Pressure on as jailed Iranian dissident hints death is near

[democratic]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050715/wl_mideast_afp/iranjusticedissident_050715194203

TEHRAN (AFP) - The pressure on
Iran to free jailed dissident Akbar Ganji is growing with each day of his hunger strike, but the hardline judiciary insists it is not going to release every prisoner just because he goes without food.

Ganji, who has been on hunger strike for 35 days, hinted in a recent letter that he is dying.

"This flame is going out, but (my) voice will raise others that will be louder," Ganji said in a July 10 letter to "defenders of freedom throughout the world" that caused growing concern among his supporters.

Despite alarming reports about the political prisoner's health, Iran's ultra-conservative judiciary has refused to set him free.

[bennywhale]

1. He sounds like a very brave man. It is people like him who

change things. I doubt if i would be as brave in the face of such a brutal regime. I liked his mention of Socrates. He is obviously a principled man.

I hope, but doubt, he is released.