Hundreds of rights activists have asked five political prisoners held by the Islamic Republic to end their month-long hunger strike.

In a letter 650 activists said the hunger strike has raised awareness about the conditions of the Iranian prisoners of conscience and garnered support by many human rights organizations from inside and outside of Iran.

The letter urged the prisoners to end their strikes as reports indicate their health is deteriorating.

Shakila Monfared is being held in Qarchak Prison, also known as Rey Women Prison, while Hamid Haj-Jafar Kashani, Sina Beheshti, Mohammad Abolhasani, and Saeed Tamjidi are in Great Tehran Penitentiary, aka Fashafuyeh.

They started their hunger strike four weeks ago to protest neglect by prison authorities and the death of poet and political prisoner Baktash Abtin, who succumbed to Covid-19 complications after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Tamjidi, one of the prisoners who was arrested during the November 2019 nationwide protests, along with his fellow hunger-striking prisoners, was beaten by guards and medical staff when they were feeling sick and taken to the prison infirmary in late January.

Earlier in January, a young political prisoner, Adel Kianpour, who was on hunger strike to demand a fair trial died in detention without receiving any medical care in the Sheiban prison in the southwestern city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province.