Iran: Tortured prisoner needs medical care

For the first three months of his detention, Kamran Ghaderi was held in section 209 of Evin prison, in Tehran, and taken to an unidentified detention facility for interrogations. He has said he now shares a 25m² space, in the general ward, without windows with 16 other prisoners, which he has described as being like a “cellar”. He has also said the space is infested with cockroaches, bed bugs and rats. 

Kamran Ghaderi was denied access to a lawyer for over seven months following his arrest: from January 2016 until two days prior to his August 2016 trial before a Revolutionary Court in Tehran. 

Kamran Ghaderi has had several health problems since his arrest in January 2016. While he was held in prolonged solitary confinement, he experienced severe back and hip pain and, by May 2017, he was having great difficulty walking unassisted. He told his wife that, during this time, he required the help of other prisoners to go to the bathroom. 

Kamran Ghaderi spent nearly 62 days on medical leave outside prison. His doctor said physical therapy needed to begin six months after surgery, but it only began one year later and was terminated after just seven of the required 10 sessions had been conducted.

Kamran Ghaderi continues to have pain in his back. An MRI scan in February 2018 showed that a pre-existing tumour in Kamran Ghaderi’s left leg had increased in size.His doctors in Austria had said it needed to be monitored every six months, but he has only had two MRI scans since his arrest, with his last MRI scan taking place in March 2019. He requires ongoing medical care for it.