Iranian of the Day

Kaleme: Following a beating today, Abolfazl Ghadyani was taken to a hospital. The attending doctor ordered Ghadyani’s hospitalization, however, prison guards refused the doctor’s orders and returned him to Evin Prison.

According to Kaleme reports, before noon on Monday, prison forces transferred a disheveled and distressed Abolfazl Ghadyani to the hospital for cardiac examination.

Ghadyani, a member of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization, told witnesses and his relatives, who had learned of the incident and had gone to the hospital, that a number of prison guards under the command of Mohammed Attari had beaten him in the presence of another prison official by the name of Rashidi, removed his jacket forcefully, handcuffed him, and transferred him to the hospital.

Abolfazl Ghadyani protested his beating by refusing his medical examination. The attending physician also refused to examine Ghadyani, stating that a cardiac examination is pointless when the patient is under such anxious conditions.

The attending physician further told the forces that if he carried out the examination under the existing circumstances, he would certainly issue an order for Ghadyani’s hospitalization, asking them whether they would permit the hospitalization.

According to this report, the guards then returned Ghadyani, 67, the oldest Green Movement political prisoner, to Ward 350 of Evin Prison.

Kaleme reported earlier that Abolfazl Ghadyani has repeatedly experienced severe heart problems in prison. He has undergone heart surgery several times, and the medical examiner had announced that Ghadyani must be given a four-month medical furlough. However, Tehran Prosecutor Jafari Dolatabadi has opposed Ghadyani’s medical furlough.

Ghadyani was first arrested in December 2009 and was sentenced to one year in prison on charges of “insulting the president”. Within the past three years, he has repeatedly written letters to high officials such as Ayatollah Khamenei, criticizing their conduct. Therefore several new cases have been raised against him.

Ghadyani was tortured for four years in the SAVAK prisons during the Pahlavi era.