Breathing in Confinement

3 October 2025
News group: Prisoners –

Breathing in Confinement – Denial of medical care and violations of the rights of a political prisoner sentenced to death: growing concern over the condition of Manouchehr Fallah in Lakan Prison, Rasht.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Manouchehr Fallah, a political prisoner on death row held in Lakan Prison, Rasht, has for some time been suffering from acute stomach pain and illness.

Despite Mr Fallah’s deteriorating condition, prison officials have claimed that Razi Hospital in Rasht has refused to admit and hospitalise him, allegedly due to a shortage of medical resources. Cellmates dispute this assertion as untrue, stressing that Mr Fallah remains awake through the night from severe pain and is in urgent need of treatment.

Depriving prisoners of medical services constitutes inhuman treatment and amounts to torture under international human-rights standards, and is also a violation of Iran’s Prison Regulations, placing the prisoner’s health and life at serious risk.

Mr Fallah was previously sentenced to death on the charge of “moharebeh” (enmity against God) through acts against national security, in closed proceedings, without access to a lawyer of his choosing, and in a process that failed to meet fair-trial standards.

Under Iran’s international obligations—including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Nelson Mandela Rules (the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners)—the state and prison authorities are obliged to safeguard prisoners’ health and ensure timely access to adequate medical care. Preventing hospital transfer and denying treatment to Manouchehr Fallah is a clear violation of his fundamental rights and an instance of deliberate disregard for the right to life and human dignity.