According to information obtained by IranWire, Abolfazl Damenjani, a political detainee arrested during the December 2025 protests, has been on a hunger strike at Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison since July 4, alongside a group of fellow inmates, despite suffering from severe pre-existing physical ailments.
An informed source told IranWire that Damenjani’s last contact with his family occurred on the day the strike began. Since then, he has not made any phone calls, and inmates report that he is no longer present in his regular ward.
Family members of the Mashhad resident state that until July 4, he and another prisoner, former university professor Ahmad Rahimi, were being held in Hall 1 of the Vakilabad quarantine ward. Both have since been transferred from that ward to an undisclosed location.
At least 350 prisoners held in the quarantine ward of Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison launched a collective hunger strike on July 2. The protest was organized to condemn systemic guard brutality, mistreatment by prison staff, and the abysmal living conditions inside these units.
According to informed sources, on July 1, security guards and Vakil-Bands, inmate ward bosses acting on guard orders, brutally assaulted a political prisoner under the pretext of “disrespecting officers.” Eyewitnesses reported that the beating was so severe that the prisoner lost bowel and bladder control. In direct response to this violence, roughly 350 inmates in the ward began refusing their meals, starting with lunch that day.
