Christian prisoner of conscience Ebrahim Firouzi has begun a hunger strike after he was beaten by prison guards in Karaj’s Rajaei Shahr Prison for refusing to attend an appeal hearing because the court had not accepted new evidence submitted in his case.

After being forced to attend the hearing, it transpired that one of the judges was on leave, while the other told Ebrahim there was no need for him to be there, as his lawyer could speak on his behalf.

Ebrahim began his hunger strike yesterday to protest against his mistreatment and to call for legal action against the officers who beat him.

The prison officers have subsequently threatened to intensify his punishment and file a new case against him.

Ebrahim is currently serving a five-year sentence for being part of a house-church, for which he was convicted of “running illegal and anti-security organisations in order to promote deviant ‘Zionist’ Christianity”.

Before this sentence, handed down to him in April 2015, Ebrahim had already spent one year in prison for “propaganda against the regime by establishing and organising Christian gatherings” and “having contacts with anti-revolutionary networks outside Iran”.

He also faces two years in exile in the remote southeastern city of Sarbaz following his release.

Ebrahim is currently in Hall 31, Ward 10 of the Karaj prison.