URGENT! Life of Jailed Iranian Labor Activist Reza Shahabi, On Hunger Strike, in Danger

UPDATE: JULY 10, 2014--It is over 40 days since Reza began his hunger strike. His situation took a turn for the worse on Monday night, July 7 when he collapsed unconscious. He was taken to the infirmary of Rajai-Shahr Prison. His cellmates report that he was returned to his cell without having regained consciousness. The deliber--and ILLEGAL--medical neglect of Iran's prisoners of conscience thus continues. Please take ALL of the Actions below, the life of a good and brave man hangs in the balance!

Reza Shahabi is an Iranian labor activist and the board member of SWTSBC, the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. He was also previously in charge of the labor committee of Human Rights Activists in Iran. Reza Shahabi has been in prison since June 2009 and was sentenced to six years in jail for his labor activities. Later, the court of appeals changed the sentence to four years in prison, five years being banned from any union activities and a fine of 70 million rials.

Formerly imprisoned in Evin Prison's Ward 350, on June 1, 2014 Reza Shahabi--along with six other Iranian prisoners of conscience--was transferred ward to the notorious Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. He immediately launched a protest hunger strike. This sort of "internal exile" within Iran's prison system, although common with prisoners of conscience, is actually illegal under Iranian prison regulations.

Reza Shahabi has undergone other prison hunger strikes in the past to protest mistreatment at the hands of his jailers, including deliberate medical neglect. He is suffering from neck and spine complications that may lead to paralysis.

He is in urgent need of medical treatment, including surgery on his spine, which he cannot obtain inside the prison. He was apparently promised that he would receive the surgical treatment on 19 March. However, hours before when his surgery was scheduled, he was returned to prison and has not been transferred back to hospital since. The same situation happened on 15 December 2012, when he was forcibly returned to prison before he could be adequately examined by doctors, leading him to start a hunger strike. He stopped it on 7 January 2013, only after he was granted medical leave, which ended on 15 April 2013.

Hospital doctors have written, at least once, to the prison administration and the office of the Prosecutor of Tehran of their diagnosis that Reza Shahabi requires specialized medical care outside prison. They have emphasized that without this treatment he faces a real risk of suffering paralysis on the left side of his body.

On July 3, Amnesty International Iran provided the following urgent update: "He has lost 15 kg. of his weight and is almost unable to walk on his own. He requires help from the other prisoners to be able to even go to the bathroom. 3 days ago he passed out and he does not get proper medical care either inside prison or in an outside hospital." It should be noted that according to Iran's prison regulations, if adequate medical care cannot be provided within prison facilities, it is required to make provisions for outside hospitalization.

On Monday 30th of June, the very day that he passed out, other prisoners took him to the clinic and the clinic did not accept him. The "doctor" had said Reza has to end the strike or he will get no medical care.