Kianush Cheraghi reaches 14th day of hunger strike in Ilam Central Prison with sewn lips
Hengaw: Saturday, March 15, 2025
Kianush Cheraghi, a Kurdish political prisoner from Dehloran, has now entered the 14th day of his hunger strike in Ilam Central Prison. Ten days ago, he sewed his lips shut in protest against the revocation of his electronic monitoring order and his forced return to prison. Since then, he has been on hunger strike, refusing both food and water.
According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, 44-year-old Kianush Cheraghi, a Kurdish man from Dehloran, has remained on hunger strike since Thursday, March 6, 2025, with his lips sewn shut as a symbol of protest.
This is not his first hunger strike. He had previously staged a nine-day dry hunger strike in Ilam Central Prison starting Sunday, February 16, 2025. Later, on March 2, 2025, he resumed his protest, spending the first seven days on a liquid diet before transitioning to a dry hunger strike over the past week.
Cheraghi had been released under electronic monitoring but was rearrested and forcibly returned to prison following a ruling by Branch 6 of the Ilam Court of Appeals in February, which revoked his monitoring order.
A former employee of the Social Security Organization in Dehloran, he was sentenced to two years in prison by the Revolutionary Court of Dehloran on charges of “acting against national security.” He later received an additional one-year sentence from Branch 2 of the Ilam Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Seyed Reza Salah-od-Dini, for “propaganda against the government,” with time served taken into account.
On September 27, 2023, security forces raided his home and forcibly arrested him over a video message he posted on Instagram in the days leading up to the first anniversary of Jina Amini’s killing.
Following his arrest during the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom) movement, Kianush Cheraghi resigned from his position at the Social Security Administration in Dehloran in protest against his detention by the Intelligence Ministry.
