Kurdish political prisoner Abdolaziz Gol-Mohammadi has entered the sixth day of his hunger strike in Orumiyeh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province.
Gol-Mohammadi began his dry hunger strike on 14 October in protest at the rejection of his request for leave by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organisation.
The political prisoner was transferred from the political prisoners’ ward to the prison infirmary on 19 October after he ended his dry hunger strike following assurances from the prison authorities regarding his demands.
However, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that, Gol-Mohammadi had stated that he would take liquids but would continue his hunger strike until his demand for leave was met.
On 14 October, Gol-Mohammadi delivered a letter to the prison authorities, declaring his hunger strike.
In recent months, the prison authorities and the supervising judge had approved his temporary leave, but the Orumiyeh Prosecutor’s Office made the final decision conditional on the approval of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organisation.
However, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organisation rejected the prisoner’s request.
On 6 October 2019, while Gol-Mohammadi, a Kurdish civilian from Orumiyeh, who had been detained in Orumiyeh Central Prison for several months on non-political charges, was transferred to the IRGC’s Intelligence Organisation’s Al-Mahdi Garrison detention facility.
Gol-Mohammadi and four other Kurdish civilians, Omid Saeidi, Kamran Ghassemi, Nayeb (Masoud) Hajizadeh, and Keyvan Rashozadeh, who were arrested on 8 October 2019, were interrogated for two months on charges of “membership of a Kurdish opposition party”.
There was no prior connection between Gol-Mohammadi and the other four civilians in the case.
After a year of legal limbo, in December 2020, Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced each of the five civilians to 10 years and one day in prison.
The court accused them of “acting against national security” through their alleged “membership” of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
After Gol-Mohammadi appealed the verdict, the case was referred to the Supreme Court and, after some time, the verdict was upheld by Branch 41 of the Supreme Court.
On 26 January 2021, Gol-Mohammadi was released on bail of 10 billion rials – nearly 20,000 USD – but was re-arrested seven months later, in August 2021, to serve the sentence.
