Tehran, Jun. 14 At least 10 people were arrested this afternoon by Irans paramilitary police for taking part in a sit-in outside Tehrans Evin Prison.
The protesters had gathered to declare their support for political prisoners presently on hunger strike inside Evin. Evin Prison was built by the Shahs regime as a modern security prison to house political dissidents, but it became the Islamic Republics most dreaded gulag and the site of numerous political executions.
The dozens of families of political prisoners and dissidents who staged the sit-in outside Evin Prison have been widely supported by Iranians. Trying to cash in on the popular support for the protesters, candidate Mostafa Moin sent a member of his campaign team to visit them shortly before the paramilitary police began its crackdown today.
On June 10, political prisoners in Evin Prison began a month-long hunger strike to protest against human rights violations and what they called the sham election on June 17 to choose the countrys new president.
The political prisoners said they were defending the right to speak, the right to write freely, the right to belief, and the unconditional release of all political prisoners.
The prisoners called for a general boycott of the elections and invited political prisoners from elsewhere throughout the country to join them in the strike.
Nasser Zarafshan, a lawyer who has been in jail after he angered the authorities by his staunch defence of the families of dissidents murdered by officials of Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security, has been on hunger strike for eight days. A doctor who has seen him said his condition is deteriorating rapidly.
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