Guards and medical staff in a prison in Iran have attacked and beaten a number of political prisoners who had started a hunger strike.

Saeed Tamajidi, one of the prisoners who was arrested during 2019 popular protests also known as the Bloody November, broke the news in a Friday phone call from the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary also known as Fashafuyeh.

He said several prisoners on hunger strike who were feeling sick were taken to the prison infirmary to register their vital signs but were insulted and threatened with a knife by one of the doctors there.

He added that following an argument, the doctor attacked him with a knife and medical staff and guards started beating him and others, injuring several of the prisoners.

Tamajidi said they were on a hunger strike to protest lack of proper care by the prison’s authorities and the death of Baktash Abtin a poet and a political prisoner.

Abtin died of Covid-19 complications following days of medically induced coma earlier in January after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

A People's Tribunal organized by human rights advocates is slated to hold its next session in a few weeks to investigate the atrocities during the November 2019 protests, which were the bloodiest in Iran’s history with security forces opening fire on demonstrators in many cities, killing hundreds.