Amnesty demands release and medical treatment for jailed Iranian cleric

Amnesty International has launched an urgent appeal for medical attention for a critically ill Iranian cleric being held in Tehran's Evin prison.

Prisoner of conscience is serving an 11 year sentence for advocating the separation of religion and state and has faced constant demands to recant his beliefs in a signed letter of confession - or face never being released.

He is also suffering from diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney and heart problems and severe pain in his legs and waist. He has reportedly gone partly blind in one eyes and frequently collapses.

He has not been provided with the medical treatment he requires, though prison doctors said in February 2014 that he needed to be hospitalized outside the prison.

But during the eight years he has spent in prison, he has only been admitted to hospital three times, Amnesty said.

Prison guards reportedly raided his cell on 15 March and destroyed his personal belongings, while he was with his family, who have also been harassed during prison visits and subjected to invasive body searches.

And in September 2013, Mr Boroujerdi’s wife, Akram Vali Dousti, was summoned for questioning by the Special Court for Clerics (SCC).

Mr Boroujerdi was arrested on October 8, 2006, and charged with around 30 offences, including 'waging war against God' (moharebeh), committing acts against national security, publicly calling the principle of political leadership by the clergy unlawful, having links with anti-revolutionaries and spies, and using the term 'religious dictatorship' instead of 'Islamic Republic' in public speeches and radio interviews.

He was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment on August 13, 2007, and defrocked (banned from wearing his clerical robes and thereby from practising his clerical duties), and his house and all his belongings were confiscated. His family had appointed lawyers for him but the SCC refused to allow them to defend him on the grounds that only clerics appointed by the Judiciary could make representations on his behalf.