UN rights experts call on Iran to release jailed filmmaker
The experts said Iran's denial of adequate medical care to Mohammad Nourizad may amount to torture.
A group of independent United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday called on Iran to release a jailed dissident filmmaker whose severe health complications put him at risk of death.
“We are seriously concerned at the mistreatment of Mohammad Nourizad and his continued imprisonment for expressing his opinion,” the experts said, adding that his “case is emblematic of the situation many Iranian political activists face in detention.”
The filmmaker, who signed an open letter calling for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s resignation, is serving a more than 17-year sentence for insulting the supreme leader. According to Amnesty International, Nourizad has been denied access to specialized medical care for his heart disease and diabetes.
The rights group says he’s been subjected to sexual violence and other degrading treatment while in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. In April, Nourizad wrote a letter describing an incident in which he says he was injected with an unknown substance into his genitals.
