Police disperse protesters outside Tehran's Evin prison

Reuters:

Police on Wednesday broke up a protest outside Tehran's Evin prison by more than 100 people demanding the release of all political prisoners, one of the organisers said.

Seifollah Akbari told Reuters police with batons had beaten several demonstrators and detained two women and a man.

"Police violently attacked the demonstrators and told them to leave immediately," he said. READ MORE

It was not immediately possible to verify Akbari's account.

Earlier in the day international human rights groups urged Iran to release all political prisoners, including two they said were being denied medical care in Evin prison.

The groups, joined by Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, said the judiciary had over-ruled a request from prison authorities for two jailed critics of the government, Akbar Ganji and Nasser Zarafshan, to receive medical treatment.

"Ganji is in prison just for peacefully criticising the authorities," said Ebadi, who is Ganji's lawyer, in a joint statement with the rights groups. "His mistreatment in prison is a serious violation of fundamental human rights standards."

There was no immediate official response to the statement, issued in New York two days before Iran's presidential election.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights and Reporters Without Borders listed Reza Alijani, Taqi Rahmani and Hoda Saber as other "prisoners of conscience" unjustly imprisoned in the Islamic republic.

Ganji is a journalist detained in 2000 for linking officials to political murders and later sentenced to six years in prison.

He was allowed to leave Evin prison on May 30 for medical care, but was back behind bars on June 10 before he could get treatment for asthma and back pains, the groups said.

"Now that I have gone back to prison, I will resume my hunger strike," he said as he returned to prison. "All political prisoners must be freed."

Iran has a dismal record on press freedoms, closing more than 100 liberal publications and jailing several journalists in a concerted crackdown on reformist media since 2000.

Zarafshan is a lawyer who represented the families of murdered dissidents. In 2002, he was sentenced by a military court to five years in prison. The rights groups said he suffers from kidney disease, but was getting no specialist treatment.

"Zarafshan also started a hunger strike on June 7 and his health is reportedly deteriorating," the statement said.