The family of Arash Sadeghi has again voiced concern over a further deterioration in the Iranian activist's state of health while incarcerated at Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
Arash Sadeghi's father warned about his son's physical condition and the progression of his bone cancer, adding that Arash was detained despite suffering from the disease and that he does not have access to medicine and treatment in prison.
Pointing out that his son was arrested for the first time in 2009 and has been arrested and imprisoned several times since, Hossein Sadeghi warned that "if Arash is not treated for two months, he will not survive."
Sadeghi was arrested during recent protests that are rocking the country over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was taken into custody by morality police for the alleged improper wearing of a head scarf, or hijab.
Sadeghi was a student at Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran where he was expelled by the authorities due to his political activities.
In 2013 he was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges of propaganda against the government, defamation of the supreme leader, and threatening national security.
He has gone on hunger strike several times, including in 2016 to protest against the arrest of his wife, who was detained on a charge of writing fiction that has not yet been published.
Sadeghi, who was diagnosed with cancer during his previous imprisonment, was released from prison a year and a half ago after enduring more than five years behind bars.
Many high-profile activists, rights advocates, and intellectuals have also been arrested in recent days because of the protests, including Fatemeh Sepehri and Majid Tavakoli.
At least 116 journalists and columnists are among those arrested, according to RFERL’s Radio Farda.
They include Yalda Moayeri, Arash Ganji and Niloufar Hamedi, who reported from a Tehran hospital where Amini died on September 16.