Saba Kordafshari on Hunger Strike for Release of her Sick Mother Raheleh Ahmadi

According to Iran Human Rights, human rights defender Saba Kordafshari who is currently held in Qarchak Prison went on hunger strike on May 8. The strike is in protest to the increasing pressure on her family and other political prisoners and she is demanding that her mother, Raheleh Ahmadi be released.

Raheleh Ahmadi was sentenced to two years and seven months by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court and has been kept in Evin Prison despite her deteriorating health.      

On May 9, Raheleh’s other daughter Sogand Afshari tweeted: “Saba went on hunger strike yesterday for the release of her mother who’s imprisoned and has been deprived of seeing Saba and is unable to perform her personal tasks, and wasn’t released despite repeated calls that she needs medical care, and given her history of gastric bleeding, she could start bleeding at any time”

Saba Kordafshari, born in 1998, was tried on 27 August 2019 by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari. She was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment: 15 years in prison for “inciting and facilitating corruption and prostitution” through unveiling, seven and a half years for “assembly and colluding against national security”, a year and a half for “propaganda against the system” along with social restrictions. On appeal, Branch 36 of the Court of Appeals acquitted her of the “inciting and facilitating corruption and prostitution” charges, thus reducing her sentence to nine years in prison, and she would have to serve seven and a half after the application of Article 134.