Watchdog

A United Nations human rights investigator has urged Iran to find a “prompt solution” to a prolonged hunger strike by prisoners protesting their conditions and their unexplained transfer to a high-security section of a prison outside Tehran.

UN special rapporteur Asma Jahangir on August 31 said she was “deeply alarmed” by reports of the deteriorating conditions of about 53 prisoners, including 15 followers of the Baha'i faith.

UN officials said at least 18 of the 53 were known to be on the hunger strike.

The prisoners were abruptly transferred to a high-security section of Rajai-Shahr prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, in recent weeks.

Iran’s Shi’ite government considers the Baha’i faith, which was founded in Iran in the 19th century, to be a heretical offshoot of Islam. There are an estimated 300,000 Baha’i in the country today.

"I am deeply alarmed by reports about the deteriorating medical conditions of the prisoners on hunger strike, and that their torture and ill-treatment have continued since their transfer," Jahangir said.

"I urge the government of Iran to look for a prompt solution to the extreme situation created by the hunger strike through good-faith dialogue about the grievances and underlying human rights violations, ensuring full respect for their dignity and autonomy," Jahangir said.

Amnesty International on August 22 also decried the conditions for what it called "political prisoners."

Iranian officials declined to comment.

Based on reporting by Reuters, The Huffington Post, and the Center for Human Rights in Iran

KAZAN -- A court in Kazan, the capital of Russia's Tatarstan region, has sentenced a local activist to three years in prison for inciting hatred on the Internet, inflicting bodily harm, and hooliganism -- charges which rights groups say are fabricated.

The Vakhit district court found Danis Safargali guilty on August 31 and sentenced him the same day.

Safargali, the leader of the Tatar patriotic movement Altyn Urda (The Golden Horde), denies all charges.

He was arrested in October 2016.

Memorial, a Moscow-based human rights center, has called Safargali a political prisoner.

In an August 29 statement, Memorial said that Safargali is "a victim of a persecution campaign against opposition activists of the Tatar national movement...that has been launched since 2014."

Investigators say his 15 posts on the Internet in which he criticized the Russian government, President Vladimir Putin, and Moscow's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 can be defined as incitement to hatred.

The two other charges are linked to an alleged brawl that took place in Kazan in April 2016.

Safargali insisted that his son was being beaten by two attackers, who also attacked his pregnant wife. He said he had to intervene in the incident but denied that he had beaten the attackers.

Memorial called on authorities to immediately release Safargali, to drop the charge of inciting hatred, and fairly investigate his involvement in the alleged brawl.