The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has identified a new detention facility run by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, where several detainees have been tortured during their detention, including participants in the Women, Life, Freedom uprising.
Based on interviews with former detainees, the facility, located on Lotfi Street opposite Ghareh Hassanlou Park, is said to contain at least 110 solitary confinement cells and six communal cells.
Two individuals held and tortured for months in this facility, Aram Omari and Vafa Hanareh, were Kurdish prisoners accused of “espionage for Israel” and were executed in Orumiyeh Central Prison on 29 December 2023.
Speaking to KHRN before their execution, Omari and Hanareh described the facility as containing four two-sided corridors, each with about 30 solitary cells. Each cell, which measures approximately two by three metres, has a toilet and shower and is monitored by CCTV cameras.
The two prisoners said they had endured months of severe beatings by Ministry of Intelligence interrogators, resulting in broken bones in their arms and legs.
They also reported being threatened with rape, both against themselves and their family members, while in detention. Under these conditions, they were forced to make televised confessions.
The KHRN had previously published a detailed report on detention centres run by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, Sanandaj, and Kermanshah.