An Australian-Iranian national in his eighties jailed over a financial dispute has died in prison in Iran, Amnesty International said on Monday.
The human right watchdog has accused Tehran of subjecting Shokrollah Jebeli, 82, to torture by denying urgent medical care.
He had been held in Tehran's Evin prison since January 2020 and died on Sunday after being taken from prison to hospital the previous day, the organization said.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed his death.
Amnesty said in a statement to AFP that his death represented an "arbitrary deprivation of life given the Iranian authorities' deliberate denial of healthcare and their refusal to release him on medical grounds."
There has been growing concern among activists over the conditions in Iranian jails, particularly after Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin died in detention in Tehran in January after falling ill with Covid-19.
"The devastating death of Shokrollah Jebeli highlights a pattern of human rights violations in Iran where we see deaths following the deliberate denial of healthcare again and again in the country's prisons," Amnesty said.
