Kurdish activist from Salmas
Detention date: 24 October 2007
Charged with: Enmity against God through membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)
Sentence: 15 years in prison and internal exile to Orumiyeh Central Prison
Current status: Imprisoned in Orumiyeh Central Prison
Ahmad Tamouei, a political activist from Salmas, was arrested by the intelligence forces of the Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps (IRGC) in Mahabad on 24 October 2007, and was taken to thedetention centre of the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC in Orumiyeh.
In 2016, in an open letter to Ahmad Shahid,the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran at the time, he said that in 2007 he had beenheld in solitary confinement and tortured for two months in the detentionfacility of the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC in Orumiyeh based onaccusation of “membership in PJAK”. He said he was tortured with “electricshock”, “hanging”, “whipping”, and “mock execution”.
After two months of interrogation andtorture, the political prisoner had been transferred to the office ofintelligence ministry in Mahabad, and was interrogated there for another month.He was then taken to Mahabad Prison.
Ahmad Tamouei was tried in a 10-minutesession in February 2008 by Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court inMahabad, on charges of “enmity against God” and was sentenced to 15 years inprison and internal exile to Orumiyeh Central Prison. Following the verdict,security forces threatened his lawyer and forced him to resign. Therefore, Tamoueicould not appeal against the verdict and the outcome of the court of firstinstance was upheld.
In the summer of 2008, he was internallyexiled to Orumiye Central Prison after protesting against the court’s conductduring the inspection of the Prosecutor General of West Azerbaijan province and the confirmation of his sentence.
According to what Tamouei wrote in January2011 in an open letter, during the execution of political prisoner HosseinKhezri, the authorities of Orumiyeh Central Prison transferred Tamouei and anumber of political prisoners to solitary confinement in order to intimidateand psychologically torture them. After the execution of Hossein Khezri, Tamoueiwent on hunger strike for 20 days to protest the actions of prison authorities.
On 18 February 2011, Tamouei wastransferred from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the detention centre of the Ministryof Intelligence in the city and was interrogated and tortured in solitaryconfinement for one month on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “communication with foreign media”. He was also taken to solitary confinementin Orumiyeh Central Prison in early 2012 for no reason and was held there for25 days. After that, in February 2012, he wastransferred to solitary confinement in the office of intelligence ministry in Orumiyehfor two days and was subjected to psychological pressure to make forcedconfessions on TV.
The political prisoner was once againtransferred from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the office of intelligence ministryon 11 October 2012, and was interrogated and tortured for two months on chargesof “propaganda against the state” and “connection with Ahmad Shahid, the UNSpecial Rapporteur”.
According to Tamouei, interrogators finallyasked him for a TV interview, but he refused it. Following this, at themidnight of 10 December 2012, he was transferred to the interrogation room forpsychological torture and was informed that his death sentence had been issuedin absentia and would be carried out soon. However, he continued to refusemaking a TV interview.
That night, he was internally exiled from Orumiyehto Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj in handcuffs and fetters, and spent seven monthsin the prison without any phone calls or in-person visits by his family.
Ahmad Tamouei was returned to OrumiyehCentral Prison in July 2013. One month after his transfer to the prison, he wassummoned to the prison intelligence office, where he was interrogated, tortured,and ill-treated. He was then transferred to solitary confinement for six days,and for a week he was transferred to an ordinary crimes ward as a punitive act.
Following the numerous new cases created bythe security forces against Tamouei, a hearing was held on the charges againsthim on 8 November 2016, in Branch 3 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh,presided over by Judge Mahboubi. The court finally acquitted him on 14 February 2017 in the cases filed by the security forces on February 17 due to lack ofevidence to prove the allegations of the security agencies.During these years, Tamouei has beenrepeatedly threatened and interrogated by the intelligence office of OrumiyehCentral Prison for participating in strikes of political prisoners and prisonersof conscience.Tamouei has been denied of temporary leaveduring his imprisonment.
