The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh has sentenced Kurdish political prisoner Youssef Kakemami to five more years in prions after he tried to communicate with international human rights organizations, a Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) source said.
“Kakemami was verbally told of the verdict by Iranian officials of the Orumiyeh Central Prison on 18 January and he was not shown a copy of the court’s verdict,” the source said.
The source said that “Kakemami was transferred from the prison to attend a court hearing at the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Oroumiyeh on 12 January, and officials of the Iranian intelligence agency presented the court with an audio file of a letter that Kakemami had written and later read out in an audio file from his prison cell addressed to Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The source said that “the audio file of the letter was used as evidence against the Kurdish political prisoner accused of communication with international human rights organizations abroad from his prison cell. And, the judge asked Kakemami about details of the letter and communication with human rights organizations.”
Kakemami was previously sentenced to nine years in prison in 2007 for “membership in an outlawed Kurdish political party”.
The court has now sentenced him to five more years in prison for the same charges of “membership in a political party”, although he had attended court several times throughout last year to date for an entirely different allegation, “communication with international organizations and propaganda against the state”.
The KHRN source said that “prior to the court hearing the Iranian judicial authorities of Orumiyeh told Kakemami that he could get a lawyer of his choice to defend him at the court and if not then the court would provide him with one of their lawyers. However, Kakemami could not afford to pay a lawyer and the authorities did not provide him with lawyer that they had earlier promised. The trial was therefore carried out against all the international standards of human rights of defendants at courts”.
Harassment and threats against Kurdish political prisoners in Iran have been all too common for the past two years, particularly after a widespread hunger strike by Kurdish political prisoners at the end of 2014.
On 23 February 2015, Kakemami was transferred from Ward 12 of Orumiyeh prison to one of the detention centres of IRGC in an unknown location, where he was interrogated and tortured for eight days before he was finally returned to his prison cell.
In March 2015 he wrote a letter from his prison cell detailing what had happened and recorded the letter in his voice in an audio file, which he addressed to US Special Rapporteur on Iran Ahmed Shaheed.
After the letter, he was transferred to Branch 6 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh On 12 April 2015 and the court found him guilty of “propaganda against the state”.
On 13 April 2015, he was transferred to the security detention centre of Orumiyeh intelligence agency for repeated interrogations.
On 28 April 2015, he was sent back to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
On 26 June he was notified about the fabricated charges of “propaganda against the state” for the communications he had made with international human rights organizations. .
He was later interrogated at the court four more times, on 5 June, 26 July, 29 November and 7 December 2015.
The KHRN source said: “This is not the first time that the intelligence agency and the court charge political prisoners with false accusations and issue other sentences to keep them in jail. On 11 October 2012, Kakemami and four other prisoners were transferred to the detention centre of the intelligence agency in Orumiyeh, where they were interrogated for two months about their links with human rights organizations and with the bureau of UN Special Rapporteur who is known as Ahmed Shaheed.”
Kakemami comes from a village near Mahabad and was arrested in 2007 by Iranian security forces.
He was charged with membership in PJAK, an outlawed Kurdish party, and the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced him to nine years in prison.
He has since been repeatedly transferred to solitary confinement jails, where he has faced torture, ill treatment, and intimidations.
And now, five more years behind bars for what appears as purposely-fabricated charges devised by the Iranian authorities.
