Saturday, 22 May 2021 14:46 A political prisoner in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary has published an open letter where he says inmates have to buy their own drinking water as the prison water contains pollutants. Hossein Hashemi who was arrested in the nationwide protests in November 2019 writes that “Young people who protested to paying 30,000 rials for one liter of gasoline, now have to pay 50,000 rials for same amount of water.” Although this would cost prisoners about 50 cents a day, but for many it is a lot of money given minimum wage of $100 monthly. Unrest broke out in mid-November 2019 when the government suddenly increased gasoline prices but protests quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations. Hundreds were killed by security forces and up to 8,000 arrested. An undisclosed number of detainees are still in prison.