Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Kurdish political prisoner Abdolaziz Gol-Mohammadi is now in the 19th day of his hunger strike in the infirmary of the Orumiyeh Central Prison, West Azerbaijan Province. Despite the severity of his physical condition and the prison authorities' agreement to grant him temporary leave, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continues to oppose his request. Since he began the hunger strike, Gol-Mohammadi has...

A group of 44 prisoners of conscience held in the Ershad high security section of Orumiyeh Central Prison began a hunger strike today in protest at the denial of medical care, the rejection by the security services of their requests for conditional release and the installation of surveillance cameras in their rooms and toilets. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that these prisoners...

Prisoners of conscience transferred to a new high-security ward at Orumiyeh Central Prison, have been isolated in harsh prison conditions over the past year. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that these prisoners have been denied access to medical care for the past two months as the prison authorities have refused to transfer them to hospitals outside the prison. Hatam Ozdemir, Sardar Ozmesh, Aram...

Kurdish political prisoner Mohyeddin Ebrahimi's family visited him today at Orumiyeh Central Prison after they were asked to go to prison for a "final visit" before his execution. Prison authorities told the family that the political prisoner's death sentence would be executed in the coming days, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned. Ebrahimi was sentenced to death on charges of "armed insurrection" (baghi) in January...

Prisoners Milad Karimi, Mohsen Moradi and Mohsen Bashiri went on a hunger strike in Orumiyeh Central Prison on 31 January to protest against authorities refusing to transfer them to the prisons of cities where their families reside. After the prisoners announced their hunger strike, prison guards severely beat them and transferred them to solitary cells on the orders of Parviz Saeidzadeh, the head of Ward...

Hadi Rostami, a prisoner convicted of the amputation of four fingers of his right hand, was transferred to solitary confinement on 18 January after going on a hunger strike to protest against a prison official's threats to execute his sentence. Saeidzadeh, the head of Ward 2 of Orumiyeh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan province, has been repeatedly summoning the prisoner and threatening him with the...

Nasser Atbati, the Director General of the Justice Department of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, has threatened the prisoner Hadi Rostami, who was sentenced to amputation of four fingers of his right hand, saying that his sentence would be executed if he did not obtain the consent of the plaintiffs. On 6 September, a judicial delegation led by Atbati together with the Public Prosecutor of Orumiyeh...

Some prisoners of violent crimes in the women's ward of Orumiyeh Central Prison have beaten some Sunni Kurdish prisoners in the ward in the past few days under the pretext that they "insulted the Muharram ceremony of Shiite prisoners". The prison officers, who were the driving factor in the incident, have filed a case against some Kurdish woman prisoners. A source that spoke to the Kurdistan...

Some eight Kurdish civilians have been held for alleged "espionage for Mossad" by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Orumiyeh since November 2021. The names of these civilians are Vafa Hanareh, Kamran Hanareh, Aran Omari, Ashkan Osmannezhad, Rahman Parhazou, Fakhreddin Dudkanlou, Hassan Omarpour, and Amir Moshtagh. Vafa Henareh is still being held in one of the security detention centres in Orumiyeh....