"The International Federation for Human Rights on Thursday raised the alarm over what it termed the deliberate denial of medical care to sick political prisoners in Iran. 'Iranian authorities deny prisoners access to medical care on purpose,' Karim Lahidji, president of the Paris-based FIDH, said in a statement. 'They punish prisoners of conscience twice: first by arbitrarily arresting and imprisoning them, then by creating unbearable conditions of detention, including deprivation from medical treatment for sick prisoners, that aggravates further their bad health and physical conditions.'"