Authorities in Iran have denied that a man died at Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday due to a lack of medical care.
A source told BBC Persian that Faramarz Javidzad, 60, was taken to hospital after he suffered stomach bleeding but was later returned to the prison.
Officials declined to move him from the prison clinic after his blood pressure dropped severely on Friday, they said.
Initial reports identified Mr Javidzad as an American-Iranian dual national, but the US said he was not a citizen.
“We have no records to indicate as well that he was a lawful permanent resident,” state department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters in Washington.
“I will say, however, we are still alarmed by the reports that he was denied medical care by Iranian authorities… while he was in their custody.”
The news came a week after Iran released five American-Iranians as part of a prisoner swap.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency cited Tehran province’s prisons department as saying on Monday that Mr Javidzad had been detained for two months at Evin on various financial charges, and that he was treated five times for digestive problems during that time.
He recently underwent a stomach operation and was then discharged from hospital “at his own insistence”, it added.
The prisons department said Mr Javidzad was immediately transferred to hospital when his condition worsened on Saturday. Doctors and nurses administered CPR, but his life could not be saved, it added.
However, the account was contradicted by the source who spoke to BBC Persian’s Ali Kheradpir.
They said Mr Javidzad was put on a drip at the prison’s clinic on Friday after his blood pressure dropped, even though a judge had given prison authorities permission to transfer him to hospital. —BBC
