RSF concerned about Issa Saharkhiz, on hunger strike in prison
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 15 February 2016 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, RSF concerned about Issa Saharkhiz, on hunger strike in prison, 15 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56c425c540b.html [accessed 31 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the irresponsibility of Iran's highest authorities, who are refusing to release Issa Saharkhiz, a leading journalist held since early November and now on the fourth day of a hunger strike.
The onetime editor of several reformist newspapers including the now closed monthly Aftab, Saharkhiz told his family on 12 February that he had begun a hunger strike in protest against the conditions in which he is being held.
"You will come and collect me either from the hospital or from Beheshtzahar cemetery," he said, adding that he was being pressured to "confess to crimes I did not commit."
Saharkhiz and three other journalists haveheld provisionally since 2 November, when they were detained by the intelligence section of the Revolutionary Guards during a wave of arrests.
The intelligence services are trying to extract confessions to confirm Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's claim that they were members of "espionage networks involved in an enemy infiltration project."
Arrested for the first time on 4 July 2009, Saharkhiz was sentenced two months later by a Tehran revolutionary court to three years in prison on a charge of anti-government propaganda. In August 2011, he received an additional two-year sentence in connection with his journalistic activities prior to his arrest. He had serious heart problems while in prison.
RSF urges the Iranian authorities to guarantee this journalist's state of health. Under no condition should his life be endangered.
With a total of 38 journalists and citizen-journalists currently detained,Iran is still one of the world's five biggest prisons for media personnel and is ranked 173rd out of 180 countriesin the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
