Top judicial official terms Ganji's conditions as good

IRNA:

General conditions of jailed journalist Akbar Ganji is good, said a top Iranian judicial official here on Thursday.

Deputy head of Tehran Justice Department Mohammad Salarkia told IRNA that Ganji is under intensive medical care and physicians visit him twice or three times a day at prison.

"Considering the type of work he (Ganji) does, he is under special medical care despite his physical weakness and the prison physicians examine him two or three times a day," said Salarkia.

Salarkia said Ganji had a couple of days ago undergone MRI test for his back ache so as to undergo medical treatment if necessary.

He said, "We are too unhappy with the conditions Ganji has created for himself but he is a prisoner who should pass his prison terms and that every prisoner going on hunger strike is not to be released." During this period, he added, judicial experts have talked to him in the hope of convincing him that he was wrong and his action will only hurt him and will provide the enemy with a pretext.

Salarkia said that there are only six or seven months left to the end of Ganji's prison term and that judicial officials did not know the reasons behind his recent moves.

Asked whether Ganji would be able to take a leave of absence, Salarkia said like other prisoners, Ganji had been given the leave.

He said that even Ganji's family had been informed that his leave of absence in prison could be extended if his physician recommended that he should be hospitalized at a medical center outside prison but he tried to politicize the issue.

Elsewhere in the interview, Salarkia said Ganji's move is not rational and his call is not fair.

He ruled out foreign media propaganda about Ganji and asked "Will any prisoner who goes on hunger strike in other countries be released?" He criticized certain individuals in Iran for encouraging Ganji to continue hunger strike, saying this is not a humanitarian measure because it will only worsen Ganji's physical conditions.