Prominent Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Noorizad has been beaten in prison while on a hunger strike, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Noorizad’s wife, Fateme Maliki, said on May 21 that she had been informed about her husband’s attack on the night of May 20. She said she would meet in person with him today to see his condition.
Maliki said Noorizad was on a walk in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison last week when he was assaulted by five men. He was taken to the prison’s clinic where doctors said he had suffered head injuries. He reportedly has problems with his eyesight as a result of the attack.
Noorizad was on the third day of a hunger strike when he was attacked. According to his wife, prison officials have forced Noorizad to take fluids.
“We insisted [to the authorities] to not allow him to continue with the hunger strike, as the effects of it could be severe,” Maliki said.
Noorizad had been tried by a revolutionary court this spring on charges of “insulting government officials” and “propaganda against the government.”
The charges stemmed from a letter Noorizad wrote to Iranian Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Noorizad blamed Khamenei for bloodshed stemming from the crackdown on opposition activists which followed Iran’s disputed presidential election last June.
