Saeed Shirzad, a human rights defender and active member of the Society for Defending Street and Working Children, started a hunger strike on 31 March. He is protesting the transfer of three prisoners, convicted of national security offences, from Section 12 to the sections of Raja’i Shahr Prison, where apparently prisoners jailed for serious non-political crimes such as murder and physical assault are held, despite Iran’s prison regulations requiring separation of different categories of prisoners.
Saeed Shirzad was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2015, after Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court convicted him of the charge of “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security”. He was acquitted of the charge of “disturbing the public order” which he had not been formally informed of prior to this hearing. Instead, he had been charged with “spreading propaganda against the system” which did not appear in his indictment. The charges against Saeed Shirzad relate to his peaceful human rights activities including contacts with the families of political prisoners and cooperating with the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran. Saeed Shirzad’s trial, which took place over a year after his arrest, was grossly unfair. He was allowed to meet his lawyer for the first time during his court hearing which lasted about half an hour. The authorities had denied his lawyer access to casefile material until shortly before the hearing.
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