Kurdish political prisoner Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou has been sentenced to death after being tortured into confessing to involvement in clashes between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Iranian border guards.
Hosseinnejad Heidaranlou, 39, from the village of Segrik in Chaldoran, West Azerbaijan Province, was sentenced to death in mid-July by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, on charges of “armed inssurection” (baghi) through membership of the PKK.
Speaking to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), a source close to the case said: “This civilian was arrested by border guards at the Chaldoran border along with several Afghan nationals on 13 April 2023 and taken to the Chaldoran Border Guards Detention Centre. He was interrogated for several hours before his detention order was changed to bail. However, the bail was not accepted, citing an arrest warrant issued at the request of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. He was then transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention facility in Orumiyeh [in West Azerbaijan Province].”
He was held in the Ministry’s detention facility for 11 months and 10 days, during which time he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture, the source said, adding that the torture was aimed at extracting confessions regarding his alleged involvement in armed clashes between PKK forces and Iranian border guards in which eight guards were killed.
“For eight months, he was severely tortured by security interrogators, including an individual named Estiri, who was in charge of the case. He was forced to confess under duress and, despite being illiterate, was made to sign documents prepared by the interrogators. During the 11 months and 10 days he spent in the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre, he was allowed only two brief telephone calls with his family after eight months, and was denied access to a lawyer or family visits.”
The source added that during interrogations and court hearings, the defendant denied all charges and stated that he had been forced to confess under torture. “Mr Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou was denied the right to appoint a lawyer due to the opposition of the Ministry of Intelligence. At all stages of his interrogation and trial at Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, he denied all charges and stated that his confessions had been extracted under torture. Despite evidence that he was travelling to Turkey with his family on the day of the clashes between the border guards and the PKK, Judge Najafzadeh sentenced him to death on charges of ‘armed insurrection’ through membership of the PKK.”
The Ministry of Intelligence reportedly claimed that Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou held a grudge against Iranian border guards because his brother-in-law, Mostafa Nouri, was shot dead by border guards in 2015 while working as a tradesman in the Chaldoran region. However, this claim was not supported by any substantial evidence.
Judge Najafzadeh, without considering the political prisoner’s defence, issued the death sentence in a brief court session, relying on the “judge’s knowledge” or “his personal conviction”.
Currently held in Ward 2 of Orumiyeh Central Prison, Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou has appealed the verdict, and his case has been forwarded to the Supreme Court.
Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou, who is currently being held in Ward 2 of Orumiyeh Central Prison, has appealed against the sentence and his case has been referred to the Supreme Court.
Born in 1985, Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou, a father of three, had worked as a fuel porter and border trader in recent years.
