Valiullah Faiz Mahdavi

Who is Valiullah Faiz Mahdavi?

Valiullah Faiz Mahdavi was a former member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran who died in prison in Iran in September 2006. He died after a nine-day hunger strike without medical attention. His death followed that of another political prisoner, Akbar Mohammadi, and indicated the "grave danger" of political prisoners' health and safety in the Islamic Republic of Iran according to Human Rights Watch.

Mahdavi was arrested in 2001 and charged him with "armed resistance against the state." He was sentenced to death in a trial where he was denied access to a lawyer but in June the chief of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, commuted his sentence to life in prison.

According to his lawyer, Mohammad Sharif, Mahdavi started his hunger strike in August 2006 with the demand that he "be allowed to meet with his lawyers in person", and that he "be moved out of Gohardasht prison, where he said his life was under threat from prisoners who were dangerous criminals." He was admitted to Tehran's Shariati Hospital on September 2, nine-days into the hunger strike, which reportedly had caused his health to "deteriorated greatly". Sources "close to Mahdavi's family" have told Human Rights Watch that prison officials "repeatedly ignored Mahdavi's perilous health condition until it reached a critical stage," and that he was unconscious when prison officials ultimately transferred him to a hospital. His death was reported on September 6. Government officials stated that "he committed suicide."