Amnesty International has accused Iran of torturing Kurdish woman political prisoner Zeynab Jalalian and called upon readers to take urgent action by sending appeals to the country’s Head of Judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi.
The organization said agents of the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran tortured Jalalian by “deliberately denying her health care to coerce her into providing a videotaped ‘confession’”.
“This intentional denial of health care is causing her severe pain and suffering, particularly as she has serious medical conditions, including post-Covid-19 breathing difficulty”, it added.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) had also previously published several reports on the difficult prison conditions and the torture Jalalian was being subjected to.
Despite her serious medical conditions, Jalalian has been internally exiled from Maku, her hometown, and transferred to the prisons of Qarchakeh Varamin, Kerman, Kermanshah, and Yazd.
Jalalian is currently being held in the prison of Yazd, in central Yazd province.
The 38-year-old Jalalian was arrested in summer 2008 in Kermanshah. After spending several months in solitary confinement and enduring severe physical and mental torture, she was sentenced to death penalty by the Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of “acting against national security” and “Moharebeh” through membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). In 2011, an appeal court reduced her death penalty to life sentence. She was later transferred to Khoy Prison in West Azerbaijan Province. She has suffered from several illnesses during her imprisonment.