The “Week in brief” by Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) is a weekly review of the most important human rights news and developments from and about Iran’s Kurdish areas.
Kurdish political prisoners go on strike to protest Iran jails
Kurdish journalist and poet Alireza Sepahi Laine has gone on hunger strike to protest against what he has described as his “illegal detention” at the hands of the Iranian government authorities at the Vakil Abad Prison.
He was arrested on 28 November but he disputes the allegations due to the bureaucratic and political complexities of his case.
He outright claims his arrest and detention at the prison is ‘illegal” and plans to continue his hunger strike until he receives an explanation from the authorities.
Meanwhile, a Kurdish female political prisoner, Zeynab Jalalian, has gone on strike to protest against mistreatment and being denied the right to receive urgent medical care for her ill health at Khoy prison.
KHRN sources have termed her strike as a “medical strike”, protesting against the authorities of the prison who have purposefully filed false monthly medical reports for her with the sole aim to deprive her of the urgent medical treatment she needs for her serious illnesses.
Her family are “extremely concerned about her health” and denied the right to meet her at the prison, sources told KHRN.
The sources added that the Khoy prison authorities have openly denied her family the right to weekly visits as well.
Read more:
Zeynab Jalalian: http://kurdistanhumanrights.net/en/zeynab-jalalian-continues-medicinal-strike-at-khoy-prison/
Alireza Sepahi Laine: http://kurdistanhumanrights.net/en/alireza-sepahi-laine-on-dry-food-hunger-strike-at-vakil-abad-prison/
Two Kurdish political prisoners end hunger strike in Iran
Iranian Kurdish political prisoners Seyed Sami Hosseini and Siamak Ashrafi have ended their hunger strike after the authorities Orumiyeh Central Prison promised to take positive steps towards fulfilling their demands to contact their families.
They prisoners are serving their sentences at the central prions of Orumiyeh and Qazvin.
They went on n hunger strike to protest the prison authorising violating their basic rights such as contact with their family members and relatives.
They had also demanded a transfer from the ward where criminals are held to the ward where fellow political prisoners are detained.
Siamak Ashrafi sewed his lips after he started his hunger strike on 28 November 2017.
Iranian border guards physically abuse Kurdish Kolbar workers
A number of Kurdish Kolbars have bee arrested after Iranian border guars security forces physically abused them for hours while they were on their way back from the border areas of Sardasht.
They were beaten up despite that they carried no items and goods were found in their possessions, sources told KHRN.
“These Kolbars were not carrying any goods because they had failed to collect their cargo”, a Kurdish Kolbar from Sardasht told KHRN.
“Unfortunately, the border forces treat the Kolbars in any manner they like since the government has given [them] extensive power to do so. Sometimes, not only the cargo of the Kolbars are confiscated, but they are also forces to return to the border villages barefoot and without clothes through the dark of the night,” the source added.
Read more: http://kurdistanhumanrights.net/en/kurdish-kolbars-beaten-by-the-border-guards-in-sardasht/
