Kurdish activist Verisheh Moradi, who was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on 8 November, has been denied medical treatment on the orders of the security services and officials of Evin Prison, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Moradi, who was convicted on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) by Branch 15 of the court, has developed gastrointestinal problems following a 20-day hunger strike and has been denied access to medical care since her sentence was handed down.
The prison authorities blocked her planned transfer to a medical facility outside the prison, where she intended to seek treatment at her own expense. They informed her that she was now prohibited from leaving the prison because of the death sentence.
The political prisoner also suffers from severe joint pain and back problems and had previously started physiotherapy. Her treatment was interrupted when she began her hunger strike.
Moradi, a member of the East Kurdistan Free Women Society (KJAR) from Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence on 1 August 2023 at the entrance to Sanandaj upon her return from Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province, where she had been involved in political and organisational activities.
She spent the first 13 days of her detention in the detention centre of this security institution in Sanandaj, and afterwards was transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran.
During this period, she was subjected to pressure and threats to make forced confessions, and on 26 December 2023, after five months of solitary confinement, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison.
On 10 October, coinciding with the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Moradi went on a 20-day hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin Prison to protest the issuing and execution of death sentences by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Due to digestive complications following the hunger strike, she was transferred to a medical facility outside the prison, and returned after spending one night under care.
The death penalty, handed down by Judge Abolghassem Salavati, followed two court hearings on 16 June and 5 October, and the death sentence was formally notified to Moradi’s lawyers on 10 November.
During the court hearings, Moradi was denied the right to defend herself, and the judge barred her lawyers from presenting a defence.
Additionally, the lawyers, who had previously been prevented from reviewing the case file, were only allowed a few hours to review the case after the second hearing.
Moradi’s death sentence contradicts an earlier indictment that referred to Article 288 of the Islamic Penal Code, which provides for a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment. However, in an illegal ruling, Judge Salavati cited Article 287, which allows for the imposition of the death penalty in cases where individuals are involved in armed rebellion against the Islamic Republic.
She has also been denied family visitation rights since 6 May.
