Kurdish political prisoner Abdolaziz Gol-Mohammadi attempted suicide in Orumiyeh Central Prison today in protest at the authorities’ refusal to grant him temporary leave, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Gol-Mohammadi’s suicide attempt is the second incident of self-harm by Kurdish political prisoners in Orumiyeh Central Prison, underlining the pressure and deprivation of legal rights faced by inmates.
In similar circumstances, on 26 February, Shahin Galhehdar, a 50-year-old Kurdish political prisoner from the village of Haki in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, hanged himself as a result of the denial of the right to leave and access to medical services and the pressure exerted by security interrogators on political and religious prisoners.
Gol-Mohammadi, who was serving a sentence of 10 years and one day, had asked for temporary leave due to family problems and diabetes, but his request was denied by Peyman Khanzadeh, the head of the prison, the KHRN has learned.
The prisoner took pills after a verbal altercation with Khanzadeh, but was prevented from harming himself by fellow inmates. He was then transferred to the prison infirmary after consuming a large amount of medication and later returned to the political prisoners’ ward.
Gol-Mohammadi had previously begun a dry hunger strike on 14 October 2023 in protest at the rejection of his request for leave by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organisation.
Initially, the prisoner was on dry hunger strike for the first five days. After being transferred to the infirmary and receiving assurances from the prison authorities that his demands would be considered, he ended the dry hunger strike.
Instead, he declared his intention to continue with a traditional hunger strike until his request for temporary leave was granted.
Following promises from the authorities, Gol-Mohammadi ended his hunger strike after more than a month and briefly left prison for medical treatment before being forced to return early.
Background
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.
