him.
Akbar Bagheri has an 8-year-old daughter and an elderly mother who were under his care. His family live in Kermanshah and are not able to visit him due to the long distance.
A supporter of the opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), Mr Bagheri, was once arrested in 2017 after security forces raided his home. He was arrested again on 21st February 2017 during a protest rally against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corporation.
Mr Bagheri was kept in the solitary confinement cells of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in Evin for 48 days and was transferred to Ward 4 of the prison in March. He was later taken to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary.