Image copyright Iran Human Rights Monitor Image caption The activist was protesting against his conditions in prison

An Iranian political activist jailed for his messages on social media has died after spending 60 days on hunger strike, his family says. In a statement on December 13, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who died on December 12, had been “arbitrarily detained” by Iranian authorities after his arrest four months ago. She said her brother went on hunger strike to protest against the conditions of his imprisonment and to demand his transfer from a high-security unit of a prison in Qom to Tehran’s Evin prison. Iran’s Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) said Iranian intelligence agents detained Sayyadi-Nasiri in Qom in July and authorities put him on trial in September on charges of disseminating propaganda against the state and insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The charges were related to posts he had made on his Facebook page. Rights groups said Sayyadi-Nasiri previously had served a two-year prison term on similar charges before being released in March this year.
Iranian political activist Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who was jailed for his messages on social media, dies after spending 60 days on hunger strike. He was accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.