Civilian Rafigh Salimi, who was arrested by Iranian security forces on 28 November 2022, is being kept in a state of uncertainty in the quarantine ward of Sanandaj Central Prison without the right to legal counsel or family visits.
Salimi was charged with “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz), for which the death penalty is a possible verdict under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
An indictment was issued against the civilian on the same charge and sent to Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Judge Naghizadeh, deputy prosecutor and head of Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, has denied the civilian the right to have a lawyer under the pretext that his case was a “security case”.
Security forces arrested Rafigh Salimi and his son, Foad Salimi, in Sanandaj on 28 November 2022 and took them to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in the city.
Foad Salimi was released on a bail of 1 billion tomans – nearly 20,000 USD – after 45 days of detention.
Rafigh Salimi was physically and mentally tortured for forced “confessions” during interrogation at the intelligence ministry’s detention centre.
On 18 January, after initial interrogations, he was transferred to the quarantine ward of Sanandaj Central Prison on a temporary detention order but has been kept there ever since in a state of uncertainty.
The civilian has been suffering from hearing loss caused by torture and has been denied access to medical treatment.
