Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Prison guards and security officers raided the political and religious prisoners’ ward in Orumiyeh Central Prison today, destroying prisoners’ belongings and beating Kurdish political prisoners Keyvan Rashozadeh and Kamran Ghassemi. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that that around 10 guards and prison officials took part in the raid, which was ordered by the prison director, Peyman Khanzadeh, citing the presence of mobile...

Kurdish prisoners of conscience Arash Gholizadeh and Ardavan Tahourian, who have separately gone on hunger strike in Orumiyeh Central Prison, in West Azerbaijan Province, are demanding access to medical treatment and the right to temporary leave. Gholizadeh, a Kurdish religious prisoner from Orumiyeh, who is in the third year of a 10-year sentence, began his hunger strike on 15 March, in protest at being denied...

Hassan Omarpour, a Kurdish prisoner serving a 10-year sentence in Orumiyeh Central Prison, began a hunger strike on 14 April to demand a retrial and to protest insults against his family by the prosecutor of Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Omarpour was transferred to solitary confinement on 15 April following the start of his hunger strike and...

In a unified call, 82 Iranian and international human rights groups have urged the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to make any cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran against drug trafficking conditional on a total halt to drug-related executions, citing potential dire consequences if action is not taken. The joint statement emphasized: "The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC)...

Prisoner Mansour Mansouri, previously sentenced to death for murder, was executed in Ilam Central Prison on 11 March. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) had reported the execution of another prisoner, Moein Salavarzizadeh, in Ilam Central Prison on the same day. A source who spoke to KHRN said: "Mansour Mansouri, 44 years old, unmarried and from the city of Sarableh in Ilam Province, was arrested about...