Monday, July 31, 2006
Iranian student activist dies in prison
Iranian student activist Akbar Mohammadi has died in a Tehran prison following a five-day hunger strike, a news agency has reported.Mohammadi, 36, died Sunday night but "the coroners should determine the cause of his death," said Sohrab Soleimani, the head of prisons in Tehran province.
The ISNA news agency reported Monday that Mohammadi was arrested during a student protest in 1999 and had initially been sentenced to death. His sentence was subsequently changed to 15 years behind bars.
Held in Tehran's Evin prison, he had reportedly been on a hunger strike since July 25.
But Soleimani said "he would drink tea and water and he was monitored by a doctor". He said Mohammadi had fallen ill while he was taking a shower with the inmates and died while he was being transferred to the infirmary.
His lawyer Khalil Bahramian, complained that he had been denied access to his client.
"Last week I requested a meeting to talk him out of the hunger strike, but it did not happen," Bahramian told ISNA.
[+/-] show/hide this post
