DUSHANBE, August 1, Asia-Plus — Two foreign prisoners, serving their sentences in a penal colony in the Yovon district, have gone on hunger strike.
According to the Tajik Republican Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law, two Iranian nationals, Mir-Mehdi Mousavi and Asad Haidari, who are serving their sentences in the Yovon penal colony, Sunday sent letters to President Emomali Rahmon, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Republican Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law, and the UNHCR CO in Tajikistan.
The source at the Bureau said that the letter, in particular, said that they had been granted amnesty and could be deported to Iran that poses a real threat to their lives.
“We are politically active citizens of Iran, having adopted Christianity. If we are deported to Iran, we will be tortured or executed,“ the letter said.
According to the source, these two foreign prisoners have applied to the Tajik government and international organizations asking for preventing the possible deportation and taking appropriate measures to protect them.
In the meantime, penitentiary department of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) denied information about the hunger strike as unfounded.
The source at the penitentiary department said that those two Iranian nationals, serving their sentences in the Yovon penal colony, had got jail terms for illegally crossing the border. “Under Tajikistan’s legislation and international legal norms they should be deported to their homeland after serving their sentences or being granted amnesty,” said the source, “But they have not yet been granted amnesty.”
Mr. Ali Reza Araste, Press-Attaché , Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe, told Asia-Plus that the embassy has not yet received any official note about the mentioned prisoners. “Moreover, we do not yet know exactly whether Mir-Mehdi Mousavi and Asad Haidari are citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran or not,” Iranian diplomat said.
