Iran’s security police forces have tortured a detained Kurdish civil rights activist in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province.
On 12 September, the security police officers broke into the activist Shahram Kazemian’s house in Orumiyeh and arrested him.
Reportedly, in the past week, the security police summoned the activist several times over the phone, but he refused to present himself at the security institution due to the illegality of the summonses.
When the police forces raided his house, Kazemian attempted to commit suicide by taking pills.
He was then arrested and taken to the detention centre of the security police known as 9-pelleh and was beaten in the courtyard of the detention facility by several officers of this security-military institution.
Kazemian, who lost consciousness in the afternoon due to the torture of security police officers and the effect of the pills he had taken, was transferred to Khomeini Hospital in Orumiyeh.
On 14 September, the activist was discharged from the hospital, and due to his health condition, the security agents did not arrest him.
Reportedly, Kazemian was arrested for allegedly “disturbing the public mind” through the contents he published on social media regarding the rights of the Kurds of Orumiyeh.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence arrested Kazemian in Orumiyeh on 5 January 2021. Later on 8 April 2021, he was released from Orumiyeh Central Prison with a bail of 700 million Iranian Tomans – nearly 22,000 USD.
In March 2020, Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced the civil rights activist to a total of six years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “membership in opposition and dissident groups”.
A few months later the Court of Appeals of Orumiyeh upheld the ruling, but it was later commuted to three years of imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Iran.
Kazemiyan was sent to prison in January 2021 to serve his sentence.
In September 2021, the activist’s imprisonment was brought to an end due to his illness and a letter from doctors stating that he could not endure imprisonment.
