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Iran political prisoner is refused treatment after suspected heart attack

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NCRI – Afshin Baymani, an ailing political prisoner in Iran’s notorious Rajai-Shahr Prison (Gohardasht Prison), is being refused hospital treatment by the authorities after suffering what appears to a heart attack earlier on Sunday.

Mr. Baymani, in his mid-forties, who suffers from a serious heart condition, is being held in Ward 4 of Hall 12 of Rajai-Shahr Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.

According to fellow political prisoners, Mr. Baymani was initially taken to the infirmary where doctors said his condition is serious and that he needs to be hospitalized, a request that was denied by the warden despite the doctors insisting that he must not be taken back to the ward in his current state. He was finally sent back to the ward with two injections. Doctors have said he must at no time be left alone with his condition, even during his sleep since he is at risk of heart failure. He has been told that in addition to his heart, his lungs are also suffering from serious problems.

Medical staff in Rajai-Shahr Prison have previously said Mr. Baymani is in need of an open heart surgery.

Mr. Baymani, a father of two, has been imprisoned for some 16 years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and Gohardasht Prison in Karaj for allegedly helping his brother evade arrest.

Mr. Baymani was originally sentenced to execution on September 6, 2000, but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment six years later.

Mr. Baymani has previously suffered heart attacks and is in poor health. In 2014, he was among a group of political prisoners who went on hunger strike in solidarity with Iranian women in Isfahan, central Iran, who at the time were subjected to a spate of acid attacks by organized fundamentalist gangs affiliated to the regime.

He again went on a hunger strike in December 2015 in protest to his transfer to the ordinary prisoners’ ward.