Iran's Ebadi urges dissident to end hunger strike

Reuters:

Iranian human rights lawyer and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on Sunday urged her client, dissident journalist Akbar Ganji, to end a 58-day-old hunger strike undertaken in protest at his imprisonment.

"I am worried about Ganji's health. Right now, what matters is his life," Ebadi, who has written to Ganji to convey her message, told Reuters. "As one of his lawyers ... I sincerely urge Ganji to end his hunger strike and eat food." READ MORE

Ganji, 46, an outspoken critic of the Islamic state's clerical leadership, was transferred from prison to a Tehran hospital last month as his health deteriorated.

Ebadi also criticized Iran's judiciary for refusing to allow her to visit Ganji. "This is unlawful," she said.

Ganji's wife, Masoumeh Shafiee, and Ebadi have been unable to see him for more than a week.

A journalist who tried to visit Ganji in the hospital two weeks ago, was arrested on charges of "illegal journalistic activities," the semi-official ILNA news agency said. He was released from Tehran's Evin prison on Saturday.

On Saturday, Shafiee called on Ganji's friends to try to persuade him to end the hunger strike, which he says is a protest against the authorities' refusal to release him on grounds of ill-health.

A former hardline Revolutionary Guard turned reformer, Ganji was jailed in 2001 following a series of articles he wrote linking officials to the murder of political dissidents.

The White House and the European Union have each called on Iran to release him immediately on humanitarian grounds.