Jailed Iranian reformist's life at risk: U.S. group

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran should release an ailing reformist detained during last month's protests or move him to specialist care as harsh prison conditions are putting his life at risk, a U.S. human rights group said Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch said prominent reformist journalist and politician Saeed Hajjarian, who was detained on June 15, was severely disabled and required constant medical care.

"It's bad enough that the authorities would detain a man as ill as Saeed Hajjarian in their crackdown in the protests," HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement.

"But the conditions, harsh treatment, and intense pressure to make a false confession are putting his life at risk."

Hajjarian is an ally of Mirhossein Mousavi, who has accused authorities of rigging the result of the June 12 election that showed hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won by a landslide.

The election unleashed Iran's most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians demonstrated after the results were announced but police and religious militia have suppressed protests since June 20, arresting hundreds of people.

Iran's police chief has put the number of detainees at 1,032 and said most had since been released.

HRW said Hajjarian suffered permanent disability after an assassination attempt in 2000. A doctor who visited him in jail said his health was deteriorating due to the harsh conditions.

"The ... government is using Hajjarian's medical condition and disability to augment coercive and abusive interrogation in order, it appears, to force a false confession," Whitson said.

"That is a very serious violation of his rights, and they need to ensure he has adequate medical care immediately, starting by removing him from Evin (jail)."

(Writing by Lin Noueihed, editing by Mark Trevelyan)