Officials at Evin Prison are blocking the transfer of political prisoner Azar Korvandi, 60, to a hospital and denying her access to necessary medical care.
Reports indicate a deterioration in the health condition of political prisoner Azar Korvandi Mousazadeh, 60 years old, held in Evin Prison. Despite her critical medical condition, she has been denied hospital transfer and access to specialized treatment.
Suffering from a herniated cervical disc disease and tendon deterioration in her shoulder, she endures excruciating pain in her neck, shoulder, and arm, rendering her unable to move her head.
Despite specialist doctors recommending immediate surgery, prison authorities have refused to allow her transfer to a hospital for treatment. An MRI scan has confirmed significant tendon thinning in her shoulder, further exacerbating her condition. Korvandi’s denial of medical care comes despite her history of cancer and an existing heart condition.
Born in 1962, Azar Korvandi is married and has two children. She was previously imprisoned as a political detainee in the 1980s, during which she was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth while enduring harsh prison conditions under interrogation.
Political prisoner Azar Korvandi was arrested in the summer of 2019 on charges of collaborating with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and promoting anti-regime propaganda after holding family counseling sessions in her private garden in Shahriar. She was released on bail then but later convicted in December 2021 by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Mrs. Korvandi received a five-year prison sentence for “assembly and collusion to act against national security” and an additional one-year sentence for “propaganda against the state.” As supplementary punishment, she was banned from leaving the country for two years and prohibited from membership and activity in social, political, and cultural groups for two years.
After the verdict was upheld by the Tehran Appeals Court and under Article 134 of the regime’s Penal Code, Azar Korvandi’s five-year prison sentence became enforceable.
On July 30, 2023, she was summoned to the First Branch of the Enforcement Office of the Tehran District 33 Prosecutor’s Office, arrested, and transferred to Evin Prison to serve her sentence.
The denial of medical treatment to political prisoners remains a persistent human rights violation in Iran. The NCRI Women’s Committee has repeatedly sounded the alarm over the systematic medical neglect in Iranian prisons and has called on the United Nations and international human rights organizations to dispatch investigative missions to inspect prison conditions and interview political prisoners—especially women.
