Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad has sentenced the Kurdish political prisoner Mohammad Moradi to 40 years in prison and internal exile to Orumiyeh Central Prison on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through “membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI)”.
A relative of the political prisoner confirmed the news to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “Mohammad Moradi was officially summoned today to the Enforcement of Judgements Office of Naqadeh Prison and informed that he was sentenced to 40 years in prison and internal exile to Orumiyeh Central Prison. The political prisoner’s last court hearing was held in May in Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad, presided over by Judge Javad Gholami.”
The first hearing of his case was held in September 2019 in Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad without the presence of a lawyer.
Mohammad Moradi, a resident of Qabar Hoseyn village of Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, was arrested on 22 April 2018 upon his entry to the country from the Kileh border crossing in Sardasht by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Piranshahr, after his family coordinated his return from Iraqi Kurdistan to Iran with the IRGC. After his arrest, he was taken to the detention centre of the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC in Orumiyeh.
He was subjected to the most severe tortures for 45 days in this detention centre to make forced confessions about his alleged “membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) and return to Iran for armed operations”.
During the court hearing, he denied the charges against him and stated several times that the confessions were obtained from him under torture and coercion and that he had signed the confessions without reading them.
In 2018, he had several times requested the cancellation of his temporary detention from the court of Piranshahr, but Branch 2 of the criminal court had opposed his request.
The source who spoke to the KHRN, said: “Judge Javad Gholami has met with Mohammad Moradi twice in Naqadeh Prison, and has told him that his cooperation with the Revolutionary Guards against Kurdish opposition parties and accepting the accusations made by this security-military organisation were the conditions for ending the uncertainty of his situation. But he has not agreed to cooperate, which is why his situation remained uncertain.”
Mohammad Moradi is 35 years old, is married, and has two children. He is also the brother of two kolbars Sadegh Moradi and Abdolrahman Moradi who were killed in October 2019 after being shot and tortured by the IRGC forces in the Kotran border area in the Qandil Mountains.
