Mustafa Sabzi, a Kurdish political prisoner who has been on “dry” hunger strike at Khoy prison since April 16, was transferred to the prison’s medical clinic yesterday due to weakness. 

“Mustafa Sabzi went on “dry” hunger strike on March 3 in protest to not being transferred to Mako Prison and being deprived of his right to leave. He ended his strike after a week following the promise of prison authorities to agree with his demands. But he went on hunger strike again on April 16 due to the failure of prison authorities to fulfil their promise”, a relative of the political prisoner confirmed the news to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network.

According to this informed source, he fainted on the fifth day of his hunger strike yesterday and he was transferred to the prison’s medical clinic but was returned to the ward a few hours later.

He was transferred from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the prison in Maku, where his family live, in December of last year after two hunger strikes.  However, Maku prison authorities refused to accept him, and the political prisoner was eventually transferred to Khoy Prison.

Mustafa Sabzi, a Kurdish civilian from Maku, was arrested in one of the villages of Orumiyeh by the Islamic Republic of Iran Guards Corps (IRGC) and interrogated at the Ministry of Intelligence Detention Centre in Orumiyeh for two months.

After completion of his interrogation, he was transferred to the Orumiyeh Central Prison and sentenced to five years of imprisonment by the Branch 2 of the Orumiyeh Revolutionary Court a few months later on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). The ruling was also upheld by the Orumiyeh Court of Appeal.

He went on a hunger strike for 32 days on July 21, 2019, in protest to the disagreement of the Office of Enforcement of Judgments of the Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh with his transfer request to a prison near the city where his parents live. On September 17, due to the continued disagreement of the afore-mentioned authorities with his transfer request, he went on another hunger strike for three days.