Kurdish political prisoner Ramezan Ahmad Kamal emerged from coma on 2 January but he remains unconscious. The medical staff have remained silent about the reasons of his coma, a reliable source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
This prisoner was hospitalized in the emergency department Room 1 of the Emam Khomeyni hospital in Tehran.
Previous report :
Kurdish political prisoner Ramezan Ahmad Kamal taken into coma in Tehran hospital
On Wednesday 30 December, Kamal was scheduled to be transferred from his ward to the hospital to receive medical care. When he left the ward, he was awake and it seems that he had fainted while on the road between the prison and the hospital.
At his arrival at the hospital, the reception staff refused to register him because of his very poor health conditions and prison authorities finally transferred him to Emam Khomeyni hospital after several hours of waiting at the reception.
He has since been taken into coma in the hospital and his doctors declared they were unable to determine the reasons of his coma before he regains his consciousness, a human rights activist told KHRN.
Photo taken after his second surgery in September 2015
A fellow inmate gave more details to KHRN, saying: “When Ramezan left the ward, he was absolutely awake. Previously, in May 2015, when he was transferred outside prison for medical treatment, he was threatened with death by an official who threatened him with his gunfire. Some of our former comrades also died suspiciously. We have reasons to fear the worse about Ramezan’s fate.”
In 2011, Ramezan underwent a surgery to remove a bullet from his arm in Rajaei Shahr prison clinic by a surgeon named M. Jalali but because of the lack of medical equipment, the operation was unsuccessful. Even worse, this surgery led him to unbearable pain and his sores became infectious.
He afterwards complained against the prison authorities. Finally, after four years, he underwent a second surgery outside Rajaei Shahr prison in a hospital in Karaj by the same surgeon on 17 September 2015.
The bullet was removed but once again, the surgery was unsuccessful to treat his sufferings. After the second surgery, his right arm was left paralyzed.
A prison source said: “Thanks to his fellow prisoner friends and because he paid an admission fees, the authorities finally accepted to transfer him for the third time to a hospital outside prison. It was scheduled for 30 December 2015.”
KHRN released his letter announcing his fourth hunger strike on 12 September 2015.
A copy of the letter written by Ramezan Kamal Ahmad about his 4th hunger-strike
In this official letter to the governor of Rajaei Shahr prison, Kamal Ahmad wrote that he considers the Republic Islamic of Iran as personally responsible of his health and fate.
In spring 2008, Kamal fell into an ambush set by IRGC in a village near the border town of Makou. The Revolutionary Guards deliberately targeted him and badly wounded him with several bullets.
Although he was bleeding and needed urgent medical care, he was immediately transported to a detention centre to be interrogated about his membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
His wounds were infected by parasitic worms during the interrogation.
A few months later, the Revolutionary Court of Khoy (West Azerbaijan province) sentenced him to death with the charges of being a “PKK member”.
After his appeal, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to two years behind bars and exile in Qazvin prison.
Unsuccessful surgery left his arm paralyzed
His fellow inmate added that in the last four years, Kamal had gone on hunger-strikes to protest against his lack of proper medical care on four occasions (four days in December 2009, two weeks in June 2012, ten days in March 2014 and one week in September 2015).
In the last few months, he has been transferred to hospital several times and each time with various pretexts the hospital staff refused to give him simple accommodation for proper medical care.
Over the last five years, he has been kept in prisons of Makou, Qazvin, Evin (Tehran) and Rajaei Shahr (Karaj).
