Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi has urged the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran to highlight the plight of jailed dervishes in Iran, who have been on hunger strike to protest their mistreatment by the Iranian judiciary.
In a letter to Ahmad Shaheed, Ebadi reports that the dervishes are prisoners of conscience jailed for their beliefs and that they have been subjected to all forms of illegal pressure, including torture, arrest, humiliation and threats. She adds that they have had to resort to hunger strikes because they have “not been able to find justice in the courts.”
Saleh Moradi and Kasra Nouri have passed the 70th day of their hunger strike, and since last week they have also begun refusing water.
They began their strike because seven lawyers representing the dervishes were transferred to solitary confinement in Evin Prison.
On Tuesday, 50 dervishes gathered to demonstrate in front of Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, an expression of their solidarity with the two jailed dervishes who are going without food and water.
