Azerbaijani human rights activist Abbas Lesani who is serving a 15-year prison term in Iran, has been hospitalized.
Lesan was taken to a medical clinic on October 21 for an MRI test due to severe pain in knees and backbone.
Abbas Lessani was jailed in 2019 and transferred to a prison in northwestern Ardabil region. He has held several hunger strikes in the Ardabil Prison where he has been held since January 2019.
Announced a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, Lesani faced trumped-up charges, including on charges including “spreading propaganda against the system”.
He was also charged with “forming a group with the purpose to disrupt national security” by the Ardabil Revolutionary Court and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and two years of exile in Yazd City.
Later, the verdict of Abbas Lessani was increased to 15-years-imprisonment and two-years-exile on appeal.
Lesani is the author of the book “Ozgurluk Harayi” (Shout for Freedom), which includes a collection of articles, speeches, poems, interviews, and his letters from prison that has been published by Azerbaijani activists.
The usage of mother tongue, namely the right to receive education in this language, has been a central issue for Azerbaijani Turks who comprise at leaest one third of Iran’s populatin of roughly 84 million people.
This is the third time he was hospitalized since his arrest.
