Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Sister: Iranian Political Prisoner's Health Worsens After Iran Denied him Severe Epilepsy Treatment Michael Lipin WASHINGTON - The family of a jailed Iranian dissident recently sentenced to 14 years in prison for peaceful activism has begun speaking out about his case, saying his health is worsening as Iranian officials deny him treatment for severe epilepsy after forcing him to confess to security crimes. In a Thursday [1]Skype video interview with VOA Persian from her home in Iran's northwestern city of Urmia, HaniehGharehoghlanisaid the health of her 34-year-old activist brother Hamed has worsened in the city's central prison where he has been detained since July. Intelligence agents had arrested Hamed, a member of Iran's Azerbaijani Turk ethnic minority, on June 27 and interrogated him for two weeks before transferring him to the prison, according to London-based rights group [2]Amnesty International. Since then, Iranian authorities have denied Hamed the medical treatment that he needs for a severe form of epilepsy, a neurological disorder, that causes grand mal or tonic-clonicseizures, his sister said. Tonic-clonicseizuresare described by the [3]Mayo Clinic, a U.S. medical research center,asthe most dramatic type of epileptic seizure and can cause an abrupt loss of consciousness, body stiffening and shaking, and sometimes loss of bladder control or biting your tongue. HaniehGharehoghlanisaid her brother's condition requires him to have a monthly examination from a specialist doctor and a neurological examination every six months, but authorities have barred him from getting such treatment at a hospital outside of prison. She said the Urmia prison's doctor also has refused to see Hamed due to an apparent lack of specialized knowledge of the inmate's condition, while a psychiatrist who did have one session with Hamed asked him about his political beliefs rather than assessing his emotional state. Hamed's sister said Iranian authorities also have refused to let him receive medication prescribed by his doctor and brought to the prison by family members. Amnesty International sent an appeal earlier this month to its supporters to write to Iran's judiciary chief to urge him to freeHamedGharehoghlaniand, pending such a release, to ensurehe is provided with immediate and continued access tomedication and external health care. HaniehGharehoghlanitold VOA that interrogators forced her brother to confess to security crimes by warning him that she would bearrestedand their mother would be killed if he did not comply. She said intelligence agents also had summoned her and her mother after Hamed's arrest and had pressured them to stay silent about his case by making them signstatementspromisingnot to"insult"IranianSupreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khameneior"Islamic sanctities." Gharehoghlanibroke her silence about the case last week by speaking to VOA and Britain-based TV network Iran International. VOA is unable to independently verify the circumstances ofHamedGharehoghlani'sdetention or his family's interactions with Iranian authorities because it is barred from reporting inside Iran. There has been no reporting about his case in Iranian state media in recent months. In its message to supporters, Amnesty International saidHamedGharehoghlaniwas given a"grossly unfair"trial that lasted 10 minutes on September 28 after having had only one chance to meet his lawyer in prison while in the presence of intelligence agents. It said authorities only gave him a few minutes to glance at the verdict on November 29 before asking him to sign a statement acknowledging notification of his sentence. The rights group said a Revolutionary Court in UrmiaconvictedGharehoghlani of"insulting theSupreme Leader","spreading propagandaagainst the system", and"membership in a group that engages in armed insurrection against the Islamic Republic system"and sentenced him to 14 years and one month in prison. It said he appealed the verdict on January 24. Amnesty International saidGharehoghlaniwas convictedin connection with his online poststhataccusedKhameneiof corruption and his online exchanges with individuals whom Iranianauthoritiessaidwere supporters ofexiled opposition groupPeople's Mujahedeen of'¯Iran(MEK)and whomallegedly"incited"him to tear up banners with images ofKhameneiandtop Iranian militarycommanderQassemSoleimani, killed in a U.S.drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. In her VOA interview, HaniehGharehoghlanisaid her brother is not an MEK sympathizer. Amnesty Internationalsaid it wasconcerned thatHamed was punished with a longsentencedue tothe current association of two of hisexiledrelativeswith theMEK. The U.S. repeatedly denounced Iran's harsh treatment of political prisoners and its violent crackdowns on peaceful anti-government protesters in recent years under the former administration of President Donald Trump who left office last month. Since his successor Joe Biden's January 20 inauguration, U.S. officials have not commented on Iran's poor human rights record. This article originated in [4]VOA's Persian Service.Click [5]here for the original Persian version of the story. References 1. https://ir.voanews.com/episode/iran-hamed-ghareh-oghlani-political-prisoner-425656 2. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/3641/2021/en/ 3. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/epilepsy/symptoms-causes/syc-20350093 4. https://ir.voanews.com/ 5. https://ir.voanews.com/persiannewsiran/hamed-gharehoghlani-prisoner-human-rights-iran-activist .