Journalist Ali Farahbakhsh has been behind bars for more than 2 months. Rooz Online spoke with his mother who spoke of her son’s deteriorating health conditions. Farahbakhsh’s defense attorney Seyed Mahmud Alizadeh Tabatabati said his client has been charged with espionage, as he was preparing to go to court to learn about the specific bench to which the case has been referred to for trial.

Badri Farahbakhsh, the journalist’s mother, who has recently visited her son, told Rooz that his health was not good at all. She predicted that he would go on strike if his conditions did not change. “During the first week of his detention, Ali had a heart attack and also developed stomach complications, after which he spent 8 days in the prison clinic,” she said. According to her, since the journalist did not have a history of any heart problems and was never on any medication, she was doubly concerned about his health and well being. “He was extremely nervous on the two occasions that I met him,” she added. She also said that he told her that since he had not done anything wrong, he would be released soon. She explained that the last time she saw him he seemed not only nervous, but also very angry, arguing that all he had done was attend an economic-cultural seminar. According to her, his interrogators wanted to know why he had been invited to the seminar.

Ali Farahbakhsh is known to be a professional journalist on economic issues and among the leading members in the field. Because he spoke fluent English, he was regularly invited to numerous gatherings. His colleagues have said that he was never a member of any organization or a political activist, never mixing his profession with the latter.

His mother explained that government officials had specifically promised her that he would be freed if she did not talk about her son’s detention and condition. “I believed them and did not, until he was formally charged. When I saw him last, he had lost 10 kilos during 35 days of detention. He looked lean with circles around his eyes, which has made me very concerned about his health. His wife was denied visitation until she staged a sit-in at the prison,” she complained. She has sent 2 letters to the head of Iran’s judiciary branch, still awaiting a response.