Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who is on death row in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, says prisoners have been left locked up without food and few guards following US-Israeli strikes on Iran's capital, his wife told AFP on Wednesday.Vida Mehrannia said she had managed to speak to her husband, who is being kept in a hospital ward of the prison, "for two minutes" on the phone Tuesday.
"I had a short call with Ahmadreza yesterday and he told me they don't have food, the situation is really bad and they are afraid of what will happen," Mehrannia told AFP.
She said her husband told her that guards were still posted outside the prison, "but inside the jail, they locked the door and left".
Prisoners had been left with only bread to eat, he told her.
Mehrannia said she was not aware of how many guards were still stationed at the prison.
She explained that her husband had called her from a phone the prisoners have access to in the wing were he is held.
"He is not isolated, he is an a treatment ward where many prisoners live together," she said, adding that the call had been disconnected several times.
The 54-year-old academic suffered a heart attack last year and was transferred to the prison's hospital section.
Djalali is an Iranian who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges, which his family vehemently denies. He was granted Swedish nationality while behind bars.
He was arrested in 2016 while he was in Iran for a conference.
Mehrannia said that since the US-Israeli attacks began near the prison, Djalali had reported that inmates felt "hopeless" and in "a lot of stress".
During last year's Israeli strikes on Iran in June, Evin prison -- a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran -- was hit by an Israeli strike which left sections of the facility damaged.
