Political prisoner Alborz Ghasemi dies due to refusal of medical treatment

NCRI

Navy Colonel Alborz Ghasemi, a 51-year-old political prisoner, died on January 19, 2010, after spending 20 months in the medieval prisons of the mullahs’ regime under the most brutal forms of torture. He suffered from chronic pain as a result of stomach cancer and died at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. The regime’s henchmen deprived him of hospitalization and receiving proper medical treatment by specialists. Ghasemi was a former commander of the Center for Expert Naval Training in the city of Rasht and an instructor at one of the Army’s Naval Forces universities.

Ghasemi was arrested on May 12, 2008, and accused of transferring intelligence to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). His brother, Hamid Ghasemi, a Canadian resident, was also arrested after returning to Iran. The two political prisoners were sentenced to death after preliminary hearings on charges of moharebeh (waging war against God). An appeals court later reduced their sentence to life imprisonment.

Ghasemi spent his prison term in solitary confinement at the Army’s intelligence protection detention center as well as Evin’s Ward 240. He was kept in Ward 350 of Evin prison for the past two months. Ghasemi was subjected to cruel torture during his imprisonment.

The regime’s callous henchmen refused to grant Ghasemi the bare minimum medical attention even though he was suffering from intolerable pain as a result of stomach cancer, effects of torture and the excruciating circumstances in solitary confinement.

Hamid Qasemi is currently held in ward 350 of Evin prison under appalling conditions. Like his brother, he has been incarcerated for 20 months, undergone torture and held in solitary confinement.