Political prisoner Behzad Rezvanmehr dies in Karaj Central Prison

Behzad Rezvanmehr, a political prisoner held in Karaj Central Prison, died in his ward in the early hours of Thursday, 15 October 2026. His fellow inmates found his lifeless body that morning. The Center for Human Rights in Iran, which published news of his death, says the political prisoner had been denied proper medical treatment.

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Rezvanmehr suffered from an allergic condition that had led to a widespread infection in his body. On the evening of Wednesday, 14 October, his condition worsened and he went to the prison clinic; the clinic staff, without a specialist examination and without sending him to hospital, only gave him an injection and returned him to the ward. A few hours later he died. The type of drug injected and the official cause of death are still unclear.

Arrest, torture and solitary confinement

Based on information that reached the Center for Human Rights in Iran, the Islamic Republic's security forces arrested Behzad Rezvanmehr at the start of the Iranian year 1405 (spring 2026) on a charge of opposing the government. The human rights organization says he was subjected to severe torture after his arrest and spent most of his detention in a solitary cell. Prison officials knew of his illness and the spread of the infection in his body, but did not send him to medical facilities outside the prison.

His age, city of residence and any sentence handed down to him have not yet been announced. Judicial officials and the Islamic Republic's prisons organization have also offered no explanation of his death.

Denial of treatment: a repeated pattern in prisons

Rezvanmehr's death comes as reports on the medical condition of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic's prisons keep appearing. In recent days there was news of the spread of a respiratory illness with COVID-like symptoms in the women's ward of Evin prison, and a group of doctors and medical staff expressed concern in a letter about the critical condition of Hamid Gharehasanlou in Yazd prison.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that refusing to send sick political prisoners to hospital has become a tool of pressure on them. The US State Department has also condemned the denial of treatment to Iranian political prisoners in its human rights reports.

After months in solitary confinement, Behzad Rezvanmehr was returned to his ward with a widespread infection and only one injection, and died a few hours later.