Political prisoner Saeed Shirzad was arrested at the end of his prison leave and taken to the Rajai Shahr Prison to serve remainder of his imprisonment sentence.
Shirzad was detained as his furlough was not renewed and he is scheduled to be transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj to serve the remainder of his imprisonment sentence. Last month, he was granted a furlough for the first time during his imprisonment.
Saeed Shirzad was granted furlough on September 30, just days after losing his mother in whose funeral he had been unable to attend.
“Saeed Shirzad was in Prand on 28 October evening to meet a political prisoner who had just been released. Security forces arrested him in front of the house of the political prisoner and taken him to the detention center. He is due to be transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison today to serve the remainder of his imprisonment sentence,” a source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
Shirzad has suffered from “a number of physical problems” over the past few years due to a thirty-nine day and fifty-three-day hunger strikes. He is suffering from kidney pain, low back pain, and severe inflammation of the lower back. In December last year, the specialist who observed his ultrasound results told him that his right kidney had shrunk to 8 cm and his right kidney had cysts.
Shirzad has been detained since June 2, 2014 when he was arrested at his workplace in Tabriz Oil Refinery by agents of the Intelligence Ministry for “helping the children of political prisoners to pursue education.”
He was sentenced to five years of imprisonment by the Revolutionary Court (Branch 15 ) of Tehran in September 2015 on charges of “participation in gatherings, collusion and acting against national security”. The verdict was later upheld by the Tehran Court of Appeal. He also received a one-year suspended prison sentence for “assisting the earthquake-victims of Ahar.”
Shirzad has also faced new charges for “protesting against the transfer of political prisoners” to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj by the Branch 1162 of the Tehran Criminal Court in September which sentenced him to six months in jail.
