IranWire:

Kianoosh Sanjari, a journalist and human rights activist who is currently on medical leave from prison, described in a series of tweets the bitter and painful experience of being transferred from his prison cell to Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital (Razi Psychiatric Center).

Sanjari’s tweets began by explaining that he was sent to a medical center with two soldiers in early 2019. He did not know that he was being transferred to Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital until, when already en route, he saw the sign of the hospital. According to the journalist, a drug was injected to him upon his arrival, which suddenly paralyzed him: "At the beginning, a man in a nursing gown put me to bed and injected me with an unknown drug. I was fainting. My jaw dropped. I wanted to ask what are you doing. But my mouth was dry. Shortly afterwards, I noticed that I was lying on a bed in a five-person room, with my right hand and left foot chained to the bed. I was paralyzed for 24 hours. The next day I wanted to talk to the nurse, but my tongue would not move."

This series of tweets has once again drawn attention and provoked questions over the issue of torture in Iranian prisons. Sanjari wrote that he had been tied to a bed, his hands and feet handcuffed to the bedposts for days, and that the chains were not removed from his legs even when he went to the bathroom.

But do doctors and nurses in hospitals and medical centers truly collaborate with security agencies? What was the drug that was injected into Kianoosh Sanjari and what have been its side effects?

A psychiatrist living in Tehran, who used to work at Roozbeh Psychiatric Center, believes that ordinary doctors in medical centers do not collaborate with security agencies.

"We, ordinary doctors have nothing to do with this,” the psychiatrist told IranWire. “But in any case, I think in recent years the security forces have trained doctors to meet their demands," the psychiatrist, who has witnessed several prisoners being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, added. "For example, not every doctor can become an employee of the Prisons Organization or enter the Ministry of Defense and work there. The doctors of these centers are usually employees of these institutions.”

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