On 2 July 2019, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces from the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada base in Orumiyeh ambushed a group of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members, including Ozdemir, in the border areas of Chaldoran, West Azerbaijan Province.

He was knocked unconscious by a mortar shell during the shooting and shelling of the area.

After being arrested, he was taken to the IRGC Intelligence Organisation’s detention facility in Orumiyeh, where he endured approximately 50 days of interrogation and torture before being transferred to the city’s central prison on 19 August 2019.

In March 2022, after 33 months of detention without legal representation, Ozdemir was sentenced to death and five years in prison by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Khoy on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) and “membership in a terrorist group”.

After appealing the verdict, the Supreme Court’s Ninth Branch overturned the death sentence in March 2023 and referred the case for reconsideration to a parallel branch in the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, namely Branch Three.

Ozdemir’s next trial was held on 23 April 2024, in Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) with his lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, present.

The court again sentenced him to death, and the verdict was officially communicated to him in Orumiyeh prison on 19 May.

Following the appeal of the political prisoner’s defence lawyer against the sentence, the case was referred to the Supreme Court.

In September 2024, Branch Nine of the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in its entirety.

Ozdemir is currently held in Orumiyeh Central Prison. He has been suffering from kidney stones for several years, and despite doctors’ recommendations and an ultrasound diagnosis indicating the need for surgery, he remains deprived of medical services and treatment.

1. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 with the aim of creating a unified and independent Kurdistan. Although its origin and leadership were in the Kurdistan of Turkey, its activities gradually extended to other parts of Kurdistan, including Iranian Kurdistan. From its inception until the late 1990s, Marxism-Leninism was the dominant ideology of the party.

Abdullah Öcalan, known as Apo, the leader of the PKK, was captured in 1999 through a joint operation by the Turkish government and several other countries in Kenya. He is currently serving a life sentence in solitary confinement on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara.

Since 2000, influenced by Öcalan’s writings and ideas in prison, the PKK has aimed to establish “democratic confederalism” in the four parts of Kurdistan: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran, and works towards this goal. The headquarters of this party is in the mountainous border regions between the Kurdistan of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq.

2. Article 287 of the Islamic Penal Code: “A group engaging in armed rebellion against the Islamic Republic of Iran is considered rebellious, and if they use weapons, their members are subject to the death penalty.”

3. Article 279 of the Islamic Penal Code: “Moharebeh (enmity against God) is defined as drawing a weapon with the intention of killing, stealing from, or intimidating people in a way that causes insecurity in the environment.” According to Article 282 of the Islamic Penal Code, “if a person commits the crime of moharebeh, they will be sentenced to crucifixion, execution, amputation of the right hand and left foot, or exile, at the discretion of the judge.”