Imprisoned Iranian Activist Ends 71-Day Hunger Strike After Wife Freed. Hundreds Protest Outside Iran’s Most Brutal Prison Demanding His Release.

An imprisoned Iranian activist has ended his 71-day hunger strike after his wife was finally freed from prison after being detained last October. On the brink of collapse, Arash Sadeghi will be transported to a hospital and fed intravenously, according to his lawyer. He will be returned to prison after he is stabilized. Sadeghi himself is serving a 19-year jail sentence on trumped-up charges of “spreading propaganda against the system,” “gathering and colluding against national security” and “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic.”

These charges, specifically “propaganda” and conspiracy against the state, have been leveled against dissidents for nearly a century, through the reign of the Shah to the rise of the Islamist Khomeini regime. The ambiguity of the charges enables the state to detain any and all opposition (both real and imagined) against its iron-fisted rule.