Motalleb Ahmadian, a Kurdish political prisoner serving his 15th year in Tehran’s Evin Prison, is facing critical health issues due to severe medical conditions, including diaphragm hernia, spinal canal stenosis, urinary tract infection, and duodenal cancer.
Despite recommendations from forensic medical authorities for the suspension of his sentence, Tehran’s Prosecutor, Ali Salehi, has repeatedly denied requests for medical furlough or transfer to external treatment facilities.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Ahmadian’s prolonged lack of access to specialised medical care has resulted in severe abdominal swelling, further worsening pressure on his lungs and stomach.
Prison health officials have confirmed that they lack the resources to provide adequate treatment and have urged his transfer to a hospital outside the prison.
Ahmadian’s family had previously secured the fifty-billion-rials (nearly 70,000 USD) bail required for medical furlough. However, the prosecutor subsequently raised the bail amount to eighty billion rials (nearly 115,000 USD), which they were unable to provide.
The 38-year-old, who has lost over 35 kilograms in the past year, remains in a critical state. In June 2024, he was briefly transferred to a medical centre but was returned to prison without completing treatment.
Ahmadian has long highlighted the impact of medical neglect on his deteriorating health. In a letter written in January 2020, Ahmadian described his worsening health condition, attributing it to the denial of timely medical care. He noted infections in the testicular region and fractures in three vertebrae caused by torture during detention.
He wrote: “Unfortunately, the prison authorities refused to cover the costs of my surgeries and medications. According to the Prisons Organisation’s regulations, these expenses should be borne by the prison, but I had to pay all costs myself. Due to financial constraints, I stopped seeking further treatment.”
Ahmadian, from Baneh, Kurdistan Province, was arrested on 5 October 2010. After eight months in solitary confinement under severe physical torture at security detention centres in Sardasht, Saqqez, and Sanandaj, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and exile to Minab Prison on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) due to alleged membership in the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
Additionally, in two separate cases, he was sentenced to one million rials in fines and one year in prison for “unauthorized crossing of the country’s borders” and nine years in prison, half a full diya (blood money), and a 200-million-rials fine for “complicity in murder”.
Since his arrest, Ahmadian has been held in the prisons of Saqqez, Sanandaj, Rajai Shahr, and Evin.
