A prominent jailed attorney in Iran, who defended political prisoners, started a full hunger strike Sunday after one week of subsisting on a liquid diet.
Amirslar Davoudi received a 30-year sentence and 111 lashes in June 2019 and now has gone on a full hunger strike to protest prison conditions. He was tried in an “Islamic Revolutionary Court” by the notorious judge known as Salavati.
He must serve fifteen years of his sentence and other lawyers have failed in their campaign to overturn the decision.
Davoudi took up many cases of political and religious prisoners over the years until Iran’s Judiciary agents arrested him in November 2018 and the court convicted him on a string of political accusations.
He was charged with starting a social media account where he criticized the state of human rights in Iran. “Propaganda against the state” and “insulting officials” were among the charges.
Exiled Iranian lawyers signed an open letter last year denouncing Davoudi's harsh sentence.
The letter called Davoudi "one of the most honorable lawyers in Iran."
"He has been convicted merely for defending victims of the judiciary and security agents, political prisoners and the oppressed, as well as audaciously criticizing the corrupt, cruel and inefficient political and judicial system in Iran," the letter said.