A press freedom organisation has registered its concern about the well-being of a group of hunger-striking journalists in two Iranian jails.

Five contributors to the Sufi news website Majzooban Noor – Reza Entesari, Hamidreza Moradi, Mostafa Abdi, Kasra Nouri and Afshin Karampour – began refusing food on 31 August in protest at their prison conditions.

They have been joined on their hunger strike by their lawyers, who are also in jail: Amir Islami, Farshid Yadollahi, Mostafa Daneshjo and Omid Behrouzi.

The Majzooban Noor group was arrested during a government offensive against Sufis in September 2011 and were sentenced in July 2013 to jail terms ranging from six months to eight years.

Four of them, Entesari, Daneshjo, Moradi and Karampour, have been refused badly needed treatment for critical illnesses.

Reza Moini, head of the Iran-Afghanistan desk at the Paris-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, said the lives of the detained journalists “are in danger amid complete silence and indifference.

“The regime has a duty to respect its detainees’ right to health. Any violation of this fundamental principle will be regarded as a criminal failure to assist persons in danger.”

Majzooban Noor is a news website that supports the Nematollahi Gonabadi order of Sufism.

Iran is ranked 173rd of 180 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.
baced on reporting by Reporters Without Borders and The Guardian