Three Kurdish political prisoners held at the Military Ward of Kerman Central Prison went on hunger strike in protest of being under pressure of the prison guards on September 28, a source confirmed to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN.
The three prisoners Taher Khorshidi, Amir Peyghami and Faruq Sharwerani, demanded in a letter to be transferred to the open prison or back to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
The three prisoners have been transferred to the Prison Security Bureau on 30 September who have been “threatened that new cases will be filed against them and their hair will be removed in order to teach other prisoners a lesson, and they have been repeatedly harassed,” the source told KHRN.
Faruq Sharwerani was arrested on May 11, and Amir Peyghami and Taher Khorshidi were arrested on May 29 and 31, 2017 respectively by security forces in Oshnavieh (Shno in Kurdish).
On 11 July 2017, they were taken to Orumiyeh Central Prison after being held in solitary confinement cells at the Orumiyeh Intelligence Detention Centre.
The hearing for the above-mentioned three prisoners was held on 5 December 2017 at Orumiyeh Military Court (Branch 1) which sentenced Amir Peyghami and Faruq Sharwerani to four years of imprisonment with exile to Kerman Prison. Meanhile, Taher Khorshidi was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment with exile to Kerman Prison.
The cases were referred to the Court since Taher Khorshidi was a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Taher Khorshidi and Faruq Sharwerani have been exiled to the Kerman Central Prison since Jan 22, 2018 and Amir Payami was also exiled to Kerman Central Prison in July last year after his sentence was upheld.
Moreover, Faruq Sharwerani and Taher Khorshidi were transferred from Kerman Prison to Branch 6 of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and Revolutionary Court on June 25, 2018 when a new case was filed against them on charges of “propaganda against the state”. However, they were both acquitted of this charge several months later.
