Kurdish political prisoner Khaled Zamani remains behind bars in Yazd Central Prison despite being granted conditional release.
Zamani, who has served more than half of his 30-year sentence, has been denied parole due to opposition from the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that the prison classification council in Yazd, along with the supervising judge, granted Zamani conditional release in recent months.
However, objections from the IRGC’s Ministry of Intelligence have prevented his freedom.
Zamani was arrested by security forces on 30 June 2008 and interrogated and severely tortured for several weeks in the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Khoy, West Azerbaijan Province.
Later, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Khoy – presided over by Judge Nowrouzi – sentenced Zamani to “amputation of the left arm and the right leg” on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) for “membership of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)”.
However, following his appeal, the Supreme Court overturned the sentence.
Later, in a retrial, the Appeals Court of West Azerbaijan Province sentenced him to 30 years’ imprisonment and exile in Yazd Central Prison.
After the sentence was confirmed, Zamani was transferred from Maku prison to Yazd Central Prison on 21 December 2009.
Despite persistent efforts by his lawyer to obtain a retrial under a new provision of the Islamic Penal Code, the request was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Zamani is a co-defendant of Fasih Yasamani, another Kurdish political prisoner who was executed in Khoy Prison on 8 January 2010.
