Nayeb Askari, a Kurdish political prisoner facing the death penalty, has been returned to the general ward of Orumiyeh Central Prison after one day in solitary confinement, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Askari was placed in solitary confinement on 27 March after a verbal altercation with prison officers. The move was ordered by the prison director as a form of punishment. However, he was returned to the general ward the next day.
In recent months, Askari has been transferred from the ward for political and religious prisoners to the ward for common criminals. This move was also ordered by prison officials.
Askari was sentenced to death in October 2023 by the second branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) due to his alleged membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
Background
Askari was arrested in Orumiyeh on 24 March 2021 by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He was sent to Orumiyeh Central Prison after spending three months in the detention facility of the IRGC’s intelligence organisation.
Prior to his arrest, Askari lived in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for several.
In 2018, during his stay in the Kurdistan Region, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced him to death in absentia on charges of “enmity against God” (Moharebeh) through “membership” in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
Following the political prisoner’s appeal against the ruling, the verdict was overturned, and the case was referred to Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh.
In April 2023, Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced Askari to death payment of a fine of nine billion rials – nearly 18,000 USD – on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through “membership” of PJAK.
In August 2021, a court sentenced Askari and two other Kurdish political prisoners, Keyhan Mokarram and Nayeb Hajizadeh, to 50 lashes and three months in prison.
The sentence came after the head of Orumiyeh Central Prison filed a complaint, accusing the prisoners of “disrupting the prison order” due to their involvement in a fight between several political prisoners and general crime prisoners.
The case was filed following general crime prisoners’ beating of a Kurdish political prisoner.
On 26 July 2021, Askari went on a 32-day hunger strike to protest against the judicial authorities’ failure to issue an order for transferring him to a hospital outside the prison for treatment.
