Cleric Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, a 57-year-old serving an 11-year prison sentence on charges related to him advocating the separation of religion and state, suffers from a number of illnesses, including diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney and heart problems, as well as severe pain in his legs and waist. He has not been provided with the medical treatment he requires, even though prison doctors said in February 2014 that he needed to be hospitalized outside of prison. In August 2015, he said: “I have experienced all kinds of torment to the point that I have lost all of my health… my legs are becoming paralysed, my eyes are becoming blind, my lungs are in danger of failing, my heart is on a path to a heart attack.”
Background
Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, has expressed concern
about reports of insufficient or non-existent access to medical services for
prisoners. In his March 2015 report, the Special Rapporteur stated that a
number of prisoners were reportedly at risk of dying in prison due to
inadequate medical attention. According to the Special Rapporteur, many
prisoners are deprived of their right to receive proper medical treatment in
medical clinics and hospitals outside prison despite urgently needing medical care.1
Whether done with intent or by
neglect, failing to provide adequate medical care to prisoners is a breach of
Iran’s international human rights obligations. The denial of medical treatment
amount to a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture :
Article 7 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
UN Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) (Rules 24-35). Rule 27
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