Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN): Zeynab Jalalian, a political prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment who is held at Khoy prison, was transferred to dentistry clinic last week after waiting for two months to get her teeth and gum infections treated. She also visited her family this week after three months of being deprived of visitation rights.
“Zeynab had requested to be taken to a dentistry clinic two months ago due to suffering from severe and persistent pain, but her request was neglected by prison authorities for a long time. Eventually, following an order from Forensic Medicine on the immediate treatment for Zeynab, she was sent to a dentist outside the prison last week along with a large number of military officers while being handcuffed and shackled.” A reliable source told KHRN.
The source added that Zeynab Jalalian had been on a medicinal strike and she had not been taking her prescribed medications since February 2017, but the efforts of her family to get this political prisoner admitted to an out-of-prison hospital for treatment had failed seriously.
Jalalian has been under pressure to make a TV confession as a condition made by Intelligence Agency for being transferred to a hospital outside prison. Consequently, despite the approval of the doctors in prison for the need to send her to the hospital for the treatment, she was deprived of this right.
Zeynab Jalalian, born in 1982. is a Kurdish activist from a small village called Deim Qeshlaq which is located around Maku in Eastern Azerbaijan province in Iran. She was arrested in February 2007 by the forces of Kermanshah Intelligence Bureau on charges of membership in PJAK. She was interrogated at Intelligence Detention Centre in Kermanshah for a month while being seriously tortured both mentally and physically. She was then transferred to Kermanshah Youth Rehabilitation Centre but she was repeatedly taken back to the Security Detention Centre for further interrogations.
On 3 December 2008, Jalalian was sentenced to death on accounts of “armed actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and membership in PJAK” in addition to “possessing and carrying illegal weapons while engaging in armed action against the Islamic Republic of Iran” by Judge Moradi at the branch 1 of Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah. This sentence was later affirmed on April 2, 2009, by Judge Ali Mohammad Roshani at the branch 4 of Kermanshah Court of Appeal despite the contest statements prepared by her lawyer.
The Supreme Court confirmed her death sentence on 26 November 2009. She was transferred to an unknown location from Kermanshah Prison before being taken to Evin Prison in Tehran in early March 2010. She was held in ward 209 of Evin Prison for five months before being transferred to Dizelabad Prison in Kermanshah again since she refused to accept the authorities’ condition for emancipating her from death sentence. She was offered to be emancipated from death sentence if she would do a TV interview. She was at imminent risk of execution after the sentence was confirmed. However, her death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in November 2011 by Iran’s Supreme Leader ‘Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’.
In November 2014, Zeynab Jalalian was transferred to Khoy prison so her family did not need to travel to a long way to meeting her every time. This prisoner has been on a medicinal strike and she has not been taking her prescribed medications since February 2017.
It should be noted that Amir Salar Davoodi, Jalalian’s lawyer who played an active role in her case, has been detained by the Ministry of Intelligence since Nov 20.
